Several times a week the Boston Gallery gets calls regarding world coins that people inherited from parents or grandparents acquired during travels in the past. Usually these accumulations comprise demonetized coinage often commonly traded as world poundage in the industry. There are a few instances when some silver coins are picked out of the lots. And then there was this exception.
A few weeks ago, a woman called and stated that she and her siblings inherited an accumulation of world coins and inquired if we would give her a valuation and an offer to purchase the coins. We scheduled an appointment to review her coins and give her an offer to purchase. When she came in, we found the collection to be better than the average accumulation of world coins that comes through the gallery. It contained many common silver coins circulated in different parts of the world and, hidden among them was a high-grade silver coin from China. I informed the woman that she has a China, Year 15 (1926) Tientsin Mint “Pu Yi Wedding Type” 20 cents in high-quality condition and recommended she consign it to one of our signature auctions. This is a popular China type coin among collectors because it features the old emblem of China (the Twelve Symbol national emblem from 1912 to 1928) consisting of a dragon and a phoenix (or a peacock) holding sacrificial cups over an axe head on the obverse. The reverse features the value in Chinese within a wreath with the year and fractional denomination of the coin written in Chinese. The woman agreed with my recommendation of grading this coin and then selling it in one of our auctions. This coin was submitted to PCGS for grading and received a Mint State 62 designation. It is featured as lot 32433 in our October 2023 Hong Kong Auction.
It only takes one coin to make an accumulation of foreign coins valuable and worth your visit to our gallery. If you have a bunch of foreign coins laying around and would like to know more about it, our team of numismatists here in Boston is ready to help you find that rare coin. To contact us for further inquiries or to make an appointment please call 617-843-8343 or email [email protected]. We hope to see you soon!
