Item number: A4667-1、A4667-2

Reference number: Kann#649; L&M#63; Y#329

Year: AD 1914-1949

Material: Stainless Steel

The results after XRF testing (A4667-1)

The results after XRF testing (A4667-2)

Size: 38.5 x 38.5 x 30.3 mm (A4667-1), 38.5 x 38.5 x 41.1 mm (A4667-2)

Weight: 298.35 g (A4667-1), 393.7 g (A4667-2)

Provenance: Fuchin Coin 2008

These are two coin dies, representing the obverse and reverse of the “Republic of China Year 3 Yuan Shikai One Dollar Silver Coin”.

The die faces bear the mirror image of the struck coin. At the centre of the obverse die face is a profile bust of Yuan Shikai in military attire, bareheaded. Along the upper perimeter runs the inscription “Third Year of the Republic of China”. The relief is shallow and flat; the beard hangs excessively low, and there are surplus vertical lines on either side of the epaulettes. This variety is unrecorded in existing numismatic catalogues, though its stylistic traits bear a closer resemblance to the Sichuan or Gansu varieties. The rim features inward-pointing denticles intended to protect the coin’s design; however, these denticles are uneven in thickness and irregular in length, exhibiting numerous traces of recutting.

At the centre of the reverse die face, the denomination “One Dollar” is arranged vertically, encircled in the manner of Western coinage by a wreath in which the traditional laurel leaves have been replaced with auspicious grain. The ears of rice take the form of paired spikes, with each cluster growing in opposite pairs. Since the Zhou Dynasty, such natural botanical mutations have been regarded as auspicious omens due to their rarity and association with bountiful yields; hence they are termed “auspicious grain” (jiahe). Inheriting the motif from the Founding of the Republic commemorative coinage, it symbolised “drawing the moral of plentiful years to enrich the populace, and handing down rules to encourage agriculture as the fundamental pursuit”. Nevertheless, the relief of the grain motif on this die is shallow, devoid of fine details such as leaf venation, and exhibits discrepancies in foliage placement, suggesting it may derive from private casting or clandestine minting. The rim likewise bears fine inward denticles for design protection, which are similarly uneven in thickness and irregular in length.

The two dies used for striking the obverse and reverse share essentially identical profiles apart from their engraved faces, save that the obverse die features a longer shank while the reverse die has a shorter shank. Along the outer perimeter of each die face lies a recessed channel known as the rim gutter or rim cavity; metal displaced under coining pressure flows into this recess to form the raised protective rim of the coin. Between the edge of the die face and the neck, there is a minute angled facet termed the bevel or chamfer, which serves to alleviate edge stress concentration during striking and minimise the risk of cud formation. The die neck, positioned immediately below the chamfer, consists of a slightly tapered or extended short cylindrical section. Beneath the neck lies the die shoulder, which slopes gently outward to expand into the full width of the shank. The shank itself forms a robust, heavy cylinder that acts as the primary body absorbing the stamping impact, with lateral recesses designed to provide a tenon-and-mortise mortise structure for securing the die within the coining press.

Yuan Shikai was born in the ninth year of the Xianfeng reign (AD 1859) during the Qing Dynasty. In his early years, he was stationed in Korea with the Qing military for twelve years, serving as the Trade Commissioner in Korea handling diplomatic and commercial affairs. Following the First Sino-Japanese War, he was recalled to China to supervise the training of the Newly Created Army at Xiaozhan in Tianjin, thereby laying the foundations of the Beiyang warlord faction. During the Hundred Days’ Reform and the subsequent coup d’état of AD 1898, his alignment with Empress Dowager Cixi earned him rapid promotion. He successively held the posts of Governor of Shandong, Viceroy of Zhili, and Minister of Beiyang, vigorously directing the expansion and modern training of the Beiyang New Army whilst promoting institutional reforms. In the first year of the Xuantong reign (AD 1909), he was dismissed by Prince Regent Zaifeng and ordered to retire to his ancestral home. Following the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising in the third year of Xuantong (AD 1911), the Qing court was forced to reinstate him as Viceroy of Huguang and Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet. He subsequently acted as the Qing plenipotentiary to negotiate peace with the southern revolutionary forces, ultimately brokering the abdication of the Qing Emperor. In the first year of the Republic (AD 1912), he was elected Provisional Grand President of the Republic of China, and in the following year, he became the inaugural formal Grand President. He soon dissolved the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), suspended the National Assembly, repealed the Provisional Constitution, and established a Political Council and the State Council to consolidate his executive hegemony. In late AD 1915 (the fourth year of the Republic), buoyed by monarchical advocacy, Yuan prepared to restore a constitutional monarchy and proclaimed the imperial era name “Hongxian”. However, this manoeuvre provoked the National Protection War in Yunnan alongside fierce opposition across the provinces, compelling him to revoke the monarchy in March AD 1916 (the fifth year of the Republic) before he succumbed to illness in June of that same year.

