The Value of an Colonial-Era Hong Kong Coin

Hong Kong


THE other day I went into a family-run noodle shop and when I paid, I handed over a colonial-era one-dollar coin with the British queen’s head. I instantly felt a pang of regret.


“Sorry, could I swap it? I want to save the one with the queen’s head,” I explained, popping another dollar coin with a Bauhinia flower into the money pot and retrieving my old coin. The owner frowned and gave me a funny look.


I was puzzled by my own action. It’s not like I loved living under the colonial government. I vividly remember the sense of humiliation we endured: as a child in the 1970s, I remember kids from the nearby British school habitually jumping the public bus line. As late as 1997, I was shocked at the blatantly racist attitude of white colleagues: one even told me to “go home and eat chicken feet” and laughed when I looked offended.


More http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/opinion/global/Nostalgic-for-Freedom-in-Hong-Kong.html?_r=0

I could be wrong, but I think that future generations of Hong Kong people will be sad at the neglect of some of the place's historical relics.


Hong Kong would not be the place it is, were it not for the colonial era. It had some good aspects, along with the not-so-good. The Brits were far from the worst colonisers in China's history, that is for sure.