Auction: CSS108C - Chinese Banknotes and Coins
Lot: 2549
China, Qing Dynasty, issued for Tibet, 1-Sho, 3.52g, 61st year of Qian Long (1796), 24 beads on both sides, date reads clockwise, starting at 9 o'clock near the rim: 'Nian Liu Shi Yi' (year sixty-one), rev. Tibetan date reads clockwise, starting at 12 o'clock near the rim: 'dgu cu re gcig' (sixty-one) (YZM 116; KM. C#72.2; LM 640Avar), a couple of edge cracks, otherwise toned very fine and very rare. The Emperor Qian Long abdicated in favour of his son at the end of the 60th year of his reign. By the time the news about his abdication reached Lhasa, the mint had started to produce coins with the date 61 (Rhodes, 1975). The rare Sino-Tibetan coins of Qian Long, 61st year, form the subject of the short story "Vagabond Spirit" by the Chinese author Ma Yuan (born in 1953). See Ma Yuan: Ballad of the Himalaya: stories of Tibet, translated by Herbert J. Batt, Merwin Asia Publishing, Portland, Me., 2011. See also: http://merwinasia.com/Reviews/balad_of_the_himalayas_excerpts.php
乾隆六十一年西藏乾隆寶藏,24珠,VF品相,幣邊有裂,罕品。乾隆在位六十年,不敢上同皇祖紀元六十一載之數,因此在乾隆六十年九月初三日(1795年10月15日)85歲的乾隆將皇位傳予嘉慶帝,不過其皇位內禪的消息終於傳至拉薩時,「六十一年」的乾隆寶藏已經開鑄
Estimate
HK$85,000 to HK$130,000
Starting price
HK$85000