Upon the founding of the Republic of China, the domestic currency system was in profound disarray. The marketplace was inundated not only with dragon dollars cast independently by various provinces, but also with widespread foreign silver crowns such as the Mexican “Cap and Ray” dollar, circulating in numbers estimated in the hundreds of millions. Variations in exchange discounts and silver fineness across different regions severely hampered commercial circulation and central fiscal operations. The Ministry of Finance initially contemplated adopting a gold exchange standard and promulgated the Currency Reform Outline, but fierce opposition prevented its implementation. On 7 February AD 1914 (the third year of the Republic), Grand President Yuan Shikai officially issued an executive decree promulgating the National Currency Regulations and their Detailed Enforcement Rules, thereby establishing a silver standard as the cornerstone of currency reform and formally designating the new silver dollar as “National Currency”. The regulations stipulated that six qian, four fen, and eight li of Kuping pure silver would serve as the monetary unit, designated as the yuan (dollar). The standard coin was assigned a gross weight of seven qian two fen. Although the statutory fineness was originally established at nine parts silver to one part copper, it was adjusted to 89 per cent silver and 11 per cent copper at the inception of mintage to account for minting overheads and circulation strategy. The legal tolerance for both weight and fineness was strictly capped at three parts per thousand. This slight reduction in fineness cleverly exploited Gresham’s law, while the government actively purchased older, higher-grade dragon dollars to melt down and restrike, effectively compressing the price premium between old and new issues and removing impediments to the adoption of the new currency.

Notwithstanding the establishment of the statutory silver standard under the National Currency Regulations, severe systemic constraints arose in its practical execution. The primary flaw lay in the fragility of the national dollar’s status as the sole standard. In the commercial emporium of Shanghai, the silver dollar remained tethered to the fictitious tael: daily exchange rates (yangli) for silver dollars had to be published and converted into Shanghai convention taels (guiyuan) for settlement. This effectively subordinated the dollar standard to the traditional silver tael matrix—a dual monetary chaos that was terminated only with the formal “Abolition of the Tael in Favour of the Yuan” in AD 1933 (the twenty-second year of the Republic). Furthermore, while the statutory striking cost was fixed at six li per coin, the actual production cost approached one fen, inflicting a loss of four li on every standard dollar minted. As increased production yielded mounting deficits, provincial branch mints and regional warlords, unrestrained by stringent oversight, frequently debased the coins or shaved their weights to recoup losses and extract illicit seigniorage profits. Additionally, although the system was designed around the complementary circulation of standard dollars and fractional coins on a decimal framework, actual production heavily favoured standard units over subsidiary coins. The total value of half-dollar, twenty-cent, and ten-cent silver fractions struck by the central and branch mints up to AD 1926 accounted for barely 2 per cent of the 1.157 billion dollars produced, leaving a vast void filled by copper cents. Furthermore, subsidiary coinage failed to maintain its decimal parity; market forces evaluated them strictly by their silver content, requiring over ten jiao in subsidiary coins to exchange for a single dollar and precipitating the collapse of the decimal scheme into fractional “minor silver”.

