Item number: A4660-1, A4660-2

Reference number: KM#pn133; L&M#104; Kann#268

Year: AD 1931-1932

Material: Stainless steel

The results after XRF testing (A4660-1)

The results after XRF testing (A4660-2)

Size: 38.5 x 38.5 x 39.5 mm (A4660-1) / 38.5 x 38.5 x 30.1 mm (A4660-2)

Weight: 381.8 g (A4660-1) / 297.0 g (A4660-2)

Provenance: Fuchin Coin 2008

These are two dies for the Sun Yat-sen gold-standard one-dollar silver coin, comprising the obverse and reverse of the coinage. The minting of this coin was originally conceived to redress the intricate and fragmented disorder of the early Republican currency system and to align China with advanced Western financial mechanisms.

The die face presents a mirrored impression of the finished coin. Centred upon the obverse is a profile portrait of Sun Yat-sen, adopted by the Nationalist Government to signify its rightful succession to Sun’s political mantle, above which the Chinese inscription reading “Twenty-First Year of the Republic of China” (中華民國二十一年) arcs from left to right. The portraiture is derived from the design submitted by the Italian Mint during the “Solicitation of National Coin Designs” in the seventeenth year of the Republic (AD 1928).

At the centre of the reverse is a sailing junk; to the left is a rising sun composed of seven distinct rays; across the top, inscribed from left to right, is the legend “Gold Standard Coin, One Yuan” (金本位幣壹圓); and below, three flying geese skim the crests of the waves. On extant, authenticated genuine patterns of the gold-standard coin, the second and third solar rays from the top pass through either side of the second right-falling na stroke of the character jin (金), extending directly through to its opposite side. The third and fifth rays approach the two masts respectively. Furthermore, the strokes of the legend “Gold Standard Coin, One Yuan” on these dies are uniformly thicker than those found on extant pattern coins, most visibly in the characters jin (金) and ben (本). These dies may represent hubbed copies produced by the Central Mint or the Hangzhou Mint following the delivery of the original master hubs from the Philadelphia Mint, or they may be later fanciful fabrications. A penetrating die crack runs through the centre; during striking, metal could have been forced into the fissure to produce raised, irregular lines across the coin. More critically, uneven stress distribution would have posed a severe risk of further structural failure or shattering of the die under coining pressure. The depiction of the junk was modelled on the reverse motif of the medal commemorating the completion of the Central Mint in Shanghai in the nineteenth year of the Republic (AD 1930). This motif was designed by Clifford Hewitt, the American Chief Technical Adviser to the Central Mint, whilst the master dies were executed by John Sinnock, Chief Engraver of the United States Mint in Philadelphia.

Aside from their respective die faces, the two dies used for striking the obverse and reverse are largely identical in structure, save that the shank of the obverse die is longer whilst that of the reverse die is shorter. Surrounding the outer perimeter of each die face is a circular recess termed the rim gutter (or rim cavity), into which displaced metal flows under coining pressure to form the raised protective rim of the struck coin. Between the perimeter of the die face and the die neck is a minute sloped facet termed the bevel (or chamfer), which serves to alleviate edge stress concentration during striking and thus reduce the hazard of a marginal die break (cud). Situated beneath the bevel is the neck, a short, slightly tapered or extended cylindrical segment. Below the neck lies the shoulder, which inclines outward to transition into the full diameter of the shank. The shank itself consists of a heavy, solid cylinder designed to withstand the principal impact of the blow; it typically incorporates alignment flats or grooves that, together with a central aperture at the base, establish a keyed mounting structure for securing the die firmly within the press.

From the late Qing dynasty to the early Republican era, the Chinese monetary system remained trapped in a dual-track quagmire wherein uncoined silver ingots (taels) and struck silver dollars (yuan) circulated concurrently. Although the Beiyang Government minted immense volumes of Yuan Shikai profile silver coins—popularly known as “Yuan Datou”—as surrogate national currency under the National Currency Regulations, the substantive standard for wholesale trade, foreign exchange, and fiscal revenue remained dictated by fictitious book-account taels of disparate weights and fineness, such as the Shanghai guiyuan. The exorbitant agio and complex calculations necessitated by converting between taels and dollars inflicted severe friction upon economic operations. Following the founding of the Nationalist Government in Nanjing in AD 1927 and the formal reunification of the country, the authorities actively sought to introduce a new national currency to reclaim the sovereign minting prerogative usurped by regional warlords and to restore fiscal stability. In the seventeenth year of the Republic (AD 1928), the Ministry of Finance drafted the National Currency Regulations Bill, fixing the yuan as the monetary unit and instituting a decimal standard. Pattern dies were subsequently commissioned from mints across five nations—the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Austria, and Japan—resulting in the experimental striking of the “Year 18 of the Republic (AD 1929) Three-Masted Junk One-Dollar Patterns”, featuring Sun Yat-sen’s profile on the obverse and a three-masted junk on the reverse. The government ultimately elected to simplify the composition by reducing the three masts to two, thereby laying the foundation for the currency historically celebrated as the “Junk Dollar” (chuanyang).

