Greeting from the 2019 Hong Kong Coin Show | NGC Hong Kong drop off

2019 Hong Kong Coin Show - Mira Hotel, Kowloon

This year’s coin show in the Mira Hotel just off Nathan Rd in Kowloon, was in full flow this weekend with hordes of enthusiasts, buyers and dealers coming from all over the world to hunt out the next edition to their collection.

The event was reported to have been attended by over 5,000 visitors and was held in the ballroom on the 18th floor. The two major partners, Stacks Bowers and Spinks and Sons, were both running fairly high roller auctions taking place throughout the show.

In addition to the headline auctions, there were numerous sellers from all over the world with coins ranging from China, Russia, UK, Hong Kong etc etc. Most of visitors were male but with ages ranging from their late twenties all the way up to over ninety!

NGC and PCGS were also both present taking submissions for coin grading and even offering some of onsite grading for collectors and dealers to get their coins certified. If you haven’t graded coins before, it can take quite a long time so the option of being able to submit and collect coins within a matter of days vs the usual 6 weeks was very appealing.

The NGC booth was quite understaffed and required lengthy waits during the show, but we preserved and should be able to collect the new batch of graded arrivals next week.

In the meantime, we thought we would share some of the rare gems being submitted.

HONG KONG Gold, Silver, Bronze Medals to commemorate Cross-Harbour Tunnel,1972

This rare set, which was minted by the Royal Mint and commissioned by the Cross-Harbour Tunnel Company, actually belongs to one of our customers who asked us to have it graded.

It’s a beautiful set featuring the Hong Kong Junk on the observe (front), the gold coin features a Chinese Dragon on the reverse and the Silver and Bronze coins feature the official Hong Kong Victoria Seal on the reverse.

They’re increasingly hard to find and very few high-quality graded examples exist.

1984 1/10 oz Singapore 10 Singold Year of the Rat Gold Proof Coin

This pretty little coin was picked up having been graded by ANACS and we requested that NGC put it in one of their holders (NGC and PCGS are just more popular third-party grading companies).

After signing what felt like umpteen waivers with NGC, they agreed to break the coin out of its original holder so watch this space and lets see what grade it gets from NGC. It looked a very good example to us, but you never can tell what the expert verdict will be.

Shanghai Mint 1990 Oriental Pearl 1oz Silver China Coin Medal

We also submitted a couple of Chinese medals picked up on a recent buying trip.

This one ounce silver medal features Shanghai’s famous tower and Bund. 10,000 were minted so they’re not hugely rare but a nice early souvenir from this ever-evolving modern city.

1988 Hong Kong Year of the Dragon Silver Royal Mint Medal

Issued by the British Royal Mint, this Lunar Medal bears a relief design of a Dragon on the obverse and the reverse bears the official Hong Kong Victorian Seal, the emblem of power and successful trade, created by the decree of Queen Victoria in 1842. 

Last, we have 2014 official China Mint Medal called the Happy Boy and Lucky Money. Sadly, this one’s also not from our collection but belongs to another customer asking us to grade their coins.

The Chinese mints are doing some great modern coins and medals and many of them have extremely low mintages.

After a busy session, the team headed out to explore a little of Kowloon’s restaurant and bar scene enjoying a fantastic dinner at Kowloon’s famous Indian restaurant, Gaylords. Interestingly founded in 1972 which was the same year as the Hong Kong medals we had submitted earlier were minted!

Happy exploring.