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Need ID help

ajaanajaan Posts: 17,461 ✭✭✭✭✭
in World & Ancient Coins Forum
This one has me stumped. May not be orientated correctly. Any one know?

image

DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'

CU #3245 B.N.A. #428


Don

Comments

  • mrpotatoheaddmrpotatoheadd Posts: 7,576 ✭✭
    I don't have any references for it, but I believe these are fantasy pieces.
  • DBSTrader2DBSTrader2 Posts: 3,487 ✭✭✭✭
    Not sure, but the symbols translate as best as I can tell to "Made in America".

    - - Daveimageimage
  • SapyxSapyx Posts: 2,263 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>I don't have any references for it, but I believe these are fantasy pieces. >>


    Yep. Very few genuine cash-style coins have pictorial elements on the reverse, like that dragon, and none had a triangular hole. The four larger characters on the obverse are the same as the ones used on genuine cash coins of the Qian Long emperor (1735-1796) but this "coin"was probably made during the 20th century. The smaller characters in between them are four of the eight trigrams of Taoism.
    Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
    Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"

    Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD. B)
  • WegWeg Posts: 544
    On this forum I am reading quite a bit which refers to cash coins. Can someone say what the significance is of these coins.
    Using the Krause Standard Catalog of World Coins made identifing Japanese coins no problem, but Chinas coins has been frustrating.
    Remember, I'm pullen for ya; we're all in this together.---Red Green---
  • SapyxSapyx Posts: 2,263 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>On this forum I am reading quite a bit which refers to cash coins. Can someone say what the significance is of these coins. >>


    The coins known in the English-speaking world as "cash" (normally used in the form "cash coins" or "cash-style coins" to distinguish the term from the slang word for "money") were the longest running coinage series issued anywhere. In their native China they are known as "qian"; our word "cash" comes from the Portuguese word "caixa", meaning a treasure chest or strongbox.

    The concept of a round, cast bronze coin with a square hole was invented in China in 336 BC (Chinese records give the date fairly precisely). This invention was, as far as we know, made completely independently of the coins invented by the Greeks in Europe several centuries earlier. Cash coins were produced more or less continuously from that time, right up to the early 20th century - around 1920 in China itself, 1946 in neighbouring Vietnam.

    Chinese-style cash coins were produced by many of China's neighbours and trading partners. Most notably: Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Malaysia all saw coins of this same basic design being produced and circulated locally.
    Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
    Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"

    Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD. B)
  • mrpotatoheaddmrpotatoheadd Posts: 7,576 ✭✭
    I guess this would be as good a place to ask as any- what is a good (read: easy, within reason) resource for attributing Chinese cash coins? I'm thinking something along the lines of a flowsheet or step-by-step process to narrow down the search would be good, as opposed to the more time-consuming brute force approach of simply comparing the coins to the pictures in the SCWC, page by page. Does anything like that exist?
  • sumnomsumnom Posts: 5,963 ✭✭✭
    It's a token or a charm, for sure. I think Sapyx is probably right that it is of 20th century manufacture.

  • SapyxSapyx Posts: 2,263 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>...what is a good (read: easy, within reason) resource for attributing Chinese cash coins? I'm thinking something along the lines of a flowsheet or step-by-step process to narrow down the search would be good, as opposed to the more time-consuming brute force approach of simply comparing the coins to the pictures in the SCWC, page by page. Does anything like that exist? >>


    Googling "Chinese cash coins", this page comes up as the number one hit. It looks pretty good, and certainly makes a useful first stop in IDing a cash coin. Click on the "1" and you'll find a page showing almost all the different kinds of Chinese cash coins you're likely to come across in the dealer's scratchtrays.

    I have a catalogue, "Chinese Cash Identification and Price Guide" put out by Krause Publications. As a first edition, it's a bit "buggy", and the errors and omissions can confuse the beginner and annoy the expert. But it's the only catalogue I'm aware of that's readily available, in the English language (there are of course plenty of catalogues in Chinese).

    Some general rules to follow:

    - The four Chinese characters on the obverse of cash coins are most normally read in the order top-bottom-right-left. The emperor's reign-name is the first two characters (top and bottom) while the last two characters are almost always the same: "tong bao", meaning "current coin".

    - The reverse is a quick distinctive tool for identifying the country and approximate time period for cash coins: Manchu script (it looks kind of like Arabic, written sideways) only appears on Qing (Manchu) Dynasty coins, the last Chinese Imperial dynasty. The Manchu script is actually the mintmark. No Manchu means it's either not Chinese, or older than 1644. "Waves" on the reverse (a series of circular arcs) tells you you've got a Japanese coin. Plain reverses are either Japanese, Vietnamese or old Chinese.
    Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
    Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"

    Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD. B)
  • DoogyDoogy Posts: 4,508 ✭


    it's certainly Asian, now i'll send you my bill image
  • mrpotatoheaddmrpotatoheadd Posts: 7,576 ✭✭


    << <i>Googling "Chinese cash coins", this page comes up as the number one hit. It looks pretty good, and certainly makes a useful first stop in IDing a cash coin. Click on the "1" and you'll find a page showing almost all the different kinds of Chinese cash coins you're likely to come across in the dealer's scratchtrays. >>

    Thanks for the link- that looks like a useful website!
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