In deliberating its monetary policy, the Nationalist Government endeavoured to align itself directly with prevailing international orthodoxy. In AD 1929, it retained Professor Edwin Kemmerer of Princeton University to head a Commission of Financial Experts to China. Reflecting the international departure from silver in favour of the gold standard amongst Western powers, the Kemmerer Commission delivered a report in late AD 1930 advocating that China progressively abandon its precarious reliance on silver and adopt a gold standard. It proposed a provisional gold accounting unit named the “Sun” as an interim measure, calculating legal tender values in gold whilst temporarily striking primary and subsidiary coinage in silver and nickel. In accordance with this policy directive, the Central Mint in Shanghai was instructed to order pattern dies from the Philadelphia Mint based on the Kemmerer framework and to test-strike the Year 21 of the Republic (AD 1932) “Sun Yat-sen Gold Standard” patterns. The obverse of this one-dollar coin retained the modified Sun Yat-sen portrait from the five-nation patterns, whilst the reverse depicted a rising sun over waves and three wild geese flying low near the sea—known as the “birds below” (or “lower three birds”) variety—surmounted by the explicit legend “Gold Standard Coin, One Yuan”, of which roughly ten thousand plain-edge patterns were struck. Unlike later regular dies, this explicit gold-standard legend existed exclusively on the “birds below” design; the subsequently altered “birds above” design bore no such inscription. Nevertheless, burdened by profound impoverishment, negligible national gold reserves, chronic foreign trade deficits, and persistent warlord resistance, China possessed neither the gold bullion nor the international creditworthiness essential to sustain a gold or gold-exchange standard. Furthermore, beginning in AD 1931, the Great Depression precipitated the collapse of the international gold-standard edifice. Kemmerer’s grand programme consequently remained purely theoretical and was never promulgated by the Nanjing Government, surviving only through the handful of struck gold-standard patterns.

Following the collapse of the gold-standard ambition, the Nationalist Government returned to a pragmatic silver-standard footing. In AD 1932, the Central Mint adapted the five-nation pattern into the “Year 21 of the Republic (AD 1932) Twin-Masted Three Birds One-Dollar” coin for general circulation, featuring a two-masted junk beneath three soaring gulls and a radiant rising sun. However, after more than two million coins had been struck, the eruption of the 28 January Incident in AD 1932 inflamed Sino-Japanese hostilities. The public seized upon the design, interpreting the rising sun as an emblem of the Japanese Rising Sun flag and the three birds as incoming Japanese warplanes. Amidst widespread popular outcry and political denunciation, the Ministry of Finance was forced to seal and consign the vast bulk of the “Three Birds” mintage to the Central Bank for melting. To quell political controversy and eradicate the archaic tael system once and for all, the government promulgated the Silver Standard Coinage Regulations in March AD 1933, purging the contentious sun and birds to leave only the two-masted junk on an open sea. In April AD 1933, the government officially instituted the reform of “Abolishing the Tael and Adopting the Dollar” (feiliang gaiyuan), decreeing that all transactions, debt contracts, and payments must be settled strictly in standard silver dollars minted exclusively by the Central Mint—weighing 26.6971 grammes with a fineness of 880‰—upon pain of nullity. This act brought a definitive close to nearly five centuries of weighed silver usage that had prevailed since the first year of the Zhengtong reign in the Ming dynasty (AD 1436). The twin-masted “Junk Dollars” of the twenty-second and twenty-third years of the Republic were subsequently mass-produced to an excess of one hundred million pieces, successfully unifying the national coinage specification and legal accounting unit.

