cherrypicking from chinese coin hoards

I love your Parents' Homeland, been there many times, and have traveled all over it.

 

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now i can't find the article, but that was a modest 2 ton find. check this one out....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ing-10-tonnes-inside-2-000-year-old-tomb.html

 

"don't collect"





yeah...me either!

 

Nice, here are my examples, and some of my favorites.

 

Continued-Because cointalk doesn't allow me to post more than 10 files at once.

Id by pictures 1-12
1. Ban Liang 24 mm 136-117 BC no rims
2. Ban Liang 179-136 BC rims 25 mm
3.1st one- Wen Hsuan Ti 25 mm 550-559 AD 5 shu
2nd one- Hsuan Ti of Ch'En dynasty 6 shu 25 mm
4. 250 zhu, Westen Han dynasty Wang Mang 24 mm first reform 7-9 AD
5. x2 Huo Ch'an Wang Mang western Han 23-24 mm rims. 14 AD
6. Higher quality Huo Ch'an Wang Mang western Han 23-24 mm rims 14 AD
7. 1st- Grass script northern Song Chi Tao 995-998 AD 24 mm
2nd- Tai Tsung northern Song 976-997 AD 25 mm
3rd-Ta kuan northen song 1107-1110 AD 25 mm
8. Common wu shu, 100 BC-200 AD
9. x3 obverse Tang Kao Tang dynasty 618-906 AD, 2 with marks on reverse, one cull coin restored with superglue
10. x3-reverse Tang Kao Tang dynasty 618-906 AD, 2 with marks on reverse, one cull coin restored with superglue
11. Reverse of 3rd unidentified coin with mark
12. Obverse of 3 unidentified coins

 

Oh, what I would give to have your opportunity. Very jealous over here.

I took a look at your favorites, and I can add info.

Picture 3: I highy doubt the authenticity of the 6-zhu coin, and I know the Chang Ping Wu Zhu is fake. The characters are completely wrong for the type.

Picture 11-12: Top left is a Huang Song Tong Bao, top right is a Jian Yan Tong Bao from the South Song dynasty, and the bottom one is a Ming Dao Tong Bao. The last one is very interesting. I have never seen the characters oriented in that way. It is either fake or extremely rare, and I'm leaning towards fake.

 

I think you may be confusing your terms. That's fairly common for young people educated in America. The early Chinese Empires and the way they "used" their people in a totally different culture has nothing to do with Capitalism. It was the way of the world for them. It was normal.

My husband is a professional numismatist and he would have loved to be on the trip w/you just to see the colors on the coins. I showed him your photos and he was amazed that "fresh" blue colors could occur on centuries old dug coins.

 

When I said I don't collect them, I meant that people who DO collect would be able to read and make comments like we see from TypeCoin971793. My level allows me to go through a book like Hartill and find close matches in the drawings but really have no feeling for the handwriting differences that make all the difference between real and fake or common and exceptional. I suspect that a collector with that background would have examined ten thousand cash for every one I have.

 

I did some research on the Ming Dao, and I could not find another one. The character font does not look like that of the Song Dynasty, so I do not think it is contemporary. The fabric of the coin reminds me of the Ming Dynasty, so it could be a charm produced then, or it could be a modern fake. I am leaning towards the latter.

Also, the coin in picture #4 is upside down.

Also, due to the fact that I cannot see a bold inner rim and the diminished size of 24mm, your Da Quan Wu Shi is of a later make than you think. It probably weighs 1.5-3g. Ones from 7-9 AD are 7-9g and 26-28mm. As the Wang Mang period (Xin Dynasty) went on, the economy got worse and worse, so the coinage got more and more debased. I would date your specimen as being from 15-20 AD. I have a picture around here that shows the deminishing size of the Huo Quan and Da Quan Wu Shi.

 

Yes, that list is fairly accurate in weeding out the good sellers from the bad. I have bought from many of them and never had problems. I have also bought from smaller sellers or sellers that just have a couple Chinese coins. I have scored several scarcer types that I would otherwise not be able to afford. However, this latter strategy is far more risky if you don't know what to look for in genuine or fake coins, so I do not recommend it for newer collectors.

I have bought unmarked fakes from Frank Robinson. I like getting a tactile feel for a counterfeit so I better know what to look for and to train my "gut feeling."

Dealers of ancient Chinese on Vcoins are overpriced. They have an authenticity guarantee, but I can find many other sources that offer the same guarantee for 20% of the cost.

You can find some good stuff on eBay if you know where to look. I recently bought a hoard of ~275 cash coins for $75, and found out that they were much scarcer than I had thought and worth $300+ when I got them in hand.

And yes, the scarcer stuff is the stuff that gets faked more often. I have seen fakes get by major auction houses and major dealers. It will be a while before I buy another scarce spade due to the number of high-quality fakes.

Here are some fakes that fooled Bob Reis. They would have fooled me as well.

 

I wasn't referring to the Chinese empires, I was referring to BooksB4Coins comment

 

I have done my share of cherry picking Chinese and Japanese cash coins. Too many coins, so little time.

 

fun coin.

 

Really interesting post. I teach World History (to 1500) at WKU, and a big component of that is China from Yangshao to Ming. I have put together a small representative set of Chinese coins from Ban Liangs from Qin to the 10 cash coin of the Qing (Manchurian dynasty). I found a couple of very reliable and helpful dealers, in particular "WattWatt" on eBay. He sells small groups and better individual coins at extremely reasonable prices, and seems to have the approval of knowledgeable collectors (a few hundred bucks is all that is necessary to created a nice collection of attractive and representative coins). The upshot of all this is your personal story, which I will use when talking to my students about the vast quantities of coins issued every year (billions in some years!), and how hard (cash!) evidence of that is being found on a regular basis. Thanks again!