The dies for the new national currency were prepared under the supervision of the Italian engraver Luigi Giorgi, who then served as Chief Engraver at the Tianjin Central Mint. Hailing originally from the Stabilimento Stefano Johnson in Milan, Giorgi was engaged in China in the second year of the Xuantong reign (AD 1910) and directed the engraving of the dragon pattern dies for the Xuantong Year 3 Great Qing silver coinage. When preparing the new republican currency, Giorgi initially engraved a “three-quarter face” portrait pattern of Yuan Shikai based solely on photographs. However, upon presenting the trial strikes in person to Yuan in Beijing, he observed that the photographic likeness depicted an elderly, frail figure that failed to convey Yuan’s commanding presence and vigour. He requested and obtained permission to re-engrave the dies. His redesigned portrait became the famous five-point profile in military attire without a cap, popularly known as the “Yuan Big Head” (Yuan Datou). The reverse featured two open, entwined ears of auspicious grain framing the denomination “One Dollar”, which had been calligraphed by Luo Fukan, a renowned calligrapher from Shunde, Guangdong. Giorgi’s initial patterns bore his diminutive Latin signature, “L. GIORGI”, on the truncation of the bust or above the shoulder. However, the Ministry of Finance of the Beiyang Government, driven by national sovereignty concerns and traditional aesthetics, feared that the public would mistake the engraved Western signature for the identity of the personage depicted. They formally prohibited foreign signatures on regular circulating coinage, consigning the signed varieties to the realm of exceptionally rare pattern issues. Giorgi served at the mint until the eighth year of the Republic (AD 1919) and departed China the following year after his petition for contract renewal went unapproved.

The new national coinage was formally released on 24 December AD 1914 (the third year of the Republic), with the initial production batches emerging simultaneously from the Tianjin Central Mint and the Nanjing Branch Mint, inaugurating a nationwide minting programme that spanned more than a decade. After producing the master matrix dies, the Tianjin Central Mint distributed hubs and dies to branch mints in Wuchang, Nanjing, Guangdong, Fengtian, and Hangzhou. The Nanjing Branch commenced striking in AD 1915 (the fourth year of the Republic) and operated continuously for over twelve years, eventually becoming the single most prolific mint in total output. The Wuchang Branch began production at the close of the same year. The Guangdong Branch received master dies in AD 1915, but soon diverted its presses to regional twenty-cent subsidiary pieces before halting production entirely the following year upon declaring independence from Yuan’s regime. The Hangzhou Branch joined production in AD 1920 (the ninth year of the Republic) and yielded massive coin volumes after administrative reorganisation in AD 1922. The Anqing Mint in Anhui, having begun mintage in AD 1920 under regional warlord control, brazenly debased its coins; this provoked severe boycotts across the Shanghai banking fraternity and compelled the return of its master dies in AD 1925 (the fourteenth year of the Republic). Following the success of the Northern Expedition in AD 1926 (the fifteenth year of the Republic), official production of the original standard was largely wound down, yet the minting history of the Yuan Shikai dollar remained far from concluded. In AD 1949 (the thirty-eighth year of the Republic), when the Nationalist Government was forced to reinstate the silver standard following the catastrophic collapse of the Gold Yuan paper currency, the Yunnan and Guangzhou mints briefly reopened their presses to strike Yuan dollars for emergency liquidity. Furthermore, in the early 1950s, to accommodate local monetary preferences in Tibet and sustain advancing troops, the Shenyang and Chengdu mints were instructed to re-strike substantial quantities of the Year 3 dollar using preserved original dies.

Across decades of intermittent production and widespread regional decentralisation, the “Yuan Big Head” evolved an intricate matrix of distinct varieties. The standard dollars feature four primary inscribed dates on the obverse: Year 3, Year 8, Year 9, and Year 10 of the Republic of China, though the stamped year seldom reflected the actual year of mintage. In AD 1919 (the eighth year of the Republic), the Currency Bureau of the Beiyang Government issued the Five Regulations on Restriking and Minting Silver Dollars, requiring mints to change the inscribed year annually. However, in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, an acute shortage of imported die-grade tool steel delayed the completion of the Year 8 dies until the close of the year; by early AD 1920, the mint had already moved on to cutting the Year 9 matrices, leaving the genuine mintage of the Year 8 dollar exceptionally small. In terms of stylistic varieties, the Year 3 series is by far the most complex due to its extended striking period and the multitude of participating facilities. Major varieties include the standard Tianjin Mint edition, the “O-variety” bearing a minute circle within the ribbon loop on the reverse wreath, the “Gansu variety” exhibiting rugged features or the characters “Gansu” incised on the obverse, the 1950s “Sichuan variety” marked by hollowed leaf veins on the reverse, and various regional warlord or clandestine issues such as the “Shandong Big Button” and the “Fujian variety”. Furthermore, the Year 8, Year 9, and Year 10 series exhibit subtle distinctions in the shoulder epaulettes, displaying four-pointed, five-pointed, or six-pointed stars, complemented by fractional issues spanning the half-dollar, twenty-cent, and ten-cent denominations.

