Item number: A2619

Year: ND

Material: Silver

Size: 37.5 x 37.5 mm

Provenance: Spink 2023

This is a one-yuan silver coin fabricated by later generations, likely cast during or after the Republican period.

The obverse features a frontal half-length portrait of Empress Dowager Cixi, dressed in elaborately decorated informal attire. Her hair is styled in the “flag head” fashion, also known as the “two-part head”, named for its flat side buns extending horizontally to both sides, with tassells hanging from the ends. The image may have been derived from “Imperial Portrait of Her Majesty the Empress Dowager of the Great Qing”, painted in AD 1906 by the Japanese artist Kasai Torajirō and printed by Seiun-dō Printing Co., Ltd. However, the Qing dynasty officially issued only one coin depicting a human portrait—the Sichuan rupee featuring the Guangxu Emperor.

The reverse is modelled after the Sichuan rupee, with a single vertical flower motif encircled by the characters “Minted in Sichuan Province”. The surrounding design consists of foliage and tendrils arranged in a decorative pattern, with a three-leaf motif positioned at the upper right of the character “province”. The overall design appears to have been borrowed from Sichuan rupees minted during the early Republican period.

According to Wang Wusheng’s “Shu’an Secret Records” from the late Qing dynasty, in AD 1894 (Guangxu 20th year), Gangyi, the Governor of Guangdong, minted thirty thousand silver coins and brought them to the capital, coinciding with a eunuch’s offering to mark Empress Dowager Cixi’s sixtieth birthday. This suggests that the coins were regular currency and not specially issued for the celebration; the forger merely took advantage of this historical anecdote. Furthermore, the reverse design borrowed from the Sichuan rupee was only introduced after the first year of the Republic. These discrepancies render the coin implausible and thus it must be regarded as a fabrication.

物件編號: A2619

年代: ND

材質: 銀

尺寸: 37.5 x 37.5 mm

來源: 斯賓克拍賣行 2023

這是一枚後人臆造之一元銀幣，可能於民國時期或以後鑄造。

銀幣的正面為慈禧太后正面半身像，身著裝飾繁複的便服，頭髮纏梳呈旗頭，也稱二把頭，因其分別向左右方向伸出的扁髻而得名，扁髻兩端並有流蘇垂下。圖像可能取自日本畫家葛西虎次郎於明治三十九年(公元1906年)所繪之《大清国西太后陛下御真影》，由青雲堂印刷株式會社印製。但清代官方人像鑄幣有且僅有四川盧比之光緒帝像一例。

銀幣的背面取自四川盧比背面，中央為一直花，為「四川省造」四字所圍繞，周圍填充花葉枝蔓等適應紋樣，「省」字右上有一三葉圖樣，整體圖樣應取自民國時期所鑄造之四川盧比。

清末王無生《述庵秘錄》載，光緒二十年(公元1894年)，廣東巡撫剛毅鑄銀幣三萬入都，適逢內侍敬獻，轉而賀慈禧六旬大壽。可知銀幣應為流通貨幣而非因賀壽特製，只是被偽造者借題發揮。所借之四川盧比錢背乃民國元年以后鑄造。於情理皆不合，故當為臆造。