Double-Cut During the War of Resistance: My Wife Came from 1937

"2645 million? Is it that expensive?"

Upon hearing this, Xia Weiwei couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

In later generations, any coin that becomes a "king" in the market will be worth tens of millions.

It has to be said, there are really a lot of rich people here!

"Things are valued because they are rare!"

Ma Hongwei slowly said, "The 7/8 portrait of Yuan Shikai was originally a trial coin, and very few were minted."

"The unsigned version of the 1914 (Republic of China Year 3) seven-tenths face coin is rare, with fewer than 100 pieces surviving to this day, making it a museum-quality item."

"The signed version is even rarer; it is said that there are only a dozen or so genuine ones in the world, making it the pinnacle of Yuan Shikai silver dollars."

"No matter what it is, the scarcer it is, the more expensive it becomes. As long as it's scarce, the price will be driven sky-high!"

"If there were only one in the world, I dare say its price would be even higher."

Ma Hongwei thought of the short-bearded dragon, the king of Qing Dynasty silver coins.

With only five or six pieces known to exist, the highest price has already reached over 3000 million.

"Let's look for other cryptocurrencies!"

Ma Hongwei spoke up: "How about we make a small profit this time?"

"A small goal?"

This was the first time Xia Weiwei had ever heard this term.

"These words were said by Lao Wang, the former richest man in China and the owner of a real estate company."

Ma Hongwei said, "Old Wang said at the time, 'Wanting to become the world's richest man is the right direction, but it's best to set a small, achievable goal first, like earning 100 million yuan.'"

"puff!"

Upon hearing this, Xia Weiwei was speechless and said, "A hundred million is a small goal?"

Based on a monthly salary of 2800 yuan for a rural teacher, the annual salary would only be 33600 yuan.

One hundred million yuan would require a teacher in a rural town to work for more than 2976 years.

Or, to put it another way, 100 million yuan could cover the annual salaries of nearly 3000 teachers.

These capitalists have way too much money!

Even though they keep reselling between the two timelines, they haven't made a total of 100 million yet!

But those who are rich only consider 100 million as a small goal.

"We already have over a dozen special edition Yuan Shikai silver dollars, let's look for some more!"

Ma Hongwei thought for a moment and said, "It seems that only the Guangxu Yuanbao has not been used yet, so let's look for the Guangxu Yuanbao."

The Guangxu Yuanbao was minted between 1887 and 1908, several decades after 1937, so its surviving quantity is naturally less than that of the Yuan Shikai silver dollar and the Sun Yat-sen silver dollar.

Scarcity also means higher prices.

Guangxu Yuanbao coins are divided into copper coins and silver coins, with the silver coins being the mainstream dragon dollars.

It was minted or trial-minted by more than 20 mints, including the Ministry of Revenue, Beiyang Mint, Jiangnan Mint, Guangdong Mint, and Central Plains Mint.

A typical ordinary dragon coin costs between 1300 and 4000 yuan, while a fine one costs between 5000 and 15000 yuan.

Only rare and exquisite pieces will exceed 1.5 yuan.

Ma Hongwei and Xia Weiwei spent a long time picking through a large pile of silver coins before finally selecting a special Guangxu Yuanbao.

"Fengtian Province, Gui Mao Guangxu Yuanbao, one tael!"

Xia Weiwei said, "It seems there's only one of these Guangxu Yuanbao coins, and it's larger than the other silver coins!"

The other silver coins are between 38.8 mm and 39.2 mm in diameter, but this one is 42-43.5 mm in diameter, making it larger than the others.

It is not only larger, but also thicker and heavier.

"Let me check!"

Ma Hongwei immediately began to search for information.

You wouldn't believe it until you looked it up, and what you found was quite shocking.

"Holy crap!"

Ma Hongwei exclaimed in surprise, "I'm rich! I'm rich now!"

He never expected that this silver dollar would be so amazing.

"What's wrong?"

Xia Weiwei asked curiously, "Is it valuable?"

In Xia Weiwei's opinion, even if it's valuable, it's probably only worth 20 to 30 million.

"It's extremely valuable!"

Ma Hongwei swallowed hard and said, "This Fengtian Province-minted Kui Mao Guangxu Yuanbao Kuping One Tael coin is the king of modern Chinese machine-made coins, a universally recognized top-tier, unique, and extremely rare coin. It is said that only one publicly known Fengtian One Tael coin exists in the world!"

"This is a coin trial-minted by the Fengtian Mint in the 29th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty, which is 1903. It is a product of the currency reform experiment during the dispute between the two yuan between the Qing and Manchu dynasties."

"The mainstream currency of the Qing Dynasty, the 7,020 fen coin, was a silver dollar minted by Zhang Zhidong, a famous official of the late Qing Dynasty, imitating the weight of the Mexican peso."

"Later, some high-ranking officials of the Qing government felt that the silver coin should be based on the tael and the one-tael system should be implemented. A batch of coins were trial-minted in the four major mints of Fengtian, Guangdong Province, Ministry of Revenue and Beiyang.

"However, the value of one tael was too high, and it was inconvenient for daily small transactions. Ordinary people were unwilling to use it. In addition, the Russo-Japanese War broke out in Northeast China at that time, and the situation was chaotic. Therefore, the currency reform was no longer carried out."

"Back in 1991, at the Goodman auction in the United States, it fetched a high price of $18.7."

"At the Chengxuan Spring Auction in Beijing in 2022, a Guangxu Yuanbao coin from Fengtian Province, weighing one tael, sold for a high price of 4657 million yuan, second only to a one-tael coin from Guangdong Province with the double dragon and longevity character."

"hiss!"

Upon hearing this, Xia Weiwei couldn't help but gasp.

This Guangxu Yuanbao coin, minted in the year Guimao in Fengtian Province, is indeed quite valuable.

It's worth noting that the last time they auctioned six silver dollars, the price they sold for was only one million more than this one.

Doesn't that mean that just two coins are roughly equivalent to one hundred million?

Suddenly, Xia Weiwei thought of something and couldn't help but ask, "Hongwei, do you think the appearance of this coin we have will affect its price?"

Ma Hongwei previously said that scarcity drives up prices, and the rarer something is, the more expensive it becomes.

If a second one appears, the price will definitely drop significantly, right?

"It will definitely have an impact, but I don't think it will be too significant."

Ma Hongwei pondered for a moment before speaking, "I dare to say this because there are facts to support my claim."

"Didn't I just say there's a currency more valuable than a tael of Fengtian currency?"

"That coin is a Guangxu Yuanbao with double dragons and the character 'longevity' minted in Guangdong Province, weighing one tael."

"It was 1894, the year of the First Sino-Japanese War, and it was the 60th birthday of the old witch Cixi. The Guangdong Province Double Dragon Longevity Character Kuping One Tael coin was specially made for the old witch to celebrate her birthday. The original plan was to mint 30,000 coins."

"After the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War, a large number of them were melted down, but even so, more than ten genuine pieces still survive to this day."

"More than ten pieces of the 'Double Dragon Longevity Character' coin from Guangdong Province were auctioned for 5083 million yuan at the Hongsheng Spring Auction in Shanghai."

"I think even if the price of a Fengtian tael drops further, it won't drop too much. At most, it might drop by a few million or tens of millions, but it will still be valuable."

"Besides, even if this silver coin is only worth a thousand dollars, we still have to sell it!"

They managed to get rid of those ordinary Yuan Shikai silver dollars for over a thousand yuan each.