ID'ing some Chinese copper... conjoined 10 cash & 1820-1850 cash/token

airplanenut

Howdy,

I had these cross my desk and I'm at a loss for what they are. The first is a conjoined pair of what look to be 10 cash coins. Based on the semi-clean break at one edge, I'm guessing these were cast and then supposed to be broken apart. Is this just the way the mid-1800s cast cash coins came out of production? The diameter of each piece is 28mm and the weight is 11.08g. The second piece looks far to modern for the date, but I can't find information on it anywhere. I'm assuming it's a fantasy or token of some kind, but have no real idea. It is 23mm in diameter and weighs a paltry 1.36g... it's very thin.







Thanks for your thoughts!

Jeremy

Sapyx

The top piece is a pair of Korean cash coins. I'm not familiar enough with the series to know if coins still connected like this are a common occurrence in this series.

The second piece is a rather crude machine-struck replica of the cash coins that were struck during the period between the two dates mentioned on it. It's part of a series of reproduction Qing Dynasty coins.

airplanenut

Thanks for those answers! I suppose that pair being Korean is a good reason why I couldn't find it listed in China

sumnom

The Korean piece is a 5-mun sangp'yong t'ongbo, minted in Kyonggi-do. These date from the 1880s. I don't have my references with me but they were minted in huge quantities from the 1883 to the early 1890s.

sumnom

The "furnace number" or "series number" is 22 for the 5-mun pieces, by the way.

sumnom

I don't really get why they are paired. Perhaps they were part of a charm? I don't think they were manufactured for circulation, given the file marks. It looks like they may have been cast this way intentionally. There is a reference work for Korean charms.