Saturday, April 27, 2013

An Informal Chat On Medal Patterns from Shenyang Mint



By Liu Yi
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_76db61f70100xk5p.html

Commemorative coins are known to have "patterns", and commemorative medals also have their own patterns. In terms of bloodline, coin patterns are kind of official, like commemorative coins designated as the fiat currency of the country. The status of medal patterns is similar to that of commemorative medals. In this post, I will explore medal patterns from Shenyang Mint with fellow medal collectors. Some of the information below was provided by the Shenyang Mint staff, other just hearsay, and so please do not hold me to it. I have collected copper medals for many years, seeing many old medals. Those medals below in pictures have all passed through my hands. I am voicing my opinions only. Don't applaud me if I am right, and don't blame me when I am wrong!

"Medal patterns from machine test runs": Many fellow medal collectors may not know "medal patterns from machine test runs". As a large state-run mint, Shenyang Mint often has to update their equipment. Sometimes, when new equipment is delivered, especially after a new striking machine is installed, some dies of commemorative medals may be used to test the performance of the machine. On most occasions, lunar medal dies are fetched from the die room, and the materials for the machine test run are selected from the materials for coin making, such as nickel stripes, brass stripes or aluminum stripes. Medals produced from this process never had standard names. I just call them "medal patterns from machine test runs" in this post.




 The two Tiger lunar medals in the pictures above are such "medal patterns from machine test runs". Both of them were made from nickel. The big tiger (with characters 猛志常在on the reverse, which means Constant Heroic Aspirations) has a diameter of 30 mm. The small tiger (with the Tower of Six Harmonies on the reverse) has a diameter of 24 mm. Judging from the market availability, the two nickel Year of the Tiger "medal patterns from machine test runs" had a mintage of under 100. I also found on the market a small Year of the Snake commemorative medal made from aluminum, which had the same size as the first issue of the Year of the Snake silver medal. It belongs to this category of "medal patterns from machine test runs". Up till now, only these three types of "medal patterns from machine test runs" have been discovered.

"Medal patterns from trial production": To test new technologies, such as polygon and bi-metal technologies, Shenyang Mint sometimes strikes weird medals, such as a polygon Year of the Dog commemorative medal (available on the web in the past), and the bi-metal medal as shown below, which has the Temple of the Heaven on both sides. I call it "medal from trial production" for now. The number of this medal is smaller than that of the nickel tiger medals.
 



In the thirty some years of medal production by Shenyang Mint, some special medals turned up which can also be categorized as "medal patterns". Although they were not made from some particular material or special technology, these medals are different from those from normal production, and leaked out through special channels. They are extremely rare. As desirability arises from rarity, we can also call them "medal patterns" for now. Take the commemorative medal of the CCTV below for example. Its diameter is larger than the normally produced medals, with no reeding.




It looks like a medal before reeding was cut. I am not sure how it made itself available on the market.



The copper medal above of Yandi and Huangdi is different from the official release, which is gold plated. This copper medal was taken off the production line before it was plated with gold. It is extremely rare. I have seen only two specimens.



In the picture above, the Ma Dingxiang big bronze medal on the right obviously has very weak strike around Xianfeng Yuanbao, and the medal has no series number on the rim. Its thickness is about 2/3 of the officially released medal. It should be one of the few "medal patterns" before massive production. This is the only specimen ever seen.




The picture above shows a Taierzhuang big bronze medal. According to "Chinese Big Copper Medals", the official release is gold-plated. I once saw brass medals on the web, which looked like official releases, too. But the bronze medals were individually packed in plastic capsules, without the outer wooden box. It is extremely rare, and should be patterns from test strikes.



In the picture above the Golden Years medal without a one jiao coin mounted on it was a gift from a friend at Shenyang Mint. It was one of the patterns that skipped the last process, and was stored in the drawer of his desk. It can also be categorized as patterns, although barely.

To sum up, I touched upon medal patterns from machine test runs and test production as well as other types of medal patterns. They all have the following characteristics: 1. They are different from the officially released medals from Shenyang Mint, either in material, or size, or technology; 2. They are extremely rare; 3. None had formal packaging. At the moment, no fakes of such medal patterns have been found yet, and so we can have a peaceful mind for now. The three characteristics above make these medals highly valuable because of their tiny mintage.

