1928 Kweichow Automobile Dollar

Specifications

Denomination: 1 dollar (壹圓)
Series: Kweichow provincial issues
Years of issue: 1928
Composition: 100% Silver
Weight: 25.8 g
Diameter: 39 mm
KM: Y428
Mintage: 648000
Key mintages: 648,000 (Heritage Auctions; en.wikipedia); Chinese Wikipedia lists 50,000 — discrepancy noted; exact silver fineness unverified; one Heritage listing says Chengdu mint vs Guiyang elsewhere

Melt value: $53.42silver $64.40/ozt · prices as of Sep 16, 2026

CC BY-SA 4.0 — Anthonythecoinman, via Wikimedia Commons

KM-Y428 · 648,000 minted at Guiyang · Heritage notes most market examples are cleaned or repaired — buy certified or don't buy.

History

Struck in Year 17 of the Republic (1928) by warlord Zhou Xicheng (Chow Hsi-chen) of Kweichow (Guizhou) to commemorate the province’s first highway and its first automobile (Wikipedia; Heritage Auctions, accessed 2026-09-16).
The car-side design shows the governor’s automobile on a road; blades of grass below the rear tire are arranged to spell Zhou’s personal name, Xicheng (西成) — a deliberate hidden signature (Wikipedia; CoinWeek, accessed 2026-09-16).
648,000 pieces were struck at the Guiyang mint; the coin fell out of circulation in the early 1930s, partly absorbed by international collector demand (Wikipedia; Heritage Auctions, accessed 2026-09-16).
A certified mint-state example sold for US$336,000 at a 2023 auction, and the issue ranks #9 on NGC’s list of the 25 most commonly counterfeited Chinese coins (Wikipedia; NGC, accessed 2026-09-16).

One-year type (1928 only) — the major variety split is the grass below the rear tire: two blades (common) vs three blades (rarer) (CoinWeek, accessed 2026-09-16).
Minor varieties: the car’s ventilator style, door detailing, and spare-tire shape all vary (CoinWeek, accessed 2026-09-16).
Listed as L&M-609, Kann-757e alongside KM-Y428 (Heritage Auctions, accessed 2026-09-16).

COUNTERFEIT DIAGNOSTIC: One of the most heavily faked Chinese coins in existence — NGC ranks it #9 among the top 25 most commonly counterfeited Chinese coins; raw examples should be assumed guilty until certified genuine by PCGS/NGC (NGC; Wikipedia, accessed 2026-09-16).
COUNTERFEIT DIAGNOSTIC: Study the car and the grass signature — the 西成 (Xicheng) grass arrangement below the rear tire and the ventilator/door/spare-tire details are the documented variety points (CoinWeek); fakes commonly get these details wrong or render them mushy (Heritage Auctions, accessed 2026-09-16).
Value factors: ‘though lightly cleaned and repaired as the majority of these that come to market seem to be’ — problem-free, original examples command large premiums over details-graded ones (Heritage Auctions, accessed 2026-09-16).
Mintage discrepancy: English sources and Heritage give 648,000; Chinese Wikipedia lists 50,000 — the 648,000 figure is used here (Wikipedia; Heritage Auctions, accessed 2026-09-16).