Gold paint on my Chinese coins?

Discussion in 'World Coins' started by Aaron Apfel, Sep 17, 2014.

  1. Aaron Apfel

    Aaron Apfel Active Member

    I'll just start off this threat by saying I am not very sure about the authenticity of these coins as I bought 20 of them from ebay (cringe) very cheap. There are just way too many of these coins being counterfeited :/ But in my opinion they do look very promising. Anyway most of them have this weird gold paint/residue on them, leading me to believe that they may once have been painted to be charms? The pictures may make it seem like it's just the original color of the metal showing through but it's almost certainly not. This could be a clue as to them being fake but I'm pretty clueless on this, any help will be greatly appreciated :)

    Thanks,

    Picture is of the ones that show the paint best.
     

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  3. Aidan_()

    Aidan_() Numismatic Contributor

    Huh? What threat? Are you threatening CT!? :D
     
  4. spirityoda

    spirityoda Coin Junky

    that looks like PVC damage, pure acetone from the hardware store should take that off. I am pretty sure it's not patina looks to weird.
     
  5. spirityoda

    spirityoda Coin Junky

    many Chinese coins are very cheap.
     
  6. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    I am not a fan of the shen of these coins. Maybe they are ok, but something in my eye didn't like them when I first opened the picture.

    Do you have the Hartill book? You need it if you are going to collect Chinese. Its pretty cheap.

    PM me if you want a listing, (not mine), of sellers on Ebay who sell authentic coins.
     
  7. Aaron Apfel

    Aaron Apfel Active Member

    I dont think it's PVC damage, these coins were pretty dirty when I first got them and they've been soaking in distilled water for a few months. I noticed this when I first got the coins and thought it might just be some residue and would come off, but now I can see it's definitely some sort of colored layer on top of the coins.
     
  8. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    I own about 5-10 thousand of these, and have never seen this gold coloring on one. Most are uniform brown, but some of the older ones, (Sung and older), can be green. Almost all are one color or the other though.
     
  9. spirityoda

    spirityoda Coin Junky

    oh ok they painted it to look like fake patina.
     
  10. Aaron Apfel

    Aaron Apfel Active Member

    Yeah I'm getting a bit suspicious of these coins, I've identified a few of them and the oldest is from 1310 and the detail is just too good to be true..
     
  11. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    No, the detail is not too good to be true sir. Heck, I have PILES of cash from 10th century, first century, even 2nd century bc wish as good of details. The details are not what bothers me, its the relative sizes of the characters, the spacing, the "shen". Maybe I am wrong but at first glance this, plus the gold paint, just bothers me. Heck, I give away to classes of kids Northern Sung coins older than 1310.

    Contact Frank Robinson, he is a great dealer of Chinese cash. Google Frank Robinson coins and find his current world coin list. Lots and lots of cheap, real chinese coins. Also buy a copy of Hartill, (Frank carries it). Chinese cash is a great way to collect some very old coins cheaply, but some education is in order.
     
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  12. chrsmat71

    chrsmat71 I LIKE TURTLES!

    every now and then on ebay i'll see "gold plated" cheap late roman bronze coins people are selling. why? who knows. or maybe someone tried to pass them off as gold coins with a paint job.
     
  13. Aaron Apfel

    Aaron Apfel Active Member

    Thank's a lot, i'll look into it. Just quite amazed at the general condition of these coins if they truly are that old.
     
  14. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    It is amazing that we have coins 2500 years old that look as good as they did the day they were made but we can never judge authenticity on something just because it looks old or suspect falsehood because it does not. Chinese cash were made by the zillions (technical term) and millions (literally) survived in great shape depending on where they spent the years. There are also fused lumps of the things that can not be separated safely. Being able to tell the difference is a real skill. This link tells of a 3 ton find in 2010. The coins were very common well before that.
    http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/12/2010/massive-hoard-of-chinese-coins-uncovered
     
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