New Discovery! NGC Certifies Chang Tso Lin Dollar in Copper-Nickel
Every so often, a coin comes into the grading room at Numismatic Guaranty Company® (NGC®) that is so enigmatic and unique that it requires extensive research, context and analysis. Recently, such a coin was sent in for grading that could’ve been wrongly dismissed as counterfeit if a thorough investigation had not been undertaken. However, after careful examination, testing and research, it was shown to be a previously unknown and undocumented rarity of the highest order: a Chang Tso Lin dollar of type L&M-868 struck in copper-nickel.
How such an unusual and undoubtedly groundbreaking coin was able to fly under the radar for decades, without being included in any Chinese reference works like Kann, L&M, Wenchao or others, is due to a mix of several factors, including the rarity of Chang Tso Lin coinage in general, the lack of access to metallurgical analysis until recently and the fact that this coin was held in the very strong hands of the Nelson Chang family for the past 40-plus years.
When Chang Tso Lin pieces enter the grading room, they are almost always counterfeit coins of varying quality made within the last 20 years or so that are easily detected as being not genuine because they have an incorrect texture, luster or collar, because they have repeating marks that match other known counterfeits, or because they were struck with fantasy dies in which the detail does not perfectly match up with genuine examples struck from actual Tientsin mint dies. Occasionally, fantasy coins made during the first half of the 20th century imitating Chang Tso Lin pieces do come in for grading and are eligible for NGC certification, and these pieces can be worth thousands of dollars. However, these are not the real Tientsin mint coins of Chang Tso Lin, which would be worth well into the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, if genuine.
Indeed, genuine Chang Tso Lin coins are extremely rare, and even specialized numismatists working for top auction houses or grading services may only see an example once every decade or even longer. When NGC certified the L&M-870 Chang Tso Lin Dollar that was plate-matched to the 1971 Jess Peters price list with an accompanying pedigree from the Kann sale and Kann reference, it then sold in excess of $2 million in 2022. This was the first example graded by NGC in more than 20 years. Although that coin had a different reverse design, its certification by NGC proved to be an important reference piece in certifying the copper-nickel example.
When the copper-nickel example was first examined in the grading room (and graders were still unaware that the coin was copper-nickel) several unusual features were noted, despite it having seemingly proper die work, finish and texture. Especially pertaining to the reverse, the coin displayed unusual streaking that one would not expect on a commemorative silver dollar of China from this time period. Further, the luster was somewhat soft and unusual in appearance. The edge of the coin had several areas in which the reeded edge was not fully struck up, which was peculiar. Finally, the coin was seemingly thicker than it should have been, and upon being weighed, it was unusually heavy, weighing just under 32 grams. It was clear that significant research and analysis would be required to understand what exactly this coin was and what accounted for these unusual features.
Fortunately, extensive images were taken of the aforementioned Kann example, including of the edge, which allowed NGC graders to compare the Kann example to the copper-nickel example and discover that these coins were struck with not only the same obverse die, but also the same collar; the latter being extremely helpful in making the determination that the copper-nickel example was in fact genuine. However, this was just one data point in the process, and more analysis was necessary.
Part of the research and authentication process also included a metallurgical analysis using a machine that analyzes the surface composition of coins and medals using X-ray technology. This is where the most important discovery regarding the coin that was recently certified was made — that it was not actually silver and was, in fact, copper-nickel. Test results showed a composition of roughly 83% copper and 16% nickel. While this reading was highly unusual and unexpected, it explains almost all the unusual features that were initially noted about the coin.
Copper-nickel is generally more susceptible to having a streaking effect or texture than silver. Naturally, a copper-nickel coin will display a different, more muted luster than a silver coin. Also, since copper-nickel is a harder alloy than high-grade silver, this could reasonably explain why the reeding did not completely fill around the entire edge of the coin. Finally, the weight discrepancy and thickness disparity can also be explained by this variation in metallic composition.
The final corroborating information about this piece came from the coin’s pedigree and acquisition history. While this evidence is circumstantial and the pedigree does not cover the entire history of this coin from the time it was struck, Nelson Chang had purchased this coin from a prominent Hong Kong-based dealer in the very early 1980s and had paid what was then considered fair market value for the coin.
Tracing the coin back further than this was not possible despite the best efforts of NGC, but this pedigree of more than 40 years shows that the coin was accounted for prior to most of the die-transfer struck counterfeit Chinese coins entering the market or being produced. While some International Bureau for the Suppression of Counterfeit Coins (IBSCC) reports from the late 1970s exist for various counterfeit Chinese commemorative dollars, they do not display the correct luster or texture as genuine examples, and they generally wouldn’t have the patination or metal streaking found on this example. Further, a counterfeiter in the 1970s or earlier would almost certainly not have gone through the trouble of making a high-quality counterfeit with correct dies and the correct collar only to fall short at one of the easiest aspects of creating a counterfeit: striking it in the correct metallic composition.
Hopefully, future research can be done with respect to this coin to create additional insight. It is currently unclear whether the piece is a pattern, an off-metal strike or some kind of “mint sport” (although the die state, correct die marriage/collar and lack of undertype points to such mischief being somewhat unlikely). As such, NGC decided to list this coin as L&M-868 VAR and include its alloy on the label without speaking to why it was made in a different alloy.
When it sells at auction, the anticipation and bidding should be quite spirited, and rightfully so. It is an extremely rare opportunity to be able to own a numismatic discovery piece from a significant, storied collection of Chinese coinage.