November 10, 2011 – The American Numismatic Society’s Board of Trustees announces that, in its meeting held on Saturday, October 22nd, 2011, it has approved the sale of a group of duplicate modern Chinese coins from the collection of its East Asian Department.
The ANS collection of Chinese coins is the largest in the Western World, but does not include a large amount of duplication. However, among its holdings of machine-struck issues have been found a selection of exact die duplicates, of which there are superior examples to be retained in the cabinet. Proceeds from the sale of these duplicates, estimated at $200,000, will go toward the Newell Coin Purchase Fund, restricted to acquisition of other items needed for the collection.
The duplicate modern Chinese coins from the ANS collection have been consigned to Stacks Bowers Ponterio Hong Kong Auction. Among the 100+ items to be sold are such 19th and 20th Century pieces as portrait dollars of Yuan Shih Kai (the main grouping of the consignment), Li Yuan Hung, Sun Yat Sen, Tuan Chi Jui and Tsao Kun. There are also a number of smaller-denomination Late Imperial and Early Republican silver pieces and a couple of desirable Yuan Shi Kai Republican gold pieces.
The Stacks Bowers Ponterio Hong Kong Auction sale dates are April 2nd through 4th, 2012 at the Mira Hotel, 118 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.
The auction of the Chinese duplicates is part of the ongoing collection management project of the ANS. The collection of the ANS contains over 800,000 objects, of which currently 603,644 are catalogued online.
For further information on the ANS, please click here.
About MANTIS, a search tool for the ANS coin collection, we reported here.