World of Pots: Chinese Silver Lunar Coins

Dragon Year Lunar Coin

Another area in my collection of collectible is sterling silver coins. Although I collected a lot of silver coins of the Straight Settlement Era (those were the time when we are under British Rule), they are all old and a bit worn out through the years of circulation.

If you collect coins, they have to be in their mint condition and uncirculated, preferably come with certificates of authenticity. If you can afford it, gold coins are even better due to the high value of gold as compared to silver. There again, the factors such as scarcity and historical background may affect the value of coins.

I collected Chinese Lunar coins of the 80s right up to early 2000. Each of these coins bear a certificate stating the purity of silver, the year minted and the mintage quantity. Those times, China needed a lot of revenue for nation building so these coins were exported to earn foreign money. The quantity of mintage of these coins is 6800 pieces. Just imagine, if these coins were meant for the locals, 6800 pieces were even not enough to give to the Party Officials, let alone the ordinary folks in China with such a huge population . So, I am quite sure they were meant for the export market. This means that the early lunar coins could be quite rare in terms of the number of pieces minted. Actually I paid 80 to 100 dollars for each coin which weighs 10 oz, quite expensive considering the price of silver at that time. Nowadays, you do not see many shops in Singapore selling those old Chinese Lunar Coins minted in the 80s. The reason: Chinese people have become very affluent indeed, the government also does not need any more foreign funds. In fact, you will hear stories like good old antiques and fine ancient cultural relics have began their journey back to the motherland. They even have a department to look at ways to bring back good old treasures of the past era to the motherland, for instance, through auctions or private acquisitions. They begin to appreciate these fine things in life. One famous TV presenter once commented that that too many of those fine art objects of Chinese origin are on display in museums all over the world (it seems that they don't have their own cultural things to display in their museums and be proud of it). Hence, great effort is channelled to bring back some of the fine arts in private collection and house them in local museums so people can view them at their own comfort, not having to travel abroad to appreciate at their own culture and history.