Why Medals?

Ever since I argued with badon on the Chinese Coin Forum and Live Business Chat about the differences between coins and medals, I myself have gradually gravitated towards medals, including brass ones. I received some inquiries on my shift of attitude and position. Instead of answering individually, I hope this post can shed some light on my current understanding of medals vs. coins. Comments are welcome.

Unlike badon, who denies any difference between fiat coins and non-fiat medals, I do see a difference between them. So I still call a coin a coin, and a medal a medal. But (and this is a big "but"), in terms of the precious metal coins issued by PRC after 1979 (MCC), the difference is minimal and nominal. MCCs were never issued for circulation. Instead, they have been produced as "artwork for collection" (from Mr. Zhu Dechun, regarded as father of MCC). In that sense, they are not very different from medals made for the same purpose. (One of the mistakes in MCC collection is to compare MCCs to precious metal coins issued for circulation in the US. This mistake led to many false analogies between the two, in terms of mintage, grade rarity, and predictions of price trends, among others. I really want to emphasize that these two are fundamentally different, as one was meant for circulation, and the other mainly artwork for collection. If anything, MCCs should be compared to the little known precious metal commemorative coins in the US, which were first released in 1892 and the collection of which has not been very popular.)

The main arguments against medal collection include 1) medals are not officially protected and can be counterfeited without punishment; 2) medals lag behind coins in price appreciation. Let's examine these arguments one by one.

First, coins, whether circulating ones or MCCs, are not immune to counterfeiting. Even newly issued circulating commemorative coins with a street value of 15 Yuan ($2.5) are faked. Fake coins are sold on the Chinese Taobao site with no sign of pending official punishment. Punishment for coin counterfeiting has largely remained as a theoretical deterrent, but has so far failed to be effectively implemented. The reason may be that commemorative coins, whether of base metal or of previous metal, are not in circulation and so their faking poses no threat to the financial system, while counterfeiting of large face value paper notes is treated seriously, as the latter are real medium of exchange in life. Whatever the reason, it is a cold fact that MCCs have not been better protected than medals against counterfeiting.

If we look beyond modern Chinese coins and medals, we will see that counterfeiting has not stopped people from collecting/investing in the pre-1949 coins. Coins made from all types of metal, copper, silver and gold, between the time when milled coins were first introduced to China in the late 19^th century, up to 1949, are counterfeited recklessly as there is virtually no protection for them. Dies to make Fat Man coins are openly available on Taobao. Cheap fakes flood the market, including eBay. And yet, due to the pioneering work of early collectors, foreigners included, collection of "old silver round" as they are known in China has been the most popular and advanced numismatic category among Chinese coin collection, with detailed studies of their varieties and huge price gaps between high grade coins – phenomena observable in US coin collection. It was no coincidence that the "old silver round" was the first numismatic category to embrace coin grading in China. With the help of grading companies, the risk of running into fake coins is greatly reduced if not totally eliminated, as long as one insists on buying graded specimens.

Second, it is true that many medals have not appreciated in value as fast as coins. I used the example of the Xinjiang silver coin vs. medal in my argument against medals when I first brought up the issue with badon. This is due to the smaller number of medal collectors in the past. "Medals are lesser than coins", a motto among some Chinese collectors, becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Because medals are regarded as having less investment value, fewer collect them, which in turn reduces the demand and drags down the price. However, even with the small number of collectors, the top rarities among medals have not lost to coins in the same ranking in price appreciation. Here is a comparison of top silver coins and medals in a fixed time frame. They are priced in the Chinese Yuan.

  

 (I am comparing top small size silver coins with top medals because I do not keep track of prices of large size coins. Those familiar with large size coins can do a similar comparison. Large size silver coins are not in my range of collection.)

It is obvious that in terms of price appreciation, top silver medals have outrun top small size silver coins. The Jianzhen silver medal set has an even higher rate - close to 40x price growth since December, 2007. Of course, not all the medals appreciate as rapidly. The 1987 Long Beach Expo silver medal, which sold 100 Yuan more than the Jianzhen set at the same auction run by the Oriental Auction House in 2007, has appreciated only slightly in price. Rarity plays a crucial role in price appreciation among medals due to the smaller collector base. The sharp contrast in price appreciation between the top medals and more common ones reveals the profile of current medal collectors: a small number of advanced, well-to-do individuals who collect both coins and medals alike and are relentlessly in pursuit of the rarest medals.

In addition to past price appreciation, we should bear in mind the possibility that the self-fulfilling prophesy "medals are lesser than coins" may be abandoned by new MCC collectors, thus pushing the price of the currently undervalued medals way up. Collectors of the recent Chinese Classical Garden series medals are mostly MCC collectors, too. Is it a sign that the trend is starting to turn?

Finally, as artwork, officially minted medals tend to stand out over coins. Coins are strictly controlled in their theme, design, artistic style, technology and time to market. Low relief is typically required on coins made in large quantity, for example. In comparison, the same mint artists designing medals have a lot more freedom to themselves. Zeng Chenghu spent over a year (on and off) working on his hand-engraved Pagodas, and Bai Wenjun spent nearly a year on his hand-engraved medal set Plum, Orchid, Bamboo and Chrysanthemum. The recently released Chinese Classical Gardens series employed techniques unparalleled in coins, such as double-sided deep dish and ultra-high relief. Some of the most artistically sophisticated artwork exists only in the form of copper medals, such as the hand-engraved Guilin Scenery set. Of course there are exquisitely made MCCs (the first series of lunars, for example) and poorly made medals, especially those commissioned by organizations or individuals. But overall the consensus is that medals are artistically more appealing.

Enjoying wonderful artwork, nice price appreciation, the vanity of owning and bragging about top rarities, with the possibility of a huge price breakout in the future – what can be a more fulfilling experience in numismatic collection and investment?

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.