Our monumental 10th Anniversary Hong Kong auction, marking a decade of important offerings in Asia by Stack’s, Bowers and Ponterio, presents a tremendous array of exceptional and eclectic rarities — Chinese-specific as well as other interesting pieces from around the region. While legendary collections such as that of Wa She Wong cemented our name in the marketplace, over the past ten years we have continued to present collections featuring iconic pedigrees and containing incredible rarities. This trend continues next month with our May 2020 auction, a sale that we believe is our finest yet. Among the offerings is the MBMY Collection featuring some rather amazing pattern issues from the later imperial and early republican periods.
Among these imperial pieces is a 1906 (CD) silver Tael Pattern restrike, a PCGS SPECIMEN-63 that scores an impressive ‘four stars’ rarity rating in Wenchao. It rivals one that we recently offered from the Mas FERA Collection—a piece that garnered an impressive hammer of $85,000. A wholesome and original 1907 (CD) silver Dollar Pattern presents a robust grade of MS-64 (PCGS) and quality that is seldom encountered in the market. An undated silver 25 Cents Pattern from 1910—with a rarity rating of ‘three stars’ in Wenchao—presents brilliant, lustrous surfaces and is graded PCGS MS-64; only one finer example is listed in that service’s census.
The republican patterns are as impressive as their imperial counterparts, with imposing specimens such as an undated silver Dollar Pattern from 1914—the alluring ‘L Giorgi’ type of Yuan Shih-kai—a lovely Gem graded PCGS SPECIMEN-65+. Another silver Dollar Pattern from year 12 of the Republic (1923) features the always popular design known as the "Pu Yi Wedding" type. This piece, graded PCGS MS-64, offers lustrous silver white surfaces, and provides an awesome opportunity for the connoisseur of proposed or republican issues. Though traditionally viewed as a provincial issue rather than republican proper, this collection also contains one of the more iconic pieces of Chinese numismatics—the year 17 (1929) Kweichow "Auto" Dollar. This type, supposedly displaying the personal vehicle of provincial governor Zhou Xicheng, is an early numismatic representation of an automobile and is always hotly pursued in the market.
To view our upcoming auction schedule and future offerings, please visit StacksBowers.com where you may register and participate in this and other forthcoming sales.
We are always seeking coins, medals, and pieces of paper money for our future sales, and are currently accepting submissions (until May 4th) for our upcoming CCO (Collectors Choice Online) auction in June 2020. Following that, our next larger format sales will be our Official Auction of the ANA World’s Fair of Money and our Official Auction of the Hong Kong Show, both in August 2020! If you would like to learn more about consigning, whether a singular item or an entire collection, please contact one of our consignment directors today and we will assist you in achieving the best possible return on your material.
