Northern Expedition C/S - Museum Gallery

November 2024

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Northern Expeditionary Army. I'm placing this counterstamped or chopmarked coin in the "Soviets" area because in the early days of the expedition, Communist and KMT [Kuomintang] joined forces against various warlords in northern China. This took place between 1926 and 1928, but in 1927 a rift took place between these two and the KMT began purges in the Communist forces. If this piece is authentic I do not know when it might have been struck, it could have been after the split.
With the history of the Soviet Red Chinese Army base camps striking 'Hammer & Sickle within Star' [Hunan Soviet, 1931) and "Soviet" counterstamps on Chinese Republican coins, these 'Northern Expedition' counterstamps may be part of that evolution.
The host coin here is Chinese Republic 10 Cash of 1912. [KM Y#301]
From what I have been able to determine the counterstamp is shown almost in the correct orientation leaving the obverse up-side-down in the photo. In Wade Giles this character [bei fa] means 'north or northern'. It varies slightly in that a stroke 'tail' is missing from the bottom left side of the character. This portion is small and may have been omitted due to stylistic or the practical aspects of creating such a large chopmarked counterstamp. -- In the meantime I've found this countermark shown in an article of the publication "CHOPMARK NEWS" by Colin Gullberg (see CCC Vol 22, issue 2, Dec 2018. The article by Cedric Cheung confirms this chopmark as meaning 'North' but does not get into a discussion of it, the most interesting section was on the "Soviet" variety of countermarks, a variety of which are shown here in the Moneta Museum.

Please comment, I'm requesting more information on the C/S and the attribution of this to the Northern .