I used to own some of these, and yours doesn't exactly remind me of them. Are you positive it is genuine? If so, why?
I have no experience with gold fractionals, enlighten me on them? How can we make sure it's genuine? I shelled out quite a few bucks..
If I recall correctly, these were very well made coins, with nicely struck, frosted devices on deeply mirrored fields, producing very strong cameo contrast. Your coin does not remind me of those I've seen. Even if one had been mishandled or circulated, I'd expect it to look different than yours does. Since you may not trust my eyes, and I can't blame you for that, you should check the gold content of the coin. To check, first I'd weigh it on an accurate scale, and compare the weight against the specifications for the coin. If the weight is within tolerance, I'd probably file it lightly in an inconspicuous location to make sure it is not gold-plated tungsten. If it is gold, I still don't think it's real, but you should then take it to a coin dealer familiar with the China Pandas for an in-hand examination. Good luck.
Many coin dealers have devices that can measure and weigh a coin by inputing the designation and placing it on the scale
I don't have a great deal of faith in those machines, but I'm guessing they'd catch most non-gold fakes of coins like the OP's.
Are there reports of tungsten-cored fakes for coins this small? Since you can't strike a design into tungsten (it'll flatten your dies), you've got to wrap a tungsten core with enough gold to take the design's relief. That only makes economic sense for bars or the larger coins. At least, that was my understanding...?
Hmm. I am no pro at these but the side with the building just looks off to me. Looks like the edge is lower in profile than the rest of the surface. It is supposed to look like this. https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/chinese-coin-prices-detail.aspx?ChineseSetID=768
The prices written on flips don't usually reflect what they last sell for. There's many coins on ebay in 2x2's with writing that may have been from years ago at a coin shop, then the coins end up in several other people's hands.
Difficult to tell from the photos if this is real. You also have to remember that a lot of the early fractional coins in the pandas in the early 90's went into jewelry. This one could be ex-jewelry.