From the first pic, the upper left looks like a fantasy piece. Is the upper right the same on both sides? It appears to be the reverse of a machine struck Ching reading Chiowan Bao, but if both sides are the same I suspect a modern fantasy. The last piece looks like Northern Sung at first glance, but with the softness of the characters and if it were found with the others I would not be surprised if it were not a modern copy. Edit: Sorry, didn't notice I had mixed up the two top coins. Both look like machine struck cash, but the obverse dots look weird. I don't have KM in front of me, but if they are real they are late Ching machine struck cash coins struck in Beijing.
The inscription on the coin at the top left is tong zhi tong bao (同治通宝) which was used on the coins cast during the years 1862-1874 of the Tongzhi Emperor. The inscription on the coin at the top right is dao guang tong zhi (道光通宝) which was used on the coins cast during the reign (1821-1850) of the Daoguang Emperor. Both these coins are machine-struck as opposed to cast. However, machine-struck cash coins did not first appear until 1889 during the reign of the Guangxu Emperor so both of these coins are modern fakes. Coins like this are primarily made as souvenirs or for feng shui purposes. The inscription on the third cash coin is tian qi tong bao (天启通宝) which was the inscription on coins cast during the reign (1621-1627) of the Tianqi Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. The reverse side has the Chinese character gong (工) indicating that it was cast at the Board of Works mint. As best I can tell from the images, this coin is authentic. Gary
Thanks Gary. I thought the machine struck were fakes becauee of the field marks on the obverse, something not done on machine struck cash. You are the real expert on these though, so I am glad the OP got your input.
Thanks for the information. The smaller ones were part of a much larger coin lot. No loss there. The larger was from some coins I got from my grandpa many years ago. Thanks again.
