I called it suspect & bought it. The more I look at it, the more I’m leaning towards real. I purchased this coin a couple days ago for $8.50. It is a low cost Chinese silver coin but that doesn’t mean it’s real or fake. Can some of you experts tell me why you think it might be real or why you think it might be fake? I will tell you what I see with the coin in-hand. It looks like a die struck coin and has luster in all the fields. It doesn’t appear (to me) to have any pimples or tooling marks. It rings. It really rings loudly like it has much stress in it. It weighs 13.24 grams. It feels & looks more like silver (to me) compared to all the known alloy China counterfeits I have held beside it. The denticles are weak on one side & strong 180 degrees on the other side. Also the reeding is strong on one side & weak 180 degrees on the other side. I’m not familiar with the Chinese government’s coining process in 1932. The inconsistent denticles & reeding & perimeter wear pattern would be odd for a US coin. However, the odd wear at the perimeter might not be wear. It might be some original planchet surface caused by a slightly tapered planchet or non-parallel dies. I imagine that this could cause the weakly struck planchet that you see on one side of the coin. Krause lists it in UNC for only $15 and $10 in XF. I paid $8.50 & identified it as a 1932 Yunnan 50-cent silver in AU/UNC. Do you think it is real or fake? Very best regards, Collect89
I am very unknowledgeable on Chinese coins, and on another note personally do not do any business with any Chinese ebayers what-so-ever, as I can not trust the integrity of their sellers, or the goods they are trying to sell. I will never put myself in the position of potentially getting ripped off. Plain and simply, it is my hope everyone would follow suit and boycott them and teach these sellers that if they are interested in now participating in the world market, then there are rules and laws they need to abide by. We are not only talking coins, but knock off clothing, sunglasses, DVDs and any other things that constitute value. I wish ebay would block any coin sales from China, or at the very least police every single coin listing, however it seems they always put their bottom line 1st. When push comes to shove its this material that is acquired by buyers is what is creating alot of scruitiny and uncertainty amongst coin dealers and buyers everywhere.
Regarding counterfeits, I suspect that most folks on CT would like to see a stop to the demand (Ebay buyers) & a stop to the supply (Ebay sellers). Just for the record, I bought this particular coin from an elderly gentleman two nights ago. He doesn't own a computer :smile and there is no chance he got it on Ebay. He bought it from a local dealer & we have no clue where the dealer got it. Very best regards, collect89
The weight is a trifle high - but only a bit over 1%. The existence of counterfeits implies the existence of genuine examples, and this piece has several indicia of genuineness A roughly proper weight A ring consistent with .500 silver No visible casting bubbles or marks Calligraphy which closely matches the picture in Krause (p.459, 35th Ed. 2008) No apparent irregularities in the denticles or reeding. Probably good IMHO.