Nevertheless, the silver standard anchored by the “Junk Dollar” survived for barely two years. In AD 1934, in an effort to export the deflationary distress of the Great Depression and cater to political interests in domestic silver-producing states, the United States passed the Silver Purchase Act, artificially inflating the world price of silver. This provoked a devastating “International Silver Crisis”, wherein foreign banking houses and speculative cartels in China aggressively bought up physical silver to ship overseas, draining domestic reserves and plunging the country into acute deflation. Confronted with the exhaustion of its silver backing, the Nationalist Government, with Anglo-American coordination, executed the landmark “Fabi (Legal Tender) Reform” in November AD 1935. It formally abandoned the silver standard, nationalised all silver bullion, and recalled circulating silver dollars in exchange for inconvertible banknotes issued by designated institutions—namely the Central Bank of China, the Bank of China, and the Bank of Communications. By pegging the legal tender to sterling and the US dollar through foreign exchange stabilisation funds, China transitioned to a modern fiduciary currency founded upon a gold-exchange basis, removing the Junk Dollar entirely from active circulation. This policy not only concentrated the nation’s silver to acquire vital foreign exchange and military materiel in anticipation of the War of Resistance Against Japan, but also sounded the death knell for circulating metallic currency in modern China. Only in AD 1949, amidst the catastrophic hyperinflation that destroyed the paper currency in the waning months of the Chinese Civil War, did the Nationalist regime in Guangzhou attempt a desperate restoration of monetary faith by reviving the silver standard. It re-struck modest quantities of Junk Dollars using original Year 23 dies at the Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Taipei mints. Yet with the total defeat of the Nationalist regime on the mainland, these final restrikes, along with the silver standard itself, were irreversibly swept away by history.

物件編號: A4660-1, A4660-2

參考書目編號: KM#pn133; L&M#104; Kann#268

年代: 公元 1931-1932 年

材質: 不鏽鋼

XRF分析結果(A4660-1)

XRF分析結果(A4660-2)

尺寸: 38.5 x 38.5 x 39.5 mm (A4660-1) / 38.5 x 38.5 x 30.1 mm (A4660-2)

重量: 381.8 g (A4660-1) / 297.0 g (A4660-2)

來源: 福君錢幣 2008

這是兩件孫中山金本位銀幣一圓模具，包含該錢幣的正背面。當時會鑄造該硬幣的目的是為了改變民國初期貨幣制度繁雜混亂的狀況及跟上西方先進金融制度。

模面為該幣成品的鏡像。中央是孫中山側面像，國府用以此表達自身為孫中山的傳承，上方由左至右環列中文「中華民國二十一年」。肖像採用民國十七年「國幣徵集」中，義大利造幣廠的設計。

背面中央是正在航行的帆船、左側有由七條射線組成的朝陽、上方由左至右刻著「金本位幣壹圓」，而下方的三隻飛雁觸及著波浪。存世公認真品之金本位樣幣，其陽光圖樣由上數來第二、三道光芒，應各自從「金」字第二劃捺筆的兩側穿過，直達「金」字的另一端。第三道及第五道光芒，會分別接近兩支桅杆。此外，「金本位幣壹圓」筆劃均較存世樣幣粗，特別是「金、本」二字。可能是費城鑄幣廠送來原模後，中央造幣廠或杭州造幣廠自行翻製的產品，也可能是後世的戲作品。中央有貫穿性的開裂，在打製時可能會將金屬擠入裂縫，在錢幣上形成不規則的線條，更可能的是，由於應力不均，在施加壓力時造成模具進一步的毀損。帆船圖像參考的是民國十九年（公元1930年），上海中央造幣廠竣工紀念章的背圖。該圖為中央造幣廠美籍總技師赫維特（Clifford Hewitt）所設計，祖模模具則為美國費城鑄幣廠總雕刻師辛諾克（John Sinnock）所製。

壓印正背面的兩個模具，形制除模面外基本一致，惟正面模身較長，背面模身較短。其模面外緣均有一圈凹溝，稱為緣槽（Rim Gutter / Rim Cavity），金屬受擠壓流入此溝槽後，形成錢幣外側凸起的保護邊環（Rim）。模面邊緣延伸至模頸之間，有一的微小的傾角削面，稱為倒角（Bevel / Chamfer），有助於在壓印時降低邊緣應力集中，減少邊緣崩裂（Cud）的風險。模頸則位於倒角下方，為稍作收窄或延伸的短圓柱段。模頸下方為模肩，稍微傾斜並擴增至模身的寬度。模身則為厚重的圓柱，為承受衝擊的主體，通常還會有凹槽，與模座端的中央圓孔一同提供固定於機械上的榫卯結構。

清末至民國初年，中國貨幣體系長期陷於「銀兩」與「銀圓」並用的雙軌混亂狀態，儘管北洋政府時期曾依據《國幣條例》大量鑄造俗稱「袁大頭」的袁世凱像銀幣作為代用國幣，但在大宗交易、對外匯兌與政府財政結算上，實質標準仍取決於各地成色、平砝不一的虛銀兩（如上海規元），兩與元之間繁複折合的貼水大幅侵蝕經濟運作。公元1927年，南京國民政府成立並逐步完成形式上的全國統一後，為奪回被地方實力派分割的鑄幣權、整頓混亂的金融秩序，開始積極籌劃代表中央權威的新國幣。民國十七年（公元1928年）財政部研擬《國幣條例草案》，確立以「圓」為本位幣單位並推行百分制，隨後向英國、美國、義大利、奧地利與日本五國造幣廠委託雕模比稿，試鑄了正面鐫刻孫中山側面像、背面為波浪三帆船的「民國十八年三帆壹圓樣幣」，最終決定刪繁就簡，將三帆改為雙帆，為後續史稱「船洋」的貨幣奠定了基礎。