The overall output of the Yuan Shikai silver dollar established an unprecedented mintage record in the history of modern Chinese machine-struck coinage. According to surviving Ministry of Finance archives and statistical surveys by numismatists such as Eduard Kann and Richard Wright, verified records from official mints document staggering outputs: between AD 1915 and 1927, the Nanjing Branch Mint struck over 382 million pieces, the Tianjin Central Mint produced an estimated 270 million, the Hangzhou Branch exceeded 226 million, and the Wuchang Branch contributed approximately 81 million. When combining these figures with the production totals of the Fengtian, Guangdong, Anqing, Nanchang, and Gansu mints, documented official production closely approached the one-billion mark. If one factors in regional imitations, warlord strikings, the AD 1949 emergency reissues, and the military restrikes of the early 1950s, the total historical circulation easily surpassed one billion pieces, with the Year 3 dollar alone accounting for upwards of 750 million. This monumental volume systematically swept several hundred million foreign trade dollars and late Qing dragon coins from domestic circulation, accomplishing the monetary unification that the Xuantong Year 3 coinage had left unrealised, and cementing its position as one of the most trusted, widely circulated, and culturally ingrained currencies in modern Chinese socio-economic history.

物件編號: A4667-1、A4667-2

參考書目編號: Kann#649; L&M#63; Y#329

年代: 公元 1914-1949 年

材質: 不鏽鋼

XRF分析結果(A4667-1)

XRF分析結果(A4667-2)

尺寸: 38.5 x 38.5 x 30.3 mm (A4667-1), 38.5 x 38.5 x 41.1 mm (A4667-2)

重量: 298.35 g (A4667-1), 393.7 g (A4667-2)

來源: 福君錢幣 2008

這是兩件模具，分別為「民國三年袁世凱像壹圓銀幣」的正背面。

模面為該幣成品的鏡像。錢幣正面模面中央為袁世凱側面像，身著免冠戎裝。上緣環列「中華民國三年」。浮雕平淺，肖像鬚髯下垂過長，肩章兩側直紋過多，現有譜錄均未收錄，但風格較為接近四川或甘肅版。幣緣有細齒向內，作保護幣圖之用，但粗細不均、長短不一，多處有加刀痕跡。

錢幣背面模面中央豎列「壹圓」，周圍仿西洋錢幣形式環繞桂冠，並將月桂葉替換為嘉禾。稻穗成雙穗禾形態，即各串稻穗兩兩對生。自周代起，這種稻穗的自然突變便由於其稀有與增產的效果，被視為祥瑞，故稱「嘉禾」，承開國紀念幣的嘉禾圖，喻「取豐歲足民之義，垂勸農務本之規」。但本模具上的嘉禾圖浮雕平淺，幾無葉脈等細節，葉片位置也有差異，或為私鑄品。幣緣有細齒向內，作保護幣圖之用，但粗細不均、長短不一。

壓印正背面的兩個模具，形制除模面外基本一致，唯正面模具模身較長，背面模具模身較短。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，側邊則有凹槽，提供固定於機械上的榫卯結構。

