Watch List notes:

CHINA. Dollar, Year 3 (1914). PCGS MS-64.
L&M-63; K-646; KM-Y-329; WS-0174-8. Variety with triangular (connected) "yuan" and bold leaves. Handsomely near-Gem, the present example provides a bold strike and lustrous but somewhat reserved surfaces. Some minimal contact is observed on the surfaces, but not more than one would expect for the grade. Many of the triangular "yuan" types tend to have bolder leaves, especially nearer the central areas, but this one, in particular, is rather robust.

Nicholas Rhodes, in an article entitled A Communist Chinese Restrike in the June 1975 issue of the Spink Numismatic Circular, proposed that these types were issued to pay Tibetan laborers. In a further analysis in a thread on zeno.ru, he writes that "...this particular variety, with the closed triangle in the upper half of the Character 'Yuan,' does not seem to be present in any pre-1950 collections, such as E. Kann, the British Museum, etc. From my own experience it does, however, turn up very frequently in Tibet and among Tibetan refugees in Nepal, Kalimpong and Bhutan. Indeed, it is often found in near uncirculated condition, and local shroffs have told me that the quality of the silver is better than that of the other varieties of the YSK dollar, so it commands a small premium value. Tibetan refugees have recounted that such YSK dollars were struck in large numbers in Sichuan province in the mid-1950's, for the purpose of paying Tibetan labourers engaged in road building in Eastern Tibet."

Estimate: $1500 - $2500