Last night at our coin club meeting, made a pot of chili, for our members. i picked up 5 coins, i seen these cash coins posted, i really don't want to start collecting them, but i wanted to get some just to say i have one or two.. Then some one had a very large cash coin, that's what i wanted and last night was able to get two. I really don't know anything about these, no info on these either, not sure they are real.. 1st coin.. Chinese 1000 Cash coin.. 58mm x 49.59g.. 2nd. coin. Chinese 1000 Cash coin. 70mm x over 50g. that's as high as my scale go's.. I'm not going to show the Rev. because it show 4 different folks getting happy.. I don't want to get the boot , like Steve and his goat guy...
Congratulations, the second one is what is called a "Wedding coin" They were used from at least the 1600's through the early 20th century (And for all I know may still be in use.) Traditionally one would be presented to the bride on her wedding day. It is a charm for happiness and fertility. As in most cultures the men are considered to be "Knowledgeable in the ways of the world", while the women are expected to be innocent and naive. So the "coin" is also expected to be an "instruction manual" for the bride on her wedding night.
Btw OP, cool coins. Forgot to say that earlier. I don't have a huge cash coin. I have specialized more in early to medieval cash coins myself.
The first coin is from the Emperor Hsien-feng 1851 - 1861 with a type C obv and the reign title Hsien-feng Yuan Pao. The rev picture is upside down which is giving me some trouble with the mint name. It is either Boo-Clowan (Peking Board of Revenue) or Boo-Yon the Yun mint in Yunan Province. Well it appears they didn't issue a 1000 Cash in Yunan Province so it must be a general empire issue for Boo-Clowan and that would make it C 1-11
You are right, I didn't even look at the reverse. For Ching issues, the Bao, (boo), is always on the left, and the mint name on the right. Bao looks like a partial figure 8.
Wow, thank you for your help Conder101, hate to ask what a coin like this might be worth, the guy i got it from said it might be worth $200, i have no idea...
Depends on what you would call the grade. The catalog shows from $50 in Good to $200 in VF. Detail shows high but it is obviously a dug piece that shows surface corrosion. My best guess is between $50 and $100.
Not a bad estimate in my book. The good? Its a very large piece, and large coins are always popular. Also, since it had higher face value, not as many were lost, and they are fairly scarce. The bad? Burial find doesn't help, plus the fact so many people are just scared of any Chinese cash nowadays due to the huge amount of quality forgeries on the market.
I don't know if its real or not, but it looks good and i can use it when we have our next large brass coin war..., i got both coins for $75 so i didn't get stung to bad...
Eng- You have to take pictures of that fat boy in your hand. That has got to be like the largest cash coin I have ever seen.