袁世凱生於清咸豐九年（公元1859年），早年隨清軍赴朝鮮駐防十二年，歷任駐朝鮮總理交涉通商事宜，甲午戰後奉調回國，於天津小站督練新建陸軍，奠定北洋軍閥勢力的雛形。戊戌政變中他因靠攏慈禧太后而獲擢升，歷任山東巡撫、直隸總督兼北洋大臣，大力主持編練北洋新軍並推動各項新政。宣統元年（公元1909年）遭攝政王載灃罷黜回籍，至宣統三年（公元1911年）武昌起義爆發後受清廷起用為湖廣總督及內閣總理大臣，隨後代表清廷與南方革命軍議和，促成清帝退位。民國元年（公元1912年）他當選中華民國臨時大總統，次年當選正式大總統，隨即解散國民黨、停開國會並廢止《臨時約法》，改設政治會議與參政院以鞏固行政權力。民國四年（公元1915年）底，袁世凱在帝制運動推波助瀾下籌備恢復君主立憲，宣布改元「洪憲」，然而此舉隨即引發雲南護國軍起義及各省的反對聲浪，被迫於民國五年（公元1916年）三月撤銷帝制，同年六月因病逝世。

民國初立之際，國內幣制極端混亂，市場上不僅充斥著各省自造的龍洋，更有墨西哥鷹洋等外國銀圓廣泛行使，總數達數億枚之巨，各處貨幣折色與成色各異，嚴重阻礙商業流通與中央財政運作。財政部起初曾擬採行金匯兌本位並公布《幣制綱要》，但因各界反對而未付諸實行。民國三年（公元1914年）二月七日，大總統袁世凱正式發布教令，公布《國幣條例》及《國幣條例施行細則》，確立以銀本位作為整頓幣制的基礎，將新銀圓正式定名為「國幣」。條例明定以庫平純銀六錢四分八釐為價格單位，定名為「圓」，主幣總重七錢二分，法定成色原定為銀九銅一，但在正式開鑄之際考量造幣成本與推行策略，調整為含銀百分之八十九、含銅百分之十一，重量與成色的法定公差均不得超過千分之三。此項微幅調降成色的作法，利用經濟學上的劣幣驅逐良幣法則，配合政府搜購舊有成色較高之龍洋回爐改製，有效壓縮新舊幣差，為新國幣掃除推行阻礙。

儘管《國幣條例》確立了法定銀本位，但在實際推行與制度層面上仍顯現出若干難以克服的歷史侷限。首先是國幣本位地位的脆弱性，在商貿重鎮上海，銀圓始終未能完全擺脫虛兩的箝制，市場每日仍須公布「洋釐」行市並折合規元計價，使銀圓本位實質上退化為銀兩體系的附屬，此一雙軌混亂直至民國二十二年（公元1933年）實施「廢兩改元」後才徹底終結。其次，法定鑄幣成本定為每枚六釐，但各廠實際鑄造成本每枚約達一分，等於每鑄一枚主幣便虧損四釐，促使各省分廠與地方軍閥在欠缺嚴密稽核下，紛紛私自偷色減重以圖彌補虧損或牟取暴利。此外，制度設計上雖強調主輔幣相輔相成與十進位原則，但實際生產卻極度「重主輕輔」，各廠所鑄造的中圓、貳角、壹角銀輔幣僅占整體鑄額的百分之二左右，且輔幣在流通過程中成色混雜，市場拒絕依面值十足兌換，十進位制度迅速瓦解，輔幣重新淪為按含銀量折價流通的「小洋」。

新國幣的幣模雕刻由時任天津造幣總廠總雕刻師的義大利籍技師路易吉・喬治（Luigi Giorgi）擔綱。喬治早年出身於米蘭的斯蒂法諾・強森工廠（Stabilimento Stefano Johnson），清宣統二年（公元1910年）受聘來華，曾主導宣統三年大清銀幣龍洋的模具雕刻。在籌備民國新國幣時，喬治最初僅依據照片雕刻出「七分臉」袁像樣幣，但當他親攜樣幣赴北京晉見袁世凱審定時，發現照片呈現的肖像顯得蒼老虛弱，與袁本人神采奕奕的強人形象出入甚大，遂請求重新雕模。獲准後重新雕造的面部輪廓，即為後世通稱「袁大頭」的五分側面免冠戎裝像，背面則採用兩本未合攏的交互嘉禾紋飾，環繞中央由廣東順德書法家羅復堪書寫的「壹圓」面額。喬治最初雕刻的樣幣於肖像後背或肩部刻有極小的拉丁簽名「L. GIORGI」，但北洋政府財政部基於國家主權意識與傳統審美，擔憂民間誤認肖像人物為洋技師，明令禁止在正式流通幣上鐫刻外文名字，致使簽字版僅以試鑄樣幣形式極少數存世。喬治在華任職至民國八年（公元1919年），後因合約期滿未獲北京政府續聘，滯留至次年離華。

