Hello, knowledgeable coin lovers, Once again I am over my head trying to ID a couple of Chinese ‘cash’. I stumbled into quite a hoard, these last two have proved elusive with my limited abilities. The top one with the reddish highlights measures 41 mm wide (sorry, my gram scale is at home so no estimation of weight) and the bottom one is 19 mm. I greatly appreciate anyone who can share their insight. Thanks, Coin Kitty
The top piece (round hole, inscriptions on both sides) is not a coin, it is some sort of token or amulet. The bottom coin is a 1 mon from Japan, "Kanei Tsuho", issued 1626-1769. There are a lot of varieties of these, many of which can be dated more precisely, but telling them apart depends on very subtle details of how the characters are written that I have trouble figuring out. Assuming I'm not missing some rare variety, it's a very common coin, worth maybe $1. Still a cool little piece. Hopefully someone can help with the first piece.
Huh, I responded yesterday but the message is gone. Thank you, Parthicus. The characters on the mon looked different from those on the Chinese cash, now I know why! I found a page online that discusses subtle variances for this long-lived denomination, perhaps I’ll now be able to narrow it down. Grateful for your help! CK
Parthicus is correct. The Japanese coin reads "Kanei Tsuho". It is likely from the Kanei era (1625 A.D.) and part of the private mintage of Sato Shikuse of Mito. The reverse (blank) suggests that the coin was minted at Asakusa in present day Tokyo. Asakusa is home to one of the great shrines of Japan. I am using David Hartill's Early Japanese Coins as reference. The upper coin is mostly likely Chinese. I thought at first it may be a Japanese bita-sen, the Hartill reference book did not show all four obverse characters in the sequence of a bita-sen. These bita-sen coins BTW were Japanese imitations of Chinese coins.
