Yuan Shikai coinage

Yuan Shikai dollar

Value	One yuan (壹圓)
Mass	0.72 Kuping tael, or 26.857 g
Diameter	39 mm (1.5 in)
Thickness	2.667 mm (0.105 in)
Edge	reeded
Composition	Silver (.89 fineness)
Silver	0.843 troy oz
Years of minting	1914–1928, with sporadic regional production during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s
Obverse
Design	A profile portrait of Yuan Shikai in a military uniform, facing left
Designer	Luigi Giorgi
Design date	1914
Reverse
Design	The denomination 1 yuan (壹圓) surrounded by a wreath of grain
Designer	Luigi Giorgi
Design date	1914

Beginning in 1914, silver coinage featuring the portrait of Chinese president and military leader Yuan Shikai was minted across the Republic of China to replace the previous Imperial coinage. The most prominent and numerous of these coins, the Yuan Shikai dollar (also known as the "fatman dollar" by collectors, from Chinese 袁大头; Yuán dàtóu; 'big head dollar') remained in production long after Yuan's death in 1916. Designed by Luigi Giorgi, the coin features a profile bust of Yuan wearing a military uniform on the obverse, with a wreath of grain and the denomination of one yuan on the reverse. It served to replace the imperial Dragon Dollar and the various foreign silver dollars in circulation in China.

The dollar coins were regularly produced by various mints across China from 1914 to 1928, with a total production run exceeding a billion coins. Until 1920, all coins were dated Republican Year 3 (1914 CE) regardless of their actual year of production. Some mints produced coins featuring new dates during the 1920s, but these only incidentally coincided with production date; various mints produced coins of different dates, with certain dates being usable as mint marks. After the Northern Expedition, the incipient Nationalist government halted production of the coins in favor of the Memento dollar. However, regional circulation and production of the coin continued, with poorer-quality examples produced in Gansu and Communist-held areas during the 1930s. Production was curtailed by the abandonment of the silver standard in 1935, but returned in response to hyperinflation during the Chinese Civil War, with a large run of coins at Canton in 1949. The People's Republic once again produced the coin in the mid-1950s for circulation in newly annexed Tibet.

In response to the widespread circulation of foreign silver coins in imperial China throughout the 19th century, the domestic production of silver yuan coins, often referred to as dragon dollars, was authorized by Liangguang Viceroy Zhang Zhidong. The first entered production in Guangdong in 1889. These were the first machine-produced silver coins minted on a mass scale in China, although these failed to out-compete foreign silver. After decades of debate between the silver and gold standards, as well as competition between the yuan and tael weights, the government adopted the silver yuan as the base unit of currency in 1910.^[1][2]

Following the 1911 Revolution and the collapse of the Qing dynasty, the yuan was reaffirmed as the base unit of currency by the Beiyang government in 1913.^[3] The central mint in Tianjin had been rendered inoperable during the revolution, limiting the republic's early currency to already existing stockpiles of dragon dollars and various provincial issues. By early 1914, the Ministry of Finance had reopened the central mint, and restarted production of coinage with the old dragon dollar design. Two silver dollars, featuring president Sun Yat-sen and vice president Li Yuanhong, were produced in 1912, mainly serving as commemorative coins with limited actual circulation.^[4][5][6] In 1914, the Legal Tender Act (國幣條例; Guóbì tiáolì) mandated the production of domestic silver coinage in order to replace foreign coinage.^[2]

A centrally-produced silver dollar issue entered production by the end of 1914. It featured a portrait of the current president, Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general who served as the head of the Beiyang government of the early Republic of China. The coin remained in production after Yuan's tenure as the Hongxian Emperor in 1915–1916 and his death on 6 June 1916.^[4][7]

The first design for a dollar featuring Yuan Shikai, a commemorative, non-circulating silver dollar featuring a front-facing bust of the president wearing a military uniform and a plumed hat, was produced by Luigi Giorgi, the chief engraver of the Tianjin Mint,^[α] in 1914. Following this, Giorgi designed a pattern design for a standard-issue, depicting Yuan in half-profile without a hat. Both of these depictions were based off photographs of Yuan, as Giorgi had not seen him in person. After Giorgi presented a pattern coin to Yuan, he regarded his depiction as inaccurate and unflattering, and received permission to produce another design of the coin.^[8][9]

The final design of the standard issue featured a profile view of Yuan Shikai facing left on the obverse. He is depicted wearing a military uniform and a crew cut, although some nonstandard dies depict him as bald. On the reverse, taken from the original pattern issue, the coin's value of one yuan (壹圓; Yī yuán) is written, surrounded by a wreath of grain—likely barley.^[9][10]

