中國聯合準備銀行 / 中国联合准备银行 - zhong guo lian he zhun bei ying hang
Only struck from 1941 to 1943, this is a series that was issued under the Japanese occupation. The Provisional Government authorized Federal Reserve Bank of China to issue coinage. While no catalog as far as I know mention where they were struck, it seems they could be struck in Osaka mint, Japan as the planchets, edging (except 5 fen) and weight seem to match. Another possibility is that the planchets were shipped from Japan and were struck in China. E Kann believes that they were struck at either Tientsin or Manchuria. Circulated for use in North China only.
There are a couple of known pattern examples struck in silver - it is unknown where the silver planchets came from. Very, very rare.
To comment on this difficult this series is - this can be a VERY deceptive series if you look at Krause or JNDA catalog value. A simple type set consisting of three different types of coins is very easy however to collect all nine, this can be an eye opener. You may come to a conclusion that based on suggested catalog value, this should be a very easy set to complete. Afterall, I believe the total comes down to less than 200 dollars if you look at catalog value alone. I'm referring to either catalogs that were published in early 2010s. I can guarantee you that this is a lot harder than you expect!!!
For comparison, I've decided to post images of the Japanese coins and compare them with the Federal Reserve Bank / Provisional Government coins that circulated at the same time.
| 10 sen | 5 sen | 1 sen | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Edge: Reeded | Edge: Reeded | Edge: Smooth | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 1941 1 jiao | 1942 1 jiao | 1943 1 jiao |
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| 1941 5 fen | 1942 5 fen | 1943 5 fen |
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| 1941 1 fen | 1942 1 fen | 1943 1 fen |
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Weight of my coins:
| 1941 1 jiao | 1.5g | 1942 1 jiao | 1.23g | 1943 1 jiao | 1.0g |
| 5 fen | 1.2g | 5 fen | 0.98g | 5 fen | 0.83g |
| 1 fen | 0.66g | 1 fen | 0.64g | 1 fen | 0.55g |
As of how I would rate them on how difficult to find them, this is my opinion. 1 being the easiest, 10 being absurdly difficult.
| 1941 1 jiao | 1 | 1942 1 jiao | 2 | 1943 1 jiao | 3 |
| 5 fen | 3 | 5 fen | 6 | 5 fen | 10 |
| 1 fen | 2 | 1 fen | 4 | 1 fen | 9 |
Based on the assumption that these coins were struck on Japanese sen planchets, there may be a possibility of finding transitional error coins as the weight of aluminium coins were reduced in between the years. In particular, these may be possible error coins listed below. This is based on catalog value.
1943 5 fen and 1 fen coins are surprisingly difficult to find in any condition. It is only recently that a small batch of 1943 1 fen coins were sold in 2015 however this coin proved to be illusive for the past few years. 1942 5 fen coin can be challenging as well. 1943 5 fen coin appear once every year or two.
If I knew how difficult this set was going to be, I would not have started it in the first place!!! This set has taken me a good five years to hunt down. Obviously I got deceived over how "easy" it supposedly was based on catalog value. Very, very mistaken. Best of luck if you are going to attempt this set!
23 April, 2015