Gold machine struck fantasy coin
with Lenin

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Weight 40.5 g
Click image to enlarge
Obverse: Lenin's portrait (very specific, not similar to real Lenin). Round inscription Minted by the Chinese Soviet.
Reverse: Yi Yuan - '1 Dollar'

In the Kann's catalog published fantasy 'Communist Lenin dollar', made from silver. Obverse is similar to above gold coin. Reverse have additional Chinese inscription means '1939 year, 1 Dollar, Labor and Agricultural Bank'.

References:

  • Kann E., Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Coins (Gold, Silver, Nickel and Aluminium), Hongkong, 1954, plate 217, #B73.

Thanks to Stephen Tai for the legends reading.

Message from Stephen Tai (07-Jan-02):
    Regarding the Chinese Soviet dollar in gold with Lenin's bust: to my understanding, it is a fantasy.
    Its genuine silver counterparts were made in 1930s - a most difficult time for the Chinese communists, when the Nationalist Government almost pacified them. According to the recent research and authentication, only few pieces of the silver pattern exist, and all the gold ones are fantasies."
Message from Thomas (11-Jan-02):
    The design of this gold coin appears to be highly similar to a silver coin shown in "Zhongguo Qianbi Wei Zhengshi Xingyongpin Tulu" by a Mr. Zhou (catalog #ZH156).
    I received the actual coin today, and upon close inspection of the coin surface, I came to the following conclusions:
    • The coin was most definitely made in recent years, and not at the time of Soviet China.
    • The surface of the coin does not look like it was struck with dies, but instead looks like it is gold plated. Furthermore, the coin does not "feel" heavy like a high purity gold coin.
    For this reason, I think we can safely conclude that this coin is NOT a gold sample from the Soviet China era.
Any additional comments on the item would be appreciated.
You can send them to Vladimir Belyaev.
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