Asian Coins and Paper Money Score Big Results in Hong Kong Auction!

By Todd McKenna

The Stack’s Bowers and Ponterio August 2012 Hong Kong Auction has come to a close! Over four days of the past weekend we presented four sessions of the finest Asian coins and paper money to collectors of all types and interests. Here I would like to highlight some lots which garnered excellent bids, some of which I had written about previously but many standing out on their own merit.

First up is a “Birds Over Junk” Dollar (Lot 50201) tied for finest certified with a grade of NGC MS-66 which sold with a final bid at $16,730. The term interesting is not normally associated with the 1934 Sun Yat-sen Dollars, but Lot 50237 was an interesting pair of uniface copper trial strikings of such a dollar which brought a final bid of $7,170. Lot 50262 was a stunningly clear and beautiful 1916 Dollar graded PCGS MS-66 and to no surprise its beauty brought the bid up to $33,460. At the end of the Republic section under an unassuming listing was Lot 50271, a 1927 Chu Yu-pu Pattern Dollar graded PCGS SP-55 which shot up to $47,800.

The NGC PF-66 French Indo-China Piastre I wrote about back in May did not disappoint with a solid final bid of $38,838. A few pages beyond was a section I only had the opportunity to mention briefly in a previous entry but was very interested in seeing how they would do at the sale. Lots 50497-50501 was a run of Korean patterns from the 1880s of all different denominations. With the exception of one piece these brought between $10,000 and $20,000.

The Thailand 4 Baht graded NGC AU-55 which was the subject of my article just a few weeks ago brought a strong $44,800. In the sycee section of the catalog the first silver ingot, Lot 51016, a dated 50 Tael salt tax ingot from Anhwei, reached the impressive final bid of $115,000.

Lastly, in the provincials section was Lot 51309, an 1898 Kiangnan Dollar with circlet scales on the dragon graded PCGS MS-63, was a true standout with a final bid of $97,750.

There were of course many other impressive and surprising prices realized, all of which can be found on StacksBowers.com. With this auction complete we now move on to the next sale, the Whitman Coin & Collectibles Expo in Baltimore this November which we are currently accepting consignments for. Beyond November we will have a sale at the New York International Numismatic Convention in January. Currently we are also accepting consignments for our next Hong Kong sale to be held in April.