I've been hoping to get one of these for awhile and finally found the right one. 1909 5 cents from Kiau Chau, a brief-lived German colony in China. Only a 5 and 10 cent for this one year were ever made. Hopefully mine is genuine. I don't have the knowledge to tell if it isn't.
That is one extraordinary coin, real or not. I had no idea there was a German province in China although new there was German troops in the 1900 Boxer Rebellion. What an interesting coin.
Thanks. Yeah, the German colony in China is not something you hear about and I only found out a few years ago. The Germans were late to the colonial game and they kind of got the territories no one else wanted. I know they were also briefly in New Guinea and East Africa. Coins from all of them are hard to find, with the African ones being the most common.
There is a well known Chinese brand beer called Tsingtao. Sounds similar? It's unsurprisingly brewed in the same area where the German settlers started off. Believe it's easily one of the largest brewery in the world.
I was on one of the first flights into China after the cultural revolution and tried it then. I was there for 3 months. One day I could see sediment in the bottom of my Tsingtoa, shook up the bottom to see what it was and out popped hundreds of flies! I have been to China a couple of times as I have a Chinese Godson who went to school with my kids. He lives in Wuhan.
I found one of those in a tobacco basket of $.50/each coins once. I asked the dealer if he wanted to know if I found a real treasure, which of course he did, but he would not let me pay more for it. He just asked that I tell all my coin-hunting friends about his shop (which I did until he closed it). Still one of my best cherry-picks of all time.
