Hello, Does anyone know what this is? I think it's from Japan perhaps China. Cool looking, don't know if it's really a coin or token of some kind.
I have no idea what it is, but I'm very certain about what it's not - a Japanese coin. In the 1000+ years of Japanese coinage, there are no records of triangular holed coins being produced.
It is a late 20 century charm created that mimicked the Chien Lung era coins of 1736-1796. Charms tended to be created for use in temples, and still are, I have a handful that I picked up in a Taoist temple in China and threw some to the diety, but kept a few for my Diety - myself!
It's not a coin but the inscription is in Chinese. The inscription reads qian long tong bao. Qian Long was the reign title of Emperor Gao Zong (1736-1795) of the Qing (Ch'ing) Dynasty and this inscription is found on cash coins cast during those years. Between each of the four Chinese characters is one of the eight "trigrams" or bagua. (Additional information at Book of Changes and Bagua Charms.) The reverse side shows a dragon playing with a flaming pearl. The piece appears to be struck as opposed to cast which, along with the unusual triangular hole, would indicate that it is from a later or even modern period. My guess is that it is a charm, token or fantasy piece. Gary
I was about to opine that the piece is Chinese when I saw this post. Further research after my original post gave the reading (in Japanese) of "Kan Ryu Tsu Ho". "Tong bao" and "Tsu Ho" are the same characters, read in Chinese or Japanese, and basically mean "money". The first two characters represent an era ("Nengo" in Japanese), and since there was never a "Kan Ryu" Nengo, the process of elimination led to the conclusion that it was Chinese in origin. Manymore's post has now allowed me to tag "Kan"/"Qian" and "Ryu"/"Long" as the alternate readings of those characters. Agreed!
