Coins and notes collected by Roman Catholic missionaries in China, early 20th century. This old-fashioned museum is in Steyl in the south of the Netherlands.
Are all those things pictured in post #1 coins? I recognize cash coins and knife money, but some of those things I'm not familiar with.
They were all in the coin section of the museum. There might be forgeries included, or objects that were wrongly understood. But all these have supposedly to do with coinage (and banknotes).
That looks like a very cool museum! I remember when the Smithsonian Institute used to have exhibits that looked like this.
Unfortunately, most of those coins are fakes. They are about 100 years old and called "missionary counterfeits" because they were often sold to insuspecting Western missionaries. They are very common, and the British Museum has many varieties. The common stuff is probably genuine, but none of the rare stuff is.
