I have no clue on this and the characters may be Japanese as far as I can tell, but the reverse has me second guessing that thought. Cannot remember how or when I acquired this. I was not sure whether to post this under Ancients or on the World Coins forum. Hopefully I got the orientation correct. Any help would be appreciated.
I think it is a Ch'ien-Lung Boo Ciowan. http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/china/china8.htm#chien lung FYI - your reverse image needs to be rotated a quarter turn counter clock-wise to be correctly oriented
It's Chinese. Just a guess, im probably wrong but: Qian Long Tong Bao (Ch'ien-Lung 1736-1795) edit: never mind
Thanks for the feedback. Rotated the reverse image. Are these common for 18th century Chinese coins? Going to check that link now...
Cool. Just read up and learned some history. Will be fun to share this with my Chinese friends and then they can blast me for guessing it was Japanese. I really appreciate your help!