You have to scroll down to number 8 in the list of most expensive coins ever sold at auction before you reach the first Chinese entry.

I wonder how long that will be the case.

Shanghai during the Chinese Revolution of 1911

The 1911 Chinese Revolution is one of the key events in this list.

Chinese money had a huge impact on the stamp market around the world from the start of the 21st century.

And coins are following suit.

Currently, the world’s most valuable coin is an American $20 coin, the legendary Saint Gaudens Double Eagle.

That sold for $18.9 million in 2021.

Chinese coins aren't there yet, but they are trending in that direction.

So let’s meet the five most valuable Chinese coins.

5 - 10,000 Yuan Gold Coin of 1991

And one panda to rule them all. The 1991 coin celebrated all the panda coins before it.

Sold for $1.6 million in 2011

That’s quite a chunk of change for what is a very big chunk of gold.

This is a modern bullion coin, weighing 5kg, so with considerable intrinsic value (over $250,000 dollars when struck Google tells me).

It’s also a very limited edition mintage with a beautiful and desirable design.

Just 10 of the coin were struck in a special edition that celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Panda gold coins.

So, a panda on one side, and a very clean, crisp capture of the Temple of Heaven, one of China’s most iconic historic vistas on the obverse.

The example sold in 2011 was number 6 of the 10 and was struck at Shenyanh Mint. It’s face value of 10,000 yuan is around £1,000.

It was sold in Japan, and bought by Michael Chow of Champions Auctions, a Hong Kong company.

4 - Silver Pattern Mukden Tiger Dollar of 1928

The flags of the republican revolution and the republic intertwined on the reverse of the Mukden Tiger dollar.

Sold for $2.2 million in 2021

This Hong Kong sale by a US company came at the same time as a Chinese bank note made over $2.5 million.

This coin, from 1928, is certainly Chinese, but it wasn’t issued by a recognizable Chinese national state. The year 17 it is dated to is the 17th year after the 1911 revolution that ended imperial rule in China.

The Muckden Tiger of its name is a nickname for Zhang Zuolin (sometimes Chang Tso-lin) who had a long career as a mercenary and sometimes governor, largely in Manchuria, during a chaotic and violent period usually called the Warlord Period.

Zhang Zuolin was assassinated in 1928 decisively ending his pretentions to more national power that saw him occupy Beijing for a while and issue these coins.

They are patterns based on US silver dollars. Very few were made, and Heritage Auctions, who sold this example said it was one of just 10 that had been certified as genuine.

3 - Silver Pattern Mukden Tiger Dollar of 1928

Zhang Zuolin, whose portrait is now one of the most valuable in Chinese history.

Sold for $2.28 million in 2021

This is another example of the coin at number 4 in our list.

This piece was sold as the second-best existing example of the "Memorial coin of the Commander-in-Chief" with its portrait of Zhang Zuolin backed with flags of the Republic of China and the Flag of Wuchang Uprising (the military rebellion that started the end of the Qing Dynasty).

Although he enjoyed a fairly long and stable period of power in Manchuria, where it was possible to remain isolated from the rest of China, when he tried to expand his power, Zuolin was defeated by Republican forces of the National Revolutionary Army before Japanese forces killed him as he headed back to his stronghold.

This Hong Kong auction, which its holders Stack’s Bowers, say was one of their most successful ever, saw several big sales, and the Muckden Tiger coin easily surpassed its $250,000 top estimate.

2 - Long Whisker Dragon Dollar of 1911

The long whisker dragon was the last hurrah of imperial China. Image courtesy of Stack's Bowers.

Sold in 2022 for $3 million

Again, we have a coin dated in a Chinese system. This time, it’s not the Chinese Republican system, with Year 1 in 1912, but the Imperial system.

1911 was the third year of the reign of Puyi, his reign titles as Xuantong, and popularly known as The Last Emperor.

The upheaval of China’s 20th century has produced lots of interesting rarities for collectors, but it cause misery for millions upon millions of people.

Year 3 was the last year of Qing rule, and this is a pattern coin that was struck at Tientsin Mint. While Chinese rule was collapsing from one system into another, in part because of increased “modernisation” spurred by overseas trade, the standard of coin production hadn’t suffered according to the Stack’s Bowers description of the coin that “distills down into a dollar-sized flan all of the artistry and sublime majesty that one associates with China.”

One buyer certainly agreed, taking the coin well over its $1.5 million top pre-sale estimate.

An experimental design on the obverse of the coin that was never put into use means that there are fewer than 25 known such coins.

1 - Fengtien Tael of 1903

The Fengtien Tael was never used in circulation.

Sold for $6.9 million in 2022

This is the only sale on our list to take place in the People’s Republic of China rather than in Hong Kong, which has the status of a Special Administrative Area, and is a customs territory in its own right.

And, it’s a very special coin that was sold in Beijing in August 2022.

Called the “King of Chinese Coins”, the Tael went past a $5 million insurance estimate to comfortably take the record as the most valuable Chinese coin ever.

It has quite a story behind it. It’s from the early 20th century again, when China’s efforts to reconcile its own, rather inward looking, imperial rule with the age of global imperialism created huge internal conflicts. At the time, a lot of the money used in China was minted overseas, and simply adopted by custom as valid currency.

This Tael is an attempt to address that with good-quality Chinese-made currency.

Fengtian is the now-abandoned name for Shenyang, the largest city in Manchuria. This coin was struck early after its rebuild following the destruction of the 1900 Sino-Russian war, with machines imported from Scotland.

It’s a very nicely designed coin, though neither big, nor flashy, and its value is all about rarity. It’s unique. Made as a trial, it “escaped” China to be shown at a US exhibition in 1904. It was chased down in 1952 in Hong Kong and sold to American collector Eduard Kann. It remained outside China, going steadily up in value until 2010 when Shanghai collector Zhou Dawei bought it home.

Dawei sold it in 2022 and proved Kann’s assertions about its rarity and value correct! Kann had paid $2,000 back in the 1950s.