The coin is 39 mm (1.5 in) in diameter and 2.66 mm (0.10 in) thick. It has a milled edge. The coins' weight vary by several grains, leading to sources differing on their standard weight. Its official weight was 72 candareen, or 72% of the Kuping tael weight. The definition of the Kuping tael was inconsistent during the Qing Dynasty, but was standardized as 37.301 g (1.316 oz) in late 1914, leading to a weight for the coin equal to 414.45 grains (26.857 g). Currency laws under the Republic allowed for a 3‰ (0.08 g) variation in weight, although in practice the coins' weight often fell outside of the legal range.^[11] Its fineness was initially intended as .90; however, as the recoinage incorporated large amounts of provincially minted imperial silver dollars, often of lower quality and fineness, this was reduced to .89.^[9][12]

Reverse of 50 cent piece

Reverse of 20 cent piece

Reverse of 10 cent piece

Smaller denominations using the same design were approved alongside the dollar, and entered production the same year; these comprise fifty-cent (half-dollar), twenty-cent, and ten-cent pieces.^[13][14] These lower denomination coins feature an identical obverse design, with their respective denominations inside the wreath on the reverse. They were struck at a lower fineness of .70.^[9] Production of these denominations was delayed until September 1916 to allow for the dollar to circulate as the primary unit of currency. Prior to this, provincial twenty-cent pieces produced at Canton and Mukden fulfilled demand for small change.^[4]

Gold twenty-dollar coin produced in 1919, featuring a unique design along the rim of both sides

The 1914 coinage reform laws outlined the production of cupronickel five-cent coins consisting of 75% copper; pattern coins were produced at the Tianjin mint that year using the same design. However, nickel coinage was considered untrustworthy among the general public, and these patterns never circulated. Other five-cent patterns of the Yuan Shikai design are attested in silver, copper, and pewter, likely as proof or assay pieces.^[13][15]

In 1919, finance minister Cao Rulin investigated the prospect of introducing a standardized gold currency. The Tianjin mint produced ten-dollar and twenty-dollar denominations of gold coins with a modified version of the Yuan Shikai design. The obverse of the coins features the portrait surrounded by an ornamental design, while the reverse features the legend and a Year 8 date. These were produced in relatively small numbers and never circulated. The program was discontinued, and they were instead acquired by collectors.^[16]

Production of the dollars began at the Tianjin Mint in December 1914. The Nanjing Mint followed in January 1915, alongside the Canton Mint at some point in the same year. Wuchang began production of the coin in 1916, alongside a comparatively tiny run of coins at Mukden.^[17] The dates on the coinage, given in the Republic of China calendar, are inconsistent and rarely reflect the actual year the coin was minted. From 1914 to 1919, all coinage in the series was marked as Year 3 (1914). Mints began to produce coins with new dates in 1920 (Year 9), although differing mints marked them as Year 8, 9, or 10, and in the following years no mint consistently updated the date to match the year of production.^[18]

Dollars are attested to Year 3, 8, 9, or 10;^[β] the twenty-cent pieces Year 3, 5, and 9; and ten-cent pieces Year 3 and 5. All half-dollars are dated Year 3.^[19] While the Year 3 dollars read 年三國民華中 (Nián sān guómín huázhōng; 'Year 3 of the Republic of China'), later issues of the dollar add the character 造 (Zào), with dates in the format 造年十國民華中 ('Made Year 10 of the Republic of China').^[10] By 1922, most mints producing the Yuan Shikai dollar were producing the coin with a different date. These were intended as a way to identify which mint produced a given coin, functionally serving as mint marks.^[20] Missionary Mildred Cable reported that Yuan Shikai dollars circulated in Gansu in 1926, but only coins featuring Year 3 dates were accepted at full value, as dates following Yuan's death were viewed with suspicion.^[21]

Chinese banks grew uncomfortable with the coinage by 1917, as dollars lying slightly outside the legally prescribed weight and fineness were entering circulation. This problem was limited to only one or two mints, but due to identical dies between the different mints, the problematic coinage could not be traced to a particular origin. Complaints were filed with the Ministry of Finance in October 1917, but little was done to resolve the issue, as the Warlord Era and the steady loss of authority of the Beiyang Government led to less oversight over coinage.^[17]

In 1920, the Hangzhou Mint began producing the coin on behalf of the Bank of China and the Bank of Communications. In 1924, the Anqing mint began producing the coin as well in small quantities. Anqing's production began to dramatically increase in 1924, producing millions of significantly debased Year 8 coins struck at between .74 and .83 fineness. This mint was closed in 1926. A mint at Fuzhou, previously producing regional twenty-cent pieces, produced large amounts of Yuan Shikai dollars in 1924 or 1925. Little is known about the Fuzhou coins beyond that they were struck in substandard silver.^[22]

