Welcome to a place where numismatics meets mythology.
My collection centers on the legendary dragon, a timeless emblem of imperial power, good fortune, and celestial strength, featured on Asian coinage from early symbolic uses to the modern day.
The dragon has been a central symbol in Chinese cosmology and imperial ideology for thousands of years. Long before it appeared on coins, it was cast onto charms, engraved into ritual objects, painted on banners, and etched into amulets, representing the emperor as the Son of Heaven and the guardian of harmony between Heaven and Earth. These early uses laid the foundation for one of the most enduring motifs in East Asian art and culture.
It was from this deep symbolic heritage that the dragon eventually made its way into formal coinage. One of the earliest examples comes from Vietnam, where silver Tiền coins featuring a dragon were struck as early as 1833 under the Nguyễn Dynasty. Though minted using traditional methods, these pieces represent a significant milestone in the evolution of dragon-themed coinage, marking the transition from sacred symbol to state-issued currency.
Around the same time, China saw the dragon begin to appear on cast copper cash coins, particularly in the final decades of the Qing dynasty. These coins, though still produced with older techniques, began integrating the imperial dragon into everyday currency, reinforcing its role not just in art and ritual but also in daily economic life.
This collection focuses especially on the transformative period beginning in the late 19th century, when the dragon was adapted to modern minting technologies and national monetary reforms across China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
The story continues in 1889, when the Kwangtung Mint issued the first widely circulated machine-struck Chinese coin with a dragon as its central design. This historic debut marked a new era in Chinese coinage, fusing centuries-old symbolism with the precision of industrial minting. However, it was preceded by earlier trial issues, most notably the 1888 Kwangtung pattern dragon dollars, which were struck in limited numbers as experimental designs ahead of mass production. Since then, the dragon has appeared across a wide spectrum of coinage, from provincial silver issues to copper cash and modern commemoratives, throughout China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and beyond.
Each coin in this curated collection carries more than metal. It carries a legacy of empires, artistry, and the enduring power of the dragon in Asian culture.
While Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam have long histories of using dragons as symbols of power, their appearance on coins followed distinct timelines. Vietnam was among the earliest to feature a dragon on silver coinage in a modernized form, with known examples such as the 1 silver Tiền dating back to 1833 under the Nguyễn Dynasty. This quietly positions it as a forerunner in dragon-themed Asian numismatics. Japan introduced the dragon on machine-struck modern coins during the Meiji Era, beginning with the silver 1 Yen Pattern in 1870, struck at the Royal Mint and designed as part of its national currency reform. China followed with its first widely issued machine-struck dragon coin, the 1889 Kwangtung Dragon Dollar, although its use of the dragon as an imperial emblem dates back centuries in art, culture, and symbolism. Korea introduced the dragon into its coinage with the 1886 1 Won pattern, during early attempts to modernize a broken monetary system. This effort was only made possible through significant foreign assistance, particularly from Japan and Western advisors.
Assembling a fully accurate timeline of early dragon-pattern coins remains a personal challenge, particularly due to the complexities involved in piecing together historical records, deciphering regional variations, and reconciling conflicting sources. While documentation exists, the process of fully reconstructing the history is intricate and ongoing. I continue to refine this overview as new insights and evidence emerge.
Though all four nations embraced the dragon on coinage as a mark of imperial authority, it was China whose deep-rooted cultural connection to the dragon most profoundly shaped its symbolism. This legacy predates the coinage of Japan, Korea, and even Vietnam, despite Vietnam’s earlier minting.
Though distinctly Chinese in spirit, the first dragon coin owes part of its legacy to British expertise. The iconic 1889 Kwangtung Dragon Dollar was produced with assistance from the Heaton Mint in Birmingham. This collaboration marked not only China’s entry into modern minting but also its response to growing global trade. But why silver dollars, and why now? The answer lies in the dominance of the Mexican 8 Reales, a coin so trusted across Asia that it shaped China’s own currency reform and led to the birth of its silver dragon dollars.
While the dragon design was realized through foreign minting expertise in 1889, the story of China’s silver dollars begins much earlier, on the waves of global trade. For centuries, Mexican 8 Reales coins, carried aboard Spanish Manila Galleons, flowed into China through the Philippines. Known for their reliable silver content and weight, these coins earned a reputation as the “trust dollar” across Asia. Their dominance in Chinese markets set the standard that local silver coinage, including the dragon dollar, would later follow.
Inspired by the reliability and prestige of the Mexican silver dollar, many Asian nations saw the value in producing their own standardized coinage. For merchants and governments alike, having a homegrown equivalent meant asserting economic sovereignty while maintaining trust in trade. But this wasn’t achieved overnight. It required the adoption of modern minting techniques, foreign expertise, and a deep process of trial and refinement. This journey began with pattern coins, where tradition met innovation, and the foundation for modern Asian coinage was carefully shaped.
Pattern coins play a crucial role in the history of coinage. Created as trials before mass production, they were used to test designs, striking quality, and material choices. Pattern coins are limited and were never intended for circulation, which makes each surviving piece an important artifact of a transitional era in minting.
Rather than finalizing a single design, these coins often explored multiple visual and technical approaches, many of which never reached regular issue. They offer a unique glimpse into how traditional symbolism, such as the dragon, was adapted to meet modern standards during a time of rapid change in Asia’s monetary systems.