SINCONA Auction 78
Russian Coins and Medals
Bid
| Starting price | 2,500 CHF |
| Result |
This lot is not available for purchase anymore.
Description
Gold token n. d. (1903). Jeton, probably of a chief engineer or chief official of the East China Railway, probably on the occasion of its completion in 1903. With the bearer's name P. M. Doroguntsev. Gold enameled. 33.6 x 25.2 mm. 13.80 g. Extremely rare. Extremely fine.
Details
The East China Railway was built between 1897 and 1903 as part of the Trans-Siberian Railway and connected Chita directly across Chinese Manchuria with Vladivostok, which is why it is also called the Trans-Siberian Railway.
From 1945 to 1953 it was called the Chinese Changkun Railway and since 1953 it has been called the Harbin Railway. Their construction through partly impassable terrain took place under very great difficulties. Thus in 1899 and 1901 the bubonic plague broke out again among the workers, in 1902 cholera.
During the Boxer Uprising in 1900, the railway line was the target of destruction of a total of 700 km of line already built.
After the influence of the Russian Empire in northern China was lost as a result of its defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, a new railway line was started from Chita around Chinese Manchuria to Vladivostok. However, the East China Railway remained the property of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union until 1935, when it was sold to the Japanese controlled Manchukuo Empire. In connection with the war against Manchukuo at the end of the Second World War, the railway came under Soviet control again until it was finally handed over to the newly founded Peoples Republic of China in 1950.