There are many rarities in Chinese numismatics, yet the pattern 1911 Ta Qing silver dollar coinage from the Central Mint in Tientsin offers some of the most famous and desirable issues in the entire Asian coin catalog. Many of the most sought-after pieces are patterns, and the Short-Whiskers Dollar Pattern is one of the scarcest and most desirable from the series.
The Central Mint at Tientsin was founded in 1901 and began producing coins three years later, in 1904. The governmental goal of the mint was to develop a unified currency for the Chinese Empire, rather than the non-uniform coinage of the provincial mints. Silver dollar coin production began in limited production along other minor denominations in 1907. Mass production of dollar coins began the following year, in 1908, along with 20 cent and 10 cent coins. Dollar coin production continued again in 1910 with a pattern produced with dies made at the Vienna Mint in Austria.
In 1911, new patterns were produced for the next dollar coinage of the Tientsin Mint. One of the most famous engravers within Chinese coinage, Luigi Giorgi from Italy, engraved the dies for the series. Giorgi had become the chief engraver at the Tientsin Central Mint in 1910. His first project as chief engraver of the mint was year three (1911) dollars and fractional coinage. As a result, multiple designs were produced as patterns featuring a similar obverse (the side carrying Chinese characters). The reverse, or dragon side, featured several variations.
Featuring a unique dragon design for Chinese coinage, two of the designs have picked up the nicknames Long-Whiskers and Short-Whiskers. The Long-Whiskers dragon features a smaller head but longer whiskers measuring around 14 millimeters in length. The Short-Whiskers dragon features a larger head with whiskers measuring approximately nine millimeters. While all the pattern coinage for the 1911 dollars is rare and desirable, the Short-Whiskers type is one of the most elusive pieces. When Eduard Kann wrote his book, Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Coins, he was said to have documented just five examples of the Short-Whiskers dollar patterns. Of those, Kann himself had ownership of two examples.
Today there are eight confirmed examples known of the Short-Whiskers type. Of the eight documented examples, only three are in private hands, with five being institutionalized within museum collections. Of the three examples in private ownership, the cover coin featured here, the Peh Family Collection example, is the first to come to market since its previous sale in Chang Foundation Collection. The Peh Family coin is special, not only for its incredible pedigrees, but it is also the plate coin for Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Gold & Silver Coins by Lin Gwo Ming, the standard reference for Chinese coinage, where it is cataloged as LM-30. In the book Top Chinese Coins: Silver Coinage by Michael Hans Chou, Ron Guth, and Bruce Smith, the patterns are ranked number four. In the Top Chinese Coins book, by Michael Hans Chou and Sun Hao, the patterns are ranked number eight.
The adopted design for the 1911 Dollar from the Tientsin Mint became the largest and final production for the mint. It is believed that even after China transitioned into a republic, the mint continued striking 1911-dated dollars; annual reports from 1909 through 1916 show a cumulative mintage of 77,153,042. Despite a large mintage for Chinese Dollars bearing the 1911 date, the early patterns are extraordinarily rare, with the 1911 Short-Whiskers Dollar proving virtually elusive.
The Peh Family 1911 Short-Whiskers Dollar was the first and only such example ever certified by a third-party grading service. That service was PCGS, where the coin received the grade of SP64+. The coin has been consigned to Heritage Auctions, which is offering collectors a once-in-a-generation opportunity to obtain a 1911 Short-Whiskers Dollar Pattern.
“Bar none, this is one of the most significant Chinese rarities,” said Heritage Auctions Numismatist Tita Peterson. “The most voracious collectors face defeat trying to acquire a Short-Whiskers dragon. The type simply does not surface publicly.” Auction records show choice examples of the Long-Whiskers dragon type breaking the seven-figure threshold. “This, combined with the frothiness of the vintage Chinese market right now – no doubt inspired by the irrefutable quality and prestige of the Peh Family Collection – indicates that the sky is the limit for the Short-Whiskers.”