A rare Chinese silver dollar coin dating back to 1897 will go under the hammer in Paris on Friday and is expected to sell for an astonishing 300,000 U.S. dollars owing to its rarity.
The coin forms part of a dedicated sale from the Millon Riviera auction house at the Hotel Drouot in Paris, drawn from the collection of Joao Rodrigues Simoes Affra, Portugal's former ambassador to China.
Affra served in Shanghai from 1945 to 1950 and collected rare Chinese coins. This 1897 dollar only came to light recently, discovered by his family in the ceiling of their home in southwest France.
Paul-Antoine Vergeau, the auctioneer overseeing the sale, said this diplomat, over the decades, has amassed a collection of extremely valuable and rare Chinese artifacts.
Catalogued as Lot 66, the rare 1897 Chinese coin, marked "Kiangnan", from the region now called Jiangnan, carries an estimate of 47,000-70,000 U.S. dollars. But experts expect bidding to push the price far higher.
In 2022, a similar Affra-collection piece from 1867 was sold for more than 180,000 U.S. dollars at auction. Numismatics expert Daniel Berrous believes this coin could outperform that sale.
"If we are lucky, it can reach 300,000 U.S. dollars -- it could be possible to reach this range of price. One of these coins was sold two years ago for half a million," said Berrous.
Scarcity and design drive the appeal. Only a handful are thought to survive, and this version is distinguished by its dragon motif enclosed within a circle.
"You can have a really similar one without the circle dragon, and that is not worth as much money," Berrous explained.
The sale will be broadcast live on Friday at the Hotel Drouot in Paris, with bidders able to join both online and in person.
19th-century Chinese silver coin expected to fetch 300,000 USD at auction
