My co-worker is looking to sell some of his coin collection due to a financial situation, but he is unsure what this is. He has it marked 1890, because he found it in a book at one point in time. The pictures also show it as being copper colored, but it is actually bright silver. Can any identify it and give me some more information? Thanks.
It is an early milled Imperial coin, lacking a western date, but possibly bearing a Chinese cyclical date from the period 1890-1910. The denomination appears to be the fairly common 7 candareens 2 mace, also sometimes referred to as a "dollar" or "yuan", as they were the typical 27+/- grams of .900 silver used for Japanese yen, US dollars, etc., in that historical period. Similar coins were issued by the Imperial government, and by various Imperial era provincial issuers, and precise ID requires a much greater command of written Chinese than I can claim.
Sorry but I'm quite persimisstic about it's authenticity. You might want to check the edge of that coin to see if it's a cast.
I've attached some additional pictures. I think I'm going to tell my co-worker to bring this one into a professional to have its authenticty checked and valued. Its weight is 22 grams if that helps at all. http://picasaweb.google.com/jtr8178/20070806/photo#5104062288964229842 http://picasaweb.google.com/jtr8178/20070806/photo#5104062288964229842
22 grams is way too under 27grams. If I am not wrong, such "coins" are magnetic and if they really do stick on a magnet, well there you go, struck in cheap iron or nickel. Yes, nickel can sound quite similar to silver when you drop it when it's mixed with some alloy. hontonai, it's just unfortunate that there are too many counterfeit Chinese coins that one can't help doubting the authencity first. However that has sharply increased my sense of realizing how scarce genuine coins can be at times.
I agree, its pretty crappy that so many Chinese coins are fakes. I bought two silver yuan at a flea market for three dollars a piece. I knew they were most likely fake, but it felt like there was at least