WHAT IS THIS? Found in street in NYC

Hey, this was found in NYC on Canal Street, or China Town! I have no idea what it is...Think its Japanese or Chinese anyone know?

 

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it looks like one of the counterfiet pieces that I have seen floating around.

 

Do a magnet test on it. If the magnet sticks, it's fake but if it doesn't stick, it can still be fake but most likely it will stick and you won't need to do anything else, since that kills it.

Still a nice find! :thumb:

Ribbit

 

Diameter?

It's not a Republic of China coin, but since it is dated Year 3 it may be a post-revolutionary provincial coin. Knowing the size would make it far easier to locate in the 70+ Standard Catalog of World Coins pages that have to be searched.

Perhaps I'm confused, but the text seems to refer to a single coin, and the pictures are clearly of at least two different ones.

• Picture 1 is correctly oriented
• Picture 2 needs to be rotated approximately 30 degrees to the right
• Picture 3 gives a decent view of the reeding and doesn't need reorientation
• Pictures 4, 5 and 6 are useless in view of the wear on the coin(s) they depict
• Picture 7 needs to be rotated 90 degrees to the left.

I'm not ready to jump to the "Chinese fake" conclusion just because it appears to be Chinese! In fact, the denticles/reeding - an area frequently screwed up by the Chinese counterfeiters - don't look all that bad.

 

I have a few Chinese coins and a magnet will stick to some of the modern day coins. Ice

 

it is Magnetic, what is it?

 

Fake!

Still, it was free so great find!

Ribbit

 

True of the People's Republic 1 Yuan, 1990-date; which are either nickel-clad steel or nickel-plated steel.

However, any other magnetic Chinese coin was created outside the government mint.

 

Modern yes but I think the one he found isn't so modern (if it was authentic).

Ribbit

 

Hahah, oh well it was free whats it a fake of?

 

First clue :secret: "Chinatown"... First fact = fake. :bow:

 

In a city of seven millions, you were the first to see it? Amazing!

There is the joke about the two economists. They are walking down the street and he spots a $100 bill and says, "Hey look!" and they keep walking. And she says, "Aren't you going to pick it up?" And the first economist replies, "No, if it were worth anything, someone else would have picked it up already."

 

Well actually it was my mom, and haha sounds like Obama

 

If you would be so kind as to post its diameter, as I said earlier I might be able to determine what it's a copy of.

 

I think I can add a little additional information to the discussion.

The four Chinese characters at the top of the coin are yun nan sheng zhi which means "made in Yunnan Province".

The four Chinese characters in the middle of the coin are guang xu yuan bao which translates as "original currency of Guangxu". Emperor Guangxu reigned during the years 1875-1908 of the Qing (Ch'ing) Dynasty.

There is a little confusion concerning the inscription at the bottom of the coin. The Chinese character to the right of the "3" is not the word for year (nian). The character is actually ping. The two characters have a similar appearance so the confusion is understandable.

The Chinese at the bottom of the coin therefore reads ku ping san qian liu fen. The ku ping can translate as "treasury-scale for silver" and the san qian liu fen is usually translated as "3 Mace and 6 Candareens" which is sometimes referred to as a silver 50 cent piece.

The other side of the coin does not appear to have any inscription. The image is unclear but the design is probably that of a dragon.

Unfortunately, my knowledge of Chinese coins is limited to cast coins so I am unable to further identify the coin or attest to its authenticity.

Hopefully, the above information will permit other forum members with more expertise and reference materials on Chinese struck coins to provide a better identification of the coin.

Gary

 

Thanks for the correction Gary. My knowledge of Chinese characters ("Kanji" in Japanese) is limited to <100, and I jumped to a conclusion when I saw that character next to a number.

Now that I knew where to look, I have found something similar to the the obverse (but not the reverse) in the Standard Catalog of World Coins.

Like so many of the Chinese tourist souvenir fakes, it has only a passing resemblance to a real coin - specifically Y#253, an undated Yunan Province 50¢ issued in 1908, which would contain 13.2g of .800 silver. The primary difference is that where the groups of 7 small circles are at 3:00 o'clock and 9:00 o'clock, the real coin has a small rosette.

The reverse of the real coin has the side view of a dragon, with English legends of "YU - NAN PROVINCE" and "3 MACE AND 6 CANDAREENS" at the top and bottom.

If real it would be valued between $5.50 and $25 in VG to XF.

 

Can read "Yunnan Province made" on face and bottom has "year 3" and "money 6 cents" in a backwards mixed up order. Should read "6 cents money" on most currencies I've seen but not familiar with this era coin. Middle four characters should date the reign of the mintage, I would think. I would suspect counterfeit but can't say.

 

Gary, Good information! Did a Taiwan Yahoo search and came up with Guang Xu Yuan Bao (the four characters in the middle) and the weights you mentioned on the bottom. Found an English version of the same coin! with 3 mace and 6 candareens on the face. Found one selling for (Chinese version) NT$450 (open bidding open 5days to closing). Note said 1907 old edition ms63 NT$3000 and 1911 new edition MS63 NT$2500. But the coins for sale of this type had a different dragon on back. Formate for Chinese was the same on all coins--so order is not incorrect. Also has Manchurian written in very center of coin indicating was printed during Ching Dynasty. Compared to online pictures--looks authenic.

 

forgot to add. Taiwan Yahoo bid # for that item was c0835-09. Don't know if accessible via regular yahoo? Also Taiwan NT$ is currently roughly 33 to 1 US$.

 

Yeah its a fake.....Sorry, but an interesting find. You just never know what you will pick up on the streets of old New York....Maybe a VOC someday, keep looking. Traci