Can anybody tell me how to translate the dates on Chinese coins?

terribleredmonster

I recently took up the hobby again, and as a result I've been burrowing through storage to find any odd or end I still have laying around. I found these floating around loose in a desk drawer today. I don't remember how I got them. At any rate, I took to the Krause catalog to see what they are and found the types easily enough. However, I then realized that I have no idea whatsoever how to read the dates on these. Can somebody point me to a resource to help me with my translation or, barring that, simply tell me the dates? I would be very thankful for some help.

Coin 1




Coin 2

terribleredmonster

OK, I just figured out that the coins are fake. They only weigh 17g each. Still, I'd like to learn this skill for the future.

ormandh

Test them with a magnet first. If they are magnetic then you know for sure that they are fake. -Dan

terribleredmonster

Good idea. Krause says they're both light by almost 10g (should be 26.9). They do sound like silver when I flip them and they look close enough to silver that I initially thought they might be. Maybe they're silver clad, but they're definitely not the 90% they're supposed to be.

Sapyx

There are several different calendars used on Chinese coins.

The simplest is the Republican Era calendar, in which Year 1 was the year China became a Republic (AD 1912). Your fake "Fat Man" dollar is dated Year 3 by this calendar, which converts to AD 1914. The numerals used on Chinese, Japanese and early Korean coins are "normal" Chinese numerals; you can find a conversion table in the front of any copy of the Krause catalogue, or use the Wikipedia page. The numeral for three, comprising three horizontal strokes, is over near the left side, above the guy's eyebrows. The other characters are indicators of the calendar used: the four characters to the right of the 3 translate to "Republic of China", while the character to the left of the 3 is the character for "year". Coins of the Republic of China, both the pre-1949 mainland government and the current government of Taiwan, use this calendar on their coins.

Japanese, early Korean and some Chinese Imperial coins use a "regnal date" system, where Year 1 is the first year of reign of that particular emperor; this calendar resets to 1 each time a new emperor comes to power. On coins with such dates, the reign-name of the emperor (usually only two Chinese characters) replaces the four characters comprising "Republic of China", but otherwise it looks much the same. This Japanese coin is dated Year 2 of emperor Akihito, or AD 1990.

Finally, some Chinese Imperial coins use the Cyclical date which allocates two characters (one "heavenly stem" and one "earthly branch") to represent the year in a cycle which repeats every sixty years; as the cycle was not actually used on coins for more than sixty years, this system does not cause ambiguity or confusion. Your first coin does not bear a cyclical date, but coins very similar to it sometimes do. This coin on zeno.ru has cyclical date characters (at 10 and 2 o'clock on the Chinese-language side) which convert to AD 1902. Again, a conversion table, like the one given in the intro to the China listing in Krause, is needed to tell you the conversions.

terribleredmonster

Thanks for the great info, Sapyx. There was an explanation of the 60 year cycle at the start of the Chinese section in Krause (which I read), but it didn't occur to me to check the front. I should know better, too, as I've used the Arabic date conversion chart before.

WhiteTornado

Just curious, do you remember where you got these?

NoGutsNoGlory

Coin #1 is not an issue of China; it's a provincial coin that is undated.
The Chinese characters is the same as the English translation ie, the province that issued the coin and it's denomination.

Coin #2 shows what appears to be Chaing Kai Check, who escaped to Taiwan after the Communist took over of China to create Communist China or People's Republic of China in 1948. The Chinese characters indicate the denomination (One Yuan), and the 3rd year of the country, ie 1951?


KK

Sapyx

Actually, the Chinese characters on the back of coin #1 name a completely different province: "Hunan", not Hupeh. Which is further evidence that the coin is indeed fake, if further evidence were still required. The folks that make the cheaper, way-off-weight fakes generally don;t bother matching up obverse and reverse dies properly.

The person whose portrait appears on coin #2 is Yuan Shih-kai, who was President of China at the time the coin was made. Soon afterwards, he declared himself emperor, though he abdicated and died shortly after that.

The government of Taiwan considers itself to be the same government that ruled pre-1949 mainland China, which was founded in 1912; as such, it uses the same "Year of the Republic" calendar that pre-1949 mainland china used on the coins. Coins issued in Taiwan this year (2013) bear the date "Year 102". Taiwan would consider "Year 3" to be 1914, not 1951, even though Taiwan itself was under Japanese rule in 1914.