A Guangdong Shouzi Shuanglong Kuping one-liang silver coin sold for a sky-high price of 17 million yuan, bringing the young Yiwu post-90s collector Zhang Yi into the public eye.
Born in 1990, Zhang Yi is easily labeled as a "rich second generation", but his style is different.
Unlike many collectors who "started halfway", Zhang Yi has been associated with modern gold and silver coins since childhood, and has been involved in the collection of old silver dollars, silver ingots, copper coins, etc. very early. When he was in elementary school, Zhang Yi came into contact with history and was fascinated by it all of a sudden, especially the coins of various stages in history books, which made him unstoppable. "A small coin can reflect the history of the time, which is amazing. "His love for coins is not just talk. In junior high school, he started playing with machine-made coins (various metal coins made by machines rather than by hand). In order to collect a Yuan Datou (the colloquial name for the Yuan Shikai portrait series of coins), he sometimes saved a month's breakfast money and went to the streets of the countryside to look for it during holidays. He was very excited when someone sold it to him. "I was satisfied the moment I got the coin." Before 2000, the machine-made coins on the market had not been hyped. Some farmers in Yiwu had Yuan Datou in their homes. When they saw someone paying to buy them, they were also happy to sell them. At that time, Zhang Yi collected a batch of Yuan Datou at the price of 50 yuan per coin. Zhang Yi, who grew up in the Yiwu commodity market, also has a flexible business mind. Sometimes when he didn't have enough money, he would take the Yuan Datou he collected to the Yiwu antique market to sell, make some difference and continue to buy coins. In this way, his machine-made coins accumulated more and more. Zhang Yi's collection did not receive the support of his parents. "From their perspective, I am not doing my job properly. "Amid his parents' opposition, this young man who loves coins still insisted on being himself. During his college years, he had collected dozens of coins, banknotes and other varieties, and his collection footprints had traveled to Beijing, Anhui, Jinan and other places.
In 2012, when coins were the hottest, and with more and more collections in his hands, Zhang Yi planned to sell some of them. One day, he took his collection to the Yiwu Antique Market. The Yuan Datou that he bought for 50 yuan a piece had risen to 1,000 yuan a piece. In the market flooded with fakes, Zhang Yi's real coins suddenly became rare and valuable, and collectors rushed to buy them all. He made more than 60,000 yuan that day. Zhang Yi, who tasted the sweetness, couldn't let it go, and he decided to make this a career.
The coins he collected were sold at a high price
If buying and selling in the antique market was still a small-scale fight, then an auction he came into contact with during college completely changed Zhang Yi's direction. By chance, Zhang Yi attended an auction in Hangzhou, which broadened his horizons. "I saw a lot of rare coins that can only be seen in books. If you want to play, play with these high-end ones." Since then, Zhang Yi has been most diligent in going to auctions in various places. He said that different platforms give completely different information. In order to collect coins systematically, he almost always attends large domestic auctions. In this process, his appreciation ability has greatly improved, and he will participate in it if he finds good collections.
