WOW THIS IS A TOUGH ONE , PLEASE HELP CHINESE MONGOLIA ?

Verno

As many of you know, working through a purchase of some very cool and refreshingly original world coins. Need some help on this on....Coinscope was no help:( Appears to be silver, about the size of a dime.... Thanks to all for the help!!! RJ

Sapyx

It is not a genuine coin, so Coinoscope or any other catalogue will not be of any help.

It appears to be a "circulating counterfeit" or "contemporary counterfeit", that is, a coin made by a forger to spend as money, rather than fool a collector. The English-language side is a mirror-imaged and completely garbled version of the 10 cents from Kwangtung Province; I assume neither the counterfeiter nor their intended victim could read English to spot the mistakes. The Chinese-language side is more carefully rendered. Made of brass or some similar cheap alloy and given a "silver" wash (perhaps actually a mercury wash) which has been worn or scraped away in a couple of places.

Verno

@Sapyx said:
It is not a genuine coin, so Coinoscope or any other catalogue will not be of any help.

It appears to be a "circulating counterfeit" or "contemporary counterfeit", that is, a coin made by a forger to spend as money, rather than fool a collector. The English-language side is a mirror-imaged and completely garbled version of the 10 cents from Kwangtung Province; I assume neither the counterfeiter nor their intended victim could read English to spot the mistakes. The Chinese-language side is more carefully rendered. Made of brass or some similar cheap alloy and given a "silver" wash (perhaps actually a mercury wash) which has been worn or scraped away in a couple of places.

When would these have circulated? Where? Thanks! RJ

Sapyx

In China, at around the the time the (genuine) coins were made: the early 1900s. Probably not after 1912 when the Imperial government was overthrown and replaced by the Republic, and Imperial coins would have been given greater scrutiny in circulation.

realeswatcher

Fabulous contemporary counterfeit... much of the Western lettering engraved backwards (as noted above, clear lack of familiarity with English/Western characters).

Flipping the image horizontally in Paint or similar (mirror image) will give a better idea of the legend in English. The genuine coin would show "KWANG - TUNG PROVINCE" above the dragon with "7.2 CANDAREENS" below. You can see that the engraving was some mirrored attempt at replicating that.

Nice piece - a particularly crude example. The Chinese market doesn't seem to find contemporary counterfeits very interesting right now... perhaps as their collecting matures.

Verno

Forgot to thank you guys for the great information....appreciated! RJ

MWK

@Sapyx said:
In China, at around the the time the (genuine) coins were made: the early 1900s. Probably not after 1912 when the Imperial government was overthrown and replaced by the Republic, and Imperial coins would have been given greater scrutiny in circulation.

Yes. The Chinese writing on the back indicates that the coin was minted during the Guang Xu emperor's reign (1875 - 1908), the penultimate emperor of China. After the Guang Xu era, it was the Xuan Tong emperor (Pu-yi, who was the subject of the film "The Last Emperor") whose reign was from 1908 - 1912.

Verno

Great info, thanks to all! RJ

EVillageProwler

Btw, the second picture (with the Chinese writing) is upside down.