新國幣於民國三年（公元1914年）十二月二十四日由天津造幣總廠與南京分廠首批正式發行，自此展開長達十餘年的全國性鑄造歷程。天津總廠製成標準祖模後，頒發至武昌、南京、廣東、奉天、杭州等分廠陸續開鑄。南京分廠於民國四年（公元1915年）正式鼓鑄，歷經十餘年不輟，成為產量最龐大的分廠；武昌分廠亦於同年底開機生產；廣東分廠雖於民國四年獲頒祖模，但隨後改造毫銀並於次年因反袁獨立而停鑄；杭州分廠則於民國九年（公元1920年）加入生產行列，並於民國十一年整頓後大量出幣；安慶造幣廠於民國九年開鑄後，因軍閥把持而肆意降低成色，引發上海金融界強烈抵制，最終於民國十四年（公元1925年）繳回祖模停辦。在歷經民國十五年（公元1926年）北伐統一後，各廠原版生產漸次停歇，但該幣的鑄造歷史並未完全終結。民國三十八年（公元1949年）國府因金圓券崩潰被迫重回銀本位時，雲南與廣州造幣廠曾再度啟模鑄造「袁大頭」以應急需；二十世紀五十年代初，為配合西藏地區特殊的貨幣習慣與進駐部隊給養，瀋陽與成都造幣廠亦曾奉令仿舊模重新鑄行一批數量可觀的三年版銀圓。

在長達數十年的鑄期與地域區隔的背景下，「袁大頭」版式繁多。主幣正面紀年共有四種，分別為民國三年、八年、九年及十年，但幣面標記年份與實際鑄行時間多無關聯。民國八年北洋政府曾頒布《改鑄暨鑄造銀圓辦法五條》，要求每年更改幣模紀年，但當時恰逢第一次世界大戰剛結束，進口幣模鋼料嚴重短缺，待八年版鋼模鐫刻完畢時已屆年底，造幣廠隨即於民國九年初改刻九年版模具，致使民國八年造壹圓產量極為稀少。就版式流派而言，三年版因鑄造時間長、參與廠家多，版別最為浩繁，主要包含天津總廠標準版、背結帶左內含小圓圈的「O版」、面有「甘肅」紀名或風格粗獷的「甘肅版」、背面嘉禾葉多呈中空的五十年代「四川版」，以及各地軍閥或地方私鑄形成的「山東大扣」、「閩版」等特殊品類。此外，八年、九年、十年版在袁像肩章的星徽構造上，亦存在四角星、五角星及六角星等諸多差異，輔幣系列則有中圓、貳角與壹角等多種規格。

袁像銀圓的整體生產數量是中國近代機制幣史上的空前紀錄。根據財政部檔案與耿愛德（Eduard Kann）、李察·偉德（Richard Wright）等中外學者之調查統計，在可查閱之官方造幣廠紀錄中，南京分廠自公元1915至1927年間累計鑄造達三億八千二百餘萬枚，天津總廠產量估計約二億七千萬枚，杭州分廠超過二億二千六百萬枚，武昌分廠約八千一百餘萬枚，加上奉天、廣東、安慶、南昌以及甘肅等分廠之產額，有案可查的官方鑄量即已逼近十億枚大關。若計入各省地方仿鑄、軍閥私鑄以及公元1949年與五十年代初的後續復鑄，其總流通量普遍評估已超越十億枚，其中三年版壹圓便逾7.5億枚。龐大的發行總量使其最終將原本在中國行用數十年的數億枚外國鷹洋及晚清龍洋驅逐出市場，不僅成功實現了前清宣統三年「國幣」未能達成的統一度量形制任務，更成為中國近代流通範圍最廣、民眾信任度最高且最深植於社會經濟日常的標誌性通貨之一。