need help identifying these silver chinese coins

jessewvu

Does anyone know what these are? They appear silver but there is no date. Do they have any value?

ormandh

Chinese, but I am not near my Krause. -Dan

Sapyx

Sorry, but they aren't genuine Chinese coins. In which case, they aren't likely to be made of silver.

The one on the left claims to be a 1 tael from Taiwan Province, and it is dated, using the Chinese cyclical year calendar, to AD 1905. This coin is a pure fantasy, since in 1905 Taiwan was not a province of China; it had been occupied by Japan in 1895 and coins in the name of the Chinese emperor would not have been struck for there in 1905. The reverse, with the dragon and horse, is not a design I'm familiar with.

The middle one is based somewhat loosely on the pattern tael coins of Kwangtung Province; this one claims to be a dollar rather than a tael, with the weight "Treasury silver 7 mace 2 candareens" at the bottom - except that the counterfeiters, when they modified the Chinese inscription from the tael standard to the dollar standard, forgot to add the character for "candareen", so it actually says just "Treasury silver 7 mace 2".

The one on the right is a design unknown to me; given that it's larger than the "tael" and the "dollar", I'd assume it's trying to be either an early tael or a multiple-dollar of some kind.

Fake Chinese dollars like this are being mass-produced and exported by the shipping-container-load from China. You can find them equally available for sale in street markets both in China and the West. Typical asking price is two or three dollars each, but frankly, they're not worth that much.

jessewvu

Thanks sapyx. My uncle went to china recently and gave them to my son when he got back. The edges are fairly black. They do seem to have the weight of silver but might be Chinese fakes purchased in china.

sumnom

They are certainly fantasy pieces, or maybe one might even call them charms. I wouldn't write them off as trash right away. I kinda like them, whether they are "fake" or not, truth be told.

I don't really think these are trying to be anything in particular, hence I hesitate to designate them as fake. They are tokens or charms. This is especially true of the one on the far right. Although I cannot really read the Manchu, the Chinese reads "longevity" on one side and "happiness" on the other.

I wonder if the piece purporting to be from Taiwan is some sort of nationalist token making a statement about the loss of the province. I would tend to doubt it but you never know.

santelia

I agree. Hang on to them if you like. I have some Japanese fantasy pieces in my collection of Chinese that were made around the 1920's, and are now being collected in their own right. Chinese fantasy pieces and charms, if old, do have some value, and are published. A handful of collectors are hoping to update the literature.

At worst, they are contemporary fakes, and you can use them as reference pieces. At best, they are older, will get some research and publication, and perhaps a following.

sumnom

I am still uncomfortable calling these "fakes." "Charms" or "fantasy pieces" seems a better fit.

I am having second thoughts on my reading of one of the characters being "longevity" 壽. Any second opinions?