Moneta
Registered: August 2005
Location: Arizona USA
Posts: 2,364
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I have the OB/REV backwards. Coin depicts the Great Wall and The Ship "Empress of China". 75 k minted but they seem common to purchase.
The Empress of China (AKA "Chinese Queen") was a three-masted, square-rigged sailing ship, initially built in 1783 for service as a privateer After the Treaty of Paris brought a formal end to the American Revolutionary War, the vessel was refitted for commercial purposes . It became the first American ship to sail from the newly independent United States to China, opening what is known today as the Old China Trade and transporting the first official representative of the American government to Canton. The first American merchant vessel to enter Chinese waters left New York harbor on Washington's birthday, February 22, 1784. The Empress returned to New York on May 11, 1785 after a round voyage of fourteen months and twenty-four days. The success of the voyage encouraged others to invest in further trading with China. The history is provided by Wikipedia and it also shows a photo of the ship taken in 1876!
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