I have a friend who has had this coin for about 20 years. I tried to find it with the resources I have available. From what I can see it is from 1914, but one of the characters look different from the examples given for this coin. The second character does not match the world y#329 given for it. Does any one have any more info on it like the exact info and the value if possible. Thanks
It could be a year 3 coin modified to a year 5 coin. But there were no YSK coins struck in 1916. I personally don't like the look for the coin but it might just be the photos.
The characters "1 yuan" look way too thick. Again, it could just be a modified 1914 1 yuan to make it dated 1916 but this immediately makes it worth just metal content. I can't even say if it's struck in silver. The unfortunate story with Chinese coins is that because they are so heavily counterfeited, trying to look for genuine coins seem like trying to find gold in minesweeper.
I guess I don't know what you mean by "modified". I know that recently that there have been a lot of counterfeits being made, but I know this coin has been in my friend's possession for over 20 years. Did they make counterfeits that long ago? I thought these coins were made by a hand=pressed method. Would that not make it possible for the coin to have different thickness's in the characters as compared to others. Do you have any pics for this coin for comparison?
It know it's tough to read foreign characters and here's a table that I made a while ago: If you look at the second character on the left, you think you'll see the number "five". Unfortunately,there were no coins struck in year five but only in year three. That would make sense as coins were struck in year three (1914). It does look like a year "three" modified to a year "five". The history of Chinese counterfeit coins go well beyond 2000 BC - as long as it's profitable, counterfeiters will always do it. Therefore you can't assume that it's genuine unless you really know what you are looking at. Having a coin in a collection for more than 50 years or longer doesn't automatically mean that it's genuine - it could well been a counterfeit that circulated back in those days.
FYI, the "old format" for the number "one" in the chart is Japanese kanji. In Chinese, the formal ("old format") way to write "one" is 壹 as can be seen on the reverse side of the coin in question. Gary
So many fake "Fatman" out there. The ones counterfeited during the circulation of the coin and all the modern fakes. I would think that 75% of all "Fatman" out there are frauds.
Boy ain't that the truth!! There's so many fakes you can prolly find em' in any year you want! And yes the Chinitos have been making fake coins for many years and I even have one of these somewhere around, I'll post a pic if I can find it. :thumb: http://cgi.ebay.com/China-Same-Mold-FAKE-COIN-Book-/330541515352?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item4cf5cf4258 Ok, here's my fake "fat man"! Great looking coin if you can find a real one and my guess is they costs the fat dollars as well.
Seems to me Fret, that the counterfeiters have a very hard time with the shoulder boards. That is where I always look first on a Fatman.
