Hong Kong Coins | A beginner’s guide to buying rare and collectible Hong Kong Coins
Posted on 19 January 2019
Hong Kong Coins
Starting your own Hong Kong Coin Collection
If you haven’t purchased a Hong Kong (or any rare or collectors’) coin before, you might very well wonder where to start… Coins make a fantastic memento from your travel adventures bearing unique designs and shedding light on days gone by.
So, where to start indeed in building a collection of Hong Kong coins? You could either pick up a single coin from a special date such as a birthday or anniversary or, if you like, you could build a small collection of your own.
One relatively straightforward option could include collecting mint examples of each coin type released during a particular period (i.e. Hong Kong Queen Victoria$1, Half Dollar, 50c, 20c, 10c, 5c One Mil coins).
To go a notch up, collecting all types of coin from a particular year such as mint examples of the Hong Kong 1978 $5, $2, $1, 50c, 20c, 10c and 5c makes a great personalised collection.
Rare Hong Kong Coins
Rarity and value are impacted significantly by a number of factors including Mintage (i.e. how many of a particular coin were actually produced), quality and how many coins actually survived.
In terms of survival rates, a couple of Hong Kong coins released during WW2 ended up not being properly released into circulation or melted down and as a result are now exceedingly difficult to find.
The most famous example of this is the 1941 cent. Over 5,000,000 were minted BUT one third were melted before release in the UK to support the war effort, the next third were mostly melted down by the Japanese occupiers in Hong Kong and the final third were on board a British vessel which was sunk by a German U Boat en route to Hong Kong!
As a result, it is estimated that less than 100 1941 Hong Kong one cent coins survived the war.
5 of the most highly sort after Hong Kong coins are listed below:
- Hong Kong George VI One Cent 1941
- Hong Kong George VI Five Cents 1941
- Hong Kong Queen Victoria One Mil 1864
- Hong Kong Queen Victoria Half Dollar (all years)
- Hong Kong Queen Victoria Twenty Cents (all years)
For modern Key Date Hong Kong Coins, the 1964-H 5 cent and 1980 10 cent are particularly sort after by collectors.
The Hong Kong Arts Club lists the details for more the rarest specimens from the Hong Kong Coin Collection HERE
Verifying the rarity of your graded Hong Kong Coin
If you chose to buy a third party genuine certified Hong Kong coin from either of the major third party grading companies (PCGS and NGC), it is really easy to input the certificate number and quickly see how rare (or common) your certified Hong Kong coin is. Click HERE for the PCGS census of graded Hong Kong coins and HERE for the NGC census results.
Whether you are looking for some fun pieces of Hong Kong history or eager searching out some of the rarest gems which exist in modern Colonial / Commonwealth coinage, numerous options exist.
For more detail on Hong Kong coins, check out Hong Kong & Macau Bank Notes and Coins by K.N. Boon for a full overview on the variety of Hong Kong coins over the years.
Happy exploring!
