Japanese or Chinese coin?

SmileyDJingles · March 23, 2009 2:43PM

Hi,

I bought these coins last Saturday. The guy I bought them from said they were Japanese. But is this the same kind.

Doogy · March 23, 2009 3:10PM

i'm totally clueless about them, sorry. but welcome to the forum!

sumnom · March 23, 2009 3:18PM

These are Chinese, Northern Song Dynasty, 1078-1085AD.

sumnom · March 23, 2009 3:30PM

Wait a minute... they might actually be Japanese... I am reading...

sumnom · March 23, 2009 3:39PM

OK, they are Japanese. (Nagasaki boeki sen) There was a brisk China trade in Japan centered in Nagasaki in the seventeenth century. These pieces, modelled after the Northern Song peice I mentioned above, were for trade with China from 1659.

Here is an interesting link with some excellent pics of the coins in question:

Japanese coinage in East and Southeast Asian trade in 17th century

sumnom · March 23, 2009 3:41PM

From the above link:

JoesMaName · March 23, 2009 9:47PM

Interesting article sumnom.

I never would have thought that cash coins were internationally exchanged.
Sure they were worth something within the empire on the Emperors say so, but being made
of base metals and easily copied I figured that would have been the extent of it.

sumnom · March 24, 2009 9:33AM

I too learned alot. Thank you SmileyD for asking the question!

spoon · March 24, 2009 3:19PM

So is "both" an acceptable answer?

SmileyDJingles · March 24, 2009 3:20PM

Thanks so much!! It took me three hours of searching just to find the Northern Sung Dynasty coins. But I learned so much about coins the last few days. And that was some interesting Japanese history! I'm in to anything Japanese.

A few more questions. How much are they wreath? Are they rare? And is there a safe way to clean them? I've never collected coins before so this is new to me.

spoon · March 24, 2009 3:54PM

I'll be no help on value, but I'd advise against cleaning them. Most cash coins I've seen have this look, it's generally considered acceptable. Also, by the looks of it most of that stuff probably won't come off anyway and anything that does come off would probably just reveal something more unpleasant underneath.

Welcome to the forum, by the way! Japan has an unusually great and diverse numismatic history, many great designs and several oddball shaped monies. I think you'll find much to enjoy if you stick with collecting it

Krause's Standard Catalog of World Coins is the book collectors usually go by for general stuff. It's nearly fully illustrated and comes in a different volume for each century back to 1600 with general valuations for each coin. JNDA is the specialist catalog for Japanese coins (it's mostly in Japanese though!).

sumnom · March 25, 2009 1:51AM

My JNDA is from 2004 so the prices may be out of date but the $5.00 marked on the 2x2s seems to be within reason, perhaps a hair high.

SmileyDJingles · March 25, 2009 3:20PM

Thanks for all the help!

I think I'll be collecting Japanese and Chinese coins. But mostly Japanese. I'm hooked on anything Japanese.

But I just cant get over how old some the Chinese coins are!

I ordered a set of 9 Chinese coins today just like this one.

You can tell I just found the Emotions tab.

Japanese or Chinese coin?

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