Watch List notes:

(t) CHINA. Copper-Nickel 50 Cents Pattern, Year 30 (1941). Chengdu Mint. PCGS MS-63.
KM-PnC194 (similar to KM-Y-362); K-863III; Zhou-RC.10.2. Issued during wartime, Kann believes these year 30 issues, the first year of the issue, to in fact be patterns meant to test the viability of the cupronickel alloy. This would, rather accordingly, account for the paltry mintage figure and seeming RARITY of this issue. Light amber-gray in color, with some underlying cartwheel brilliance.

Pure nickel coinage that had existed in the Republic of China prior to the Japanese invasion of 1937 had long since disappeared from circulation by 1941. The primary cause was Japanese hoarding and melting of these issues, as nickel was a critical material needed for the war effort. These Copper-Nickel strikes were produced in the hope that they might escape melting. This proved too optimistic, and by the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, these issues themselves had all but disappeared from circulation.

Estimate: $8000 - $12000