My World Crown Affair
19th Cent, Hong Kong dollar

Owner Comments:

The British set up a mint in Hong Kong in 1866 but was closed in 1868 due to Chinese merchants overwhelming favoritism for the Spanish colonial 8 reales. The mint machinery is reported to have been sold to the Osaka Mint in Japan, and the story is often told that it was used to strike one Yen and Japanese Trade Dollars. However, other research indicates that the machinery sat so long in their crates while the mint facility was constructed that the equipment rusted to the point that it was unusable. Mintage 2,108,000.