After all this talk, some readers may still have an unsolved puzzle in their mind: How did these medals leak out? From what I learned so far, there were these possibilities: many of such "medal patterns" were given by the leaders of Shenyang Mint to friends, on informal occasions, most probably in private. That explains the missing formal packaging of these medals. Some of the patterns were mixed up with official releases and sold at a discount through Shenyang Mint's distribution network. Some were even sold to scrap metal collectors and then made to the collectors' market.

This is as much as I know for now. I discussed the topic with one or two fellow medal collectors before. I am posting my findings to the public now so that fellow medal collectors can join the discussion.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Stories behind the Year of the Child Piedfort Gold Coin



By Huang Ruiyong
http://bbs.jibi.net/dispbbs.asp?boardid=91&Id=129830

The 1979 Year of Child piedfort gold coin (commonly known as "piedfort gold Flower Watering") weighs 34.34 grams, with a fineness of 90%. It contains 30.906 grams of gold. This was the first piedfort gold coin from the PRC, with a planned mintage of 500. In 1976, at the proposal of the Philippines government, the 31st United Nations General Assembly officially proclaimed 1979 as the Year of the Child, in order to encourage all the countries in the world to promote the causes of child protection, education and welfare. To commemorate the Year of the Child, 12 countries issued commemorative gold coins, including Bolivia, Canada, China, Ethiopia, Tunisia and UAE. Only a handful of these countries, China, Nepal and Thailand, issued piedfort gold coins, which are rare gems.

On May 12, 1979, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Finance Ministry, the People's Bank of China and the All-China Women's Federation submitted a proposal to the State Council for participating in the United Nations’ plan to issue commemorative precious metal coins for the Year of the Child. In the initial proposal, it was specified that the gold coin would have a diameter of 27mm, with a weight of 17.17 grams, a fineness of 90%, and a face value of 450 Yuan, and that the piedfort gold coin would have a diameter of 27mm, with a weight of 34.34 grams, a fineness of 90%, and a face value of 900 Yuan. Upon the approval of the State Council, the People's Bank of China authorized the State-Owned Factory 614 (Shanghai Mint) to take up the work of design and minting of this set of coins. Shanghai Mint appointed their arts and crafts master, Mr. Chen Jian (38 years old then) as the designer of the coin.

The first draft from Mr. Chen Jian had the country name, the national emblem and the year on the obverse. On the reverse was a young girl watering flowers with a watering can, in a squatting position. But when the design was submitted for review, Mrs. Chen Muhua (then Governor of the People's Bank of China – translator) wanted the design on the reverse to be modified: besides the girl, a boy should be added to the design. Following her advice, Mr. Chen Jian changed the design to a young boy with a shovel and a girl watering a flower with a can. When the design was finalized, the People's Bank of China selected March, 1980 to be the release time for the Year of the Child gold and silver coins, which would be distributed by Paramount International Coins Co. The specifications of the finalized Year of the Child piedfort gold coin remained unchanged except for the face value, which was the same as on the ordinary gold coin, at 450 Yuan.

(Year of the Child first draft )
It should be mentioned that New China attached great importance to the first set of commemorative precious metal coins with an international theme. A photo in my collection provides the evidence: the first ambassador of New China to the United States, Mr. Chai Zemin, and the then Secretary of the State of the United States, Dr. Henry Kissinger, were both formally dressed and greeted each other with a hearty handshake when attending the ceremony for the initial release of the Year of the Child gold and silver coins. The release of a set of coins resulted in "Sino-American Friendship". This bears witness to the uniqueness of this set of coins from a different perspective. 

Paramount targeted top collectors in the international numismatic community when distributing the Year of the Child piedfort gold coins. Accordingly the selling price was exorbitant, as high as 4,000 US dollars. (The thin version of the gold coin sold only for 737 US dollars, and the ordinary silver coin sold for 125 US dollars, which highlighted the huge gap in the selling prices of the piedfort and the thin versions of the coin.) To emphasize the rarity of the piedfort gold coin, Paramount solicited the famous American jewelry company Tiffany & Co. for the design of the classic packaging of the coin. But the selling price of the piedfort coin was way beyond expectations, and the distributor and coin dealers in many countries had a hard time selling it. Moreover, the sudden invasion of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union pushed the international gold price to a peak. The Year of the Child piedfort coins were melted by many dealers and sold as gold bullion. 

