Identification Help

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by James Boat, Mar 8, 2021.

  1. James Boat

    James Boat Member

    Hi - for obvious reasons, I can't easily google this coin for info. Does anyone have an idea what it is?

    Thank you in advance,

    James

    16152468191555846709854718789363.jpg 16152468458967647920389882542045.jpg
     
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  3. potty dollar 1878

    potty dollar 1878 Well-Known Member

    It looks like a Chinese cash coin all I can say.
     
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  4. furryfrog02

    furryfrog02 Well-Known Member

  5. SensibleSal66

    SensibleSal66 U.S Casual Collector / Error Collector

    Nice Cash Coin. Hope someone can translate . :happy:
     
  6. James Boat

    James Boat Member

    Very interesting - thank you!

    James
     
  7. furryfrog02

    furryfrog02 Well-Known Member

    It reads top to bottom, left to right, Ch'ien Lung (emperor name) Tong Bao (circulating currency). On the reverse, it says Boo Yuwan (I think...since OP's picture is upside down, I'm tilting my head lol), which is the mint in Beijing.
     
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  8. Parthicus

    Parthicus Well-Known Member

    @furryfrog02 is correct, it's a Chinese "cash" coin from the reign of the Qianlong emperor (1736-95), from the Board of Works mint in Beijing. (One of the most common emperors and common mints.) Here's a transliteration of the legends:
    Qianlong.jpg
    The obverse has four characters in standard Chinese script. These are read in the order top-bottom-right-left to give "qian long tong bao". Qianlong is the era (Chinese coins normally feature the name of the era, rather than the Emperor's personal name), "tong" is "current" and "bao" is "coin" or "treasure", so the obverse can be translated "current coin of the Qianlong era". The reverse is in Manchurian script and reads "boo yuwan", which is the transliteration of Chinese "bao yuan". Bao again means coin or treasure, and yuan can mean "first", "origin", or "source"; a translation might be "Source of Coins", though this mint is usually listed as the far more boring-sounding Board of Works, which is the government bureau that issued the coin. (The other Beijing mint, Bao Chuan, is "Fountain of Coins" or Board of Revenue. Various other mints exist, which are generally just names of the city or province where they were located.) This is a very cool but also very common coin, and would retail for not more than a dollar or so. Hope this helps.
     
  9. James Boat

    James Boat Member

    Wow - appreciate the great insight. Thank you all for taking the time - very interesting!

    James
     
  10. Collecting Nut

    Collecting Nut Borderline Hoarder

    Would you believe me if I said it's Chinese?
     
  11. furryfrog02

    furryfrog02 Well-Known Member

    Nope.
    Pedal your lies somewhere else :p
     
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  12. Collecting Nut

    Collecting Nut Borderline Hoarder

    Has the frog had 1 too many this evening? Lol

    Edited to correct spelling
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2021
  13. furryfrog02

    furryfrog02 Well-Known Member

    This FROG has had none :)
     
  14. JeffC

    JeffC Go explore something and think a happy thought!

    If you ever come across ancient Chinese coins that you want to identify, there's a great website for that. By showing you a series of pictures (which you select from), it slowly filters and narrows down the possibilities, until you get to only a handful. Then you can compare yours to see which one it is. I found it helpful.

    https://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/china/chinaid.htm
     
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  15. Collecting Nut

    Collecting Nut Borderline Hoarder

    That's good.
     
  16. furryfrog02

    furryfrog02 Well-Known Member

    That's the one I used to ID OP's coin. It is a great reference site.
    This one is also good:
    http://www.sportstune.com/chinese/coins/idpage.html
     
  17. JeffC

    JeffC Go explore something and think a happy thought!

    I didn't know about the second one. I'll jot it down for the future. Thanks. For now, link not working though.
     
  18. furryfrog02

    furryfrog02 Well-Known Member

    Weird. It works for me. It's pretty good though, if it works for you...
     
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