The Mukden Mint produced the coin at a .73 fineness for a single day in June 1926, having previously halted production of the coin since its minor production run a decade prior. Reports circulated of the mint producing the coin in 1927 and 1928, much of which was shipped out of Manchuria for use in Beijing. Production at Mukden likely returned due to Fengtian clique warlord Zhang Zuolin's occupation of Beijing from 1926 to 1928. In February 1929, following the Northern Expedition and the Nationalist government's defeat of Zhang, the mint was ordered to switch production to the Nationalist government's restrikes of the 1912 Sun Yat-sen Memento dollar.^[4][23]

In 1915, the Shanghai Native Banker's Association, a prominent qianzhuang organization, ceased to recognize the Imperial silver dollars, and began to calculate foreign exchange rates using the Yuan Shikai dollar.^[27] Silver prices rose over the course of the First World War, and international exports declined. This led to a shortage of foreign silver coins (chiefly the Mexican peso), and the Yuan Shikai dollar quickly replaced it as the primary trade coin within China. Traditional forms of currency such as tael and copper cash coinage declined due to the primacy of the coin. In 1924, a Bank of Shanghai investigation found that the Yuan Shikai dollar had emerged as the primary form of currency in 47 out of 48 cities studied; the sole exception was Japanese-occupied Dalian, where yen coins and Bank of Korea banknotes predominated.^[28] Banknotes exchangeable for Yuan Shikai dollars gained prominence as copper currency use declined.^[29]

Although the Nationalist government halted production of the coin in favor of the Memento dollar (and later the Junk dollar), local production of the Yuan dollars in areas outside of their control continued into the 1930s and 1940s. In 1930, the provincial government of warlord Feng Yuxiang began local production of the dollars at .73 fineness, likely at Lanzhou. These were initially marked with the province's name along Yuan's portrait in 1930, but this label was later removed to allow the coin to circulate beyond the province.^[21]

During the mid-1930s, the Communist forces of the Chinese Soviet Republic began producing poor quality Yuan Shikai dollars with Year 3 dates alongside their specific "Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet" dollars. The Communist-produced Yuan Shikai dollars have such crudely produced dies that they appear visually similar to forgeries; however, unlike contemporary counterfeits, they have a relatively high silver content of .70 to .80 fineness.^[30]

China abruptly abandoned the silver standard in 1935. Large amounts of paper currency circulated in its place, halting the regional production of the Yuan Shikai dollar. Following large-scale inflation during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the reëmergence of the Chinese Civil War, the yuan entered hyperinflation in 1948–1949. This forced mints in the nationalist-aligned southern and western provinces to return to the production of silver coinage. The Canton Mint produced an eclectic mix of Memento, Junk, and 9th year Yuan Shikai dollars for several months in 1949; this concurrent production led to mules of all three coins during this period.^[31] One specific variety produced at Canton in 1949 circulated on Hainan prior to the Battle of Hainan Island.^[32]

Additionally, the Nationalist government made inquiries to the Royal Mint and Birmingham Mint in the United Kingdom to supplement its coin production during hyperinflation. The Birmingham Mint engraved dies for 8th Year Yuan Shikai dollars and produced several test strikes; both known examples featured the date 1949 written on the coins in pencil. No foreign production of Yuan Shikai coins was able to begin before the Communist victory in the war and the exile of the Nationalist government to Taiwan.^[31]

From 1950 to 1951, the newly-founded People's Republic of China occupied and annexed Tibet, placing the area under an autonomous administration headed by the 14th Dalai Lama. When the Communist government contracted laborers to construct infrastructure such as roadways, payment in paper currency was viewed with suspicion and rejected by locals. The government quickly exhausted its existing supply of silver dollars, and produced large amounts of Year 3 Yuan Shikai dollars in Sichuan during the early-to-mid-1950s. Specific mintage figures for these restrikes of the coin are not available, but likely numbered in the tens or hundreds of millions. The coins were of relatively high silver purity, with one example measuring .87 fineness.^[33]

Yuan Shikai dollars are relatively inexpensive in comparison to other Chinese silver coins due to their very large mintage, leading them to be popular with coin collectors.^[34] The coins are nicknamed "fatman dollars" by collectors, from a mistranslation of their Chinese nickname, "big head dollars" (袁大头; Yuán dàtóu).^[35] They are also among the most commonly counterfeited Chinese coins, with counterfeit examples common for all four dates and several other major varieties.^[36]