I have just received a mixed bag of coins including 1 Chinese cash, two Annamese coins and the pictured item. This could be a very poor attempt to copy a Xian Feng Zhong Bao, although the bottom character doesn't look much like Feng. The coin was covered in a black tarry gunk which I had to remove to get a good look at the characters. Casting is very poor and the reverse is plain. What do you think? Is this a Chinese counterfeit, an Annamese coin or even an Indonesian copy? Diameter 33.8mm, weight 12.8g. :desk:
The denomination value is 15 Van. You can refer to Unusual World Coins by Krause publications, X# 21. On the other hand, if you could get genuine Ham Nghi Thong Bao, then it's extremely rare specimen, what it's what i'm looking for...
Thanks for the info. Am I right in assuming you think it's not genuine? I understand that during the Vietnam War, many fake coins were cast for sale to US soldiers. Since I got this from USA, maybe it is an example of these.
It should be considered as genuine private cast but not officially. For Ham Nhgi cast, only smaller "thong" bao was officially cast but not "Trung" Bao. There are few specimens Ham Nghi "Thong" Bao in The National Museum of Vietnamese History. http://baotanglichsu.vn/Search.aspx?key=Ham%20nghi&lang=en Hope it could help.
P.S. "Trung" = "Zhong" in Chinese, or "Heavy" in English.; "Thong" = "Tong" in Chinese, or "general (circulation)" in English.
