The life lived of the man featured on the next coin in our blog series following along with Whitman Publishing's 100 Greatest Modern World Coins is one that certainly earns his depiction on a coin. While only ending up on a pattern, authors Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker lead us through the tumultuous journey for who they and many others consider “the father of his country (republican China), much like George Washington in the United States.”
#28 - China 1929 Sun Yat-sen Flag and Globe Silver Dollar Pattern
Dr. Sun Yat-sen was a beloved leader in communist China and nationalist Taiwan and was the first president of a new, burgeoning Republic of China. With the revolution came the modernization of several different things, including dress. On the pattern coin, Sun is dressed in a Westernized overcoat, a high collared shirt, and a tie on the obverse.
The image is a depiction from a photograph. The reverse shows two flags tied together with a ribbon falling down over the top of the globe. The flag on the left represents the Kuomintang, which is the Nationalist Party of China (1928-1949) and on the right, the Republic of China flag with the same white sun atop a blue field which is also seen on the Kuomintang. The globe on the reverse shows Europe, Asia, and Africa with lines of longitude and latitude. THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA is shown along the top arc in English while at the bottom is the Chinese symbols meaning “One Yuan” or “One Dollar.”
Sun’s background is extensive, from studying in Hawaii at a British Anglican school where he learned English and adopted Christianity, to having to flee a part of China after his new beliefs angered locals, to learning Western medicine and then quitting to be in political reformation as he was unsatisfied with the Qing dynasty’s old ways. He started revolutionary groups, but they ended up being unsuccessful, causing him to flee again to Japan where he eventually helped funnel arms to the resistance during the Philippine-American War in 1899-1902. He would still attempt uprisings, but was ultimately exiled to Japan where he would travel the world.
He continued his political reformation and revolutionary groups in the early 1900s before his death in January of 1925 from liver cancer. The 1929 pattern coin is still highly revered today and has been deemed “one of the most imaginative designs ever used on a Chinese coin.” It is the first Chinese coin to showcase a world map or globe.
As of 2014, the pattern’s market value was $50,000.