Hello all foreign and ancient Chinese dynasty coin collectors, I had a question about the border of this coin and whether it was rare or not... I did some research and found: waves were used on coinage in times of tribulation and turmoil in empire. Waves were also used on the hem of royal fabrics, and were indicative of western hemispheric influence. Any other thoughts or ideas would be of great help. Thanks, Jim P.S. the coin appears beveled around edges instead of flat, and the characters did not match any of the emperor’s names listed for Qing era rule... I’m simply going by what the man I purchased from listed about it being from Qing dynasty.
So I did a little more digging and I found this article about recessed rims and rarity in charm-coins... https://primaltrek.com/blog/2012/11/18/qing-dynasty-peace-charm/
A token or unofficial piece, but an interesting one... Obverse is the normal "Xian feng tong bao" or "Xianfeng current coin" of the Xianfeng emperor (1851-1861), and he did issue many large multiple-cash pieces due to the economic disruption caused by the Taiping Rebellion, but none of them seem to have this reverse (or the waves along the edge, which appear to be hand-carved). The reverse says (right-left) Tai ping "Eternal Peace", which was the name used by the Taiping Rebels, and the top character on reverse is Tian "heaven". Some rare Taiping-issued coins do say "Tai ping tian guo" "Taiping heavenly kingdom" on reverse, but the bottom character on yours is not Guo(kingdom), unfortunately I don't know what it is. An interesting charm, maybe from later than 1861 (I think it would be dangerous to make a piece citing both the real emperor and a rebel movement...) Edit: Also, on the "obverse", the way the bottom character "Feng" is written is odd- a bunch of small strokes at the top are joined together when they shouldn't be. It doesn't look like it's just due to wear, it appears whoever wrote the character was not very skilled. A piece worth further research- maybe not worth much, but I'm intrigued who made this, and why.
On further review, I think this is what is known as "Tianxia Taiping" coins. The reverse inscription is read as "tian xia tai ping" (Heaven below Great Peace), and they exist with obverses featuring reign titles from from Qianlong (1736-1795) forward, including Xianfeng like this piece. According to Hartill (Cast Chinese Coins), "The Register of Large Cash says, 'These coins were used for presentation in the Palace of Ancestral Worship, each wrapped in a piece of rectangular cloth. Each time an Emperor ascended to his ancestors [died], they were replaced with newly cast coins.' Some of these are clearly of Board of Revenue manufacture, others are privately made." I still suspect that this is a privately-made piece, but at least now we know what it is supposed to represent.