There are three key numbers about the Year of the Child piedfort gold coin:

1.       Planned mintage: 500

2.       Actual mintage: I only found the actual mintage numbers for the following Year of the Child gold and silver coins among the original mintage records at Shanghai Mint: the ordinary gold coin, the piedfort silver coin, the ordinary silver coin and the matte silver coin. The actual mintage of the piedfort gold coin was mysteriously missing. From my discussions with top collectors and top dealers both in China and abroad, the mintage should be a lot less than 500. The reason is as follows: Paramount intended to sell the Year of the Child piedfort gold coins to top collectors in the international numismatic community. Many of the Chinese piedfort gold coins were packaged together with the Year of the Child piedfort gold coins from other countries, in a big exquisite custom-made box. As the selling price was unusually high, Paramount certainly would not have placed an order for full production. Instead it would have had some coins minted to see whether collectors would fall for this set of piedfort gold coins. Here is the evidence: according to the official announcement from the Thai government, the actual mintage of the Thai Year of the Child piedfort gold coin is 61. This number should not be very far from the actual mintage of the Year of the Child piedfort gold coin from China.

3.       Surviving mintage: After my extensive interactions with international coin dealers, collectors and numismatists that deal in or collect Chinese gold coins, I learned that this coin had turned up in the following regions: the United States, Germany, Japan, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Russia, Austria and Brazil, with a total surviving mintage of probably less than 50. The Year of the Child piedfort gold coin differs from the many large size gold coins from the PRC in that the large gold coins (5oz and above) have a release mintage of less than 100, which inherently ensures their rarity. On the other hand, the Year of the Child piedfort gold coin went through the complete process of production, sales, absorption and melting. This rarity is a lot harder to achieve than the rarity of the large size gold coins. The Year of the Child piedfort gold coin is the king of all small size precious metal coins from the PRC. Its rarity resulted from historical reasons, which has aroused overwhelming interest from many Chinese and foreign collectors. The last three public transactions were: 1. At the 2007 Munich Coin Expo, an Australian coin dealer sold one specimen; 2. At an Austrian coin auction at the beginning of 2007, a top Russian collector got hold of one specimen; 3. At the first major coin auction by the Shanghai Dongfang International Commodity Auction Company, an entrepreneur from North China won the bid for one specimen.

The following facts also speak to the rarity of this coin. As far as I know, Mr. Robert Mish, who is one of the most authoritative American dealers of gold coins from the PRC, and a consultant to the Krause International Coin Catalogs, handled only 4 specimens of this coin in his more than 20 years of business in precious metal coins from the PRC, while a lot more 1980 piedfort gold coins for the Lake Placid Winter Olympics and for the Chinese Olympics Committee passed through him in the same period of time. King Chan, a top collector, recalled that some piedfort gold coins for the Winter Olympics and for the Chinese Olympics Committee turned up every year at the Hong Kong Coin Expo from 1997 to 2006, but the Year of the Child piedfort gold coin only made one appearance during those ten years. The personal experience of a top collector Mr. Li Guoying is more convincing: he has been collecting gold and silver coins from China for more than 15 years in Germany. During all this time, he saw the Year of the Child piedfort gold coin only two times. (One passed through him; the other was seen at the 2007 Munich Coin Expo.) Mr. Li had the chance of handling many top gems. Even the Seismograph and Compass kilo gold coins from the 1992 Ancient Inventions and Discoveries set were once in his possession (with a release mintage of 10 only, both top rarities). He believes that the Year of the Child piedfort gold coin is one of the toughest coins to collect among the precious metal coins from the PRC.

In foreign countries, coin dealers are closely connected to their business partners. Some top dealers can find all the rarest coins in their insider circle. But even those with extensive networks like Mr. Robert Mish, Mr. King Chan and Mr. Li Guoying had very few chances to run into the Year of the Child piedfort gold coins in 10 to 20 years. The difficulty of collecting this coin is beyond description.

Finally, it should be mentioned that Mr. Chen Jian’s name was listed as the designer for the first time in the international COA of the Flower Watering piedfort gold coin. He was praised as an outstanding Chinese designer and engraver. The profile of the designer in the COA of precious metal coins enriched the culture of the Chinese gold coins, deepening public understanding of the coins.

(Comparison of the coin to a top Chinese stamp is omitted – translator)

The revelations above resulted from my interactions and discussions with many top Chinese and international collectors, coin dealers, numismatists and professionals. When the Year of the Child piedfort gold coin was minted in 1980, I was still a child, missing the chance of experiencing the whole sales process of the coin. I see my post as a teaser, so that experts with precise knowledge of the sales, absorption and melting process of the coin can come out with more detailed historical data. Of course, I myself will spare no efforts in digging out historical stories behind this coin.