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Auction: CSS27 - The Numismatic Collector's Series sale
Lot: 818

China for Tibet, Anonymous (c. 1902/03), "Lukuan"(Lu Guan) Rupee, the description below is from Lot 319 of the Rhodes Collection auction on 21st August 2013, "According to the obverse inscription this rare coin is known as Lukuan (lu guan) Rupee. It was struck in the Kangding mint in western Sichuan. This Rupee can be considered as the forerunner of the Sichuan Rupee. It is believed that in 1902AD "Liu Ding Shu", Sub-Prefect of Ta Chien Lu (now Kangding district) ordered the minting of "Lu Guang" silver coins in order to eliminate the circulation of foreign coins, particularly of British-Indian Rupees, in Szechuan Province. Liu used the silver being transported to Tibet for military expenses to mint the coin (http://ykleungn.tripod.com/szeRupee.htm). Nicholas Rhodes (Rhodes, Nicholas: "A Sino-Tibetan Rupee". Spink`s Numismatic Circular, vol. 85, London, 1977, p.107-108) has attempted to read the legends as follows: Obverse legend (to be read from right to left): "Lu guan tsu yin ?" ("Tachienlu Customs enough silver"). The syllable "lu" could be interpreted as the last syllable of Da jian lu, the former Chinese name of Kangding, from which the western version "Tachienlu" is derived. The reverse Tibetan legend: nged gsum zho dar ("three sho of Tachienlu enough silver"). The syllable dar may be understood as being the first syllable of Dar rtse mdo, the traditional Tibetan name of present day Kangding,
(LM-655, Y-A1.1), PCGS AU Details, 'Tooled', only 4 coins graded by PCGS: VF30, Extremey Fine Details (2) and finally this one at AU Details. Thus, this coin is the highest grade in the PCGS population report. Extremely rare. The Lukuan rupee sold by Spink in August 2013 was graded PCGS Extremely Fine Details and fetched a hammer price of HKD$260,000

Sold for
HK$360,000