在探索貨幣制度的過程中，國民政府曾試圖直接接軌世界主流體系，於公元1929年聘請美國普林斯頓大學經濟學教授埃德溫・甘末爾（Edwin Kemmerer）率財政專家委員會來華考察。因應歐美主要強國相繼廢棄銀本位、改行金本位的國際潮流，甘末爾委員會於公元1930年底提交報告，建議中國應逐步擺脫依賴白銀的劣勢，規劃邁向金本位制，並提出以暫名為「孫」的新金單位作為過渡，計算法定價值但暫以銀、鎳試鑄主輔幣。在此政策背景下，上海中央造幣廠奉命依甘末爾架構向費城鑄幣廠訂購了樣模，並試製了民國二十一年（公元1932年）「孫中山金本位幣」樣幣。該批金本位幣壹圓正面沿用五國樣幣修改後的孫中山側面像，背面則呈現波浪朝陽與大雁低掠海面的「下三鳥」圖案，幣面上方更明確鐫有「金本位幣壹圓」銘文，其中光邊的樣幣僅鑄造約萬枚；與日後常規幣模不同的是，這類帶有「金本位幣」字樣的版別僅見於下三鳥設計，後續修改的「上三鳥」設計中並無此銘文。然而，當時中國積弱積貧，國庫黃金儲備極度匱乏，對外貿易常年入超，加上國內軍閥割據尚未完全弭平，根本不具備支撐金本位乃至金匯兌本位的金儲基礎與國際信貸實力。此外，自公元1931年起，由於大蕭條，各國相繼放棄金本位，國際金本位制崩解。因此，甘末爾的金本位計畫最終停留在設想，未被南京政府正式施行，僅有刻製的少量金本位樣幣作為見證。

金本位構想流產後，國民政府退回實事求是的銀本位道路，中央造幣廠於公元1932年將五國樣幣修改為雙帆船、上方翱翔三隻海鷗並帶旭日初升的「民國二十一年雙帆三鳥壹圓」準備正式流通。未料此幣試鑄二百餘萬枚之際，正值一二八事變後中日局勢高度緊張，民間輿論穿鑿附會，將幣面冉冉升起的朝陽影射為日本旭日軍旗、將三隻海鷗附會為迎面撲來的日本轟炸機，引發巨大的社會爭議與政治非議，財政部只得將絕大多數三鳥幣交由中央銀行封存熔毀。為了消除政治聯想並徹底解決銀兩弊病，國民政府於公元1933年3月公布《銀本位幣鑄造條例》，將引發爭議的旭日與三鳥全部剔除，海面僅保留雙帆船，並於4月正式宣告「廢兩改元」，通令所有交易契約一律改用中央造幣廠專鑄、成色八八、總重26.6971克的銀本位幣，違者無效，一舉終結自明朝正統元年以來行用近五百年的銀兩稱量制度，民國二十二、二十三年版雙帆「船洋」自此大規模鑄造發行逾億枚，實現了全國貨幣形制與計算法定單位的統一。

然而「船洋」所奠定的銀本位僅維持了短短兩年多。公元1934年美國為轉嫁經濟大蕭條危機與照顧國內產銀州政客利益，通過《購銀法案》人為拉抬國際白銀價格，引發毀滅性的「國際白銀風潮」，大批投機商與外資銀行自中國瘋狂收購白銀裝船出口，造成國內白銀儲備巨額外流，引發嚴重的通貨緊縮。面對白銀存底即將枯竭的危機，國民政府在英美兩國的協調下，於公元1935年11月實施成功的「法幣改革」，宣布廢除銀本位制並實行白銀國有化，將流通中的銀圓全面收兌為中央、中國、交通等指定銀行發行的不兌現紙幣，並透過外匯基金使法幣與英鎊、美元掛鉤，正式轉型為金匯兌本位的現代信用貨幣，帆船銀幣至此全面退出流通。法幣政策不僅成功收繳社會白銀以換取軍火物資儲備、為後續全面抗戰奠定金融基礎，也讓金屬鑄幣主幣時代落幕；直至公元1949年國共內戰末期，國民政府因惡性通膨導致紙幣體系徹底破產，撤退至廣州後曾頒布法規企圖重建幣信、提先恢復銀本位，並利用民國二十三年船洋舊模於廣州、成都與台北造幣廠重鑄少量帆船銀幣，但隨著國民黨政權在大陸潰敗，這批最後的船洋重鑄幣，伴隨銀本位制，一同被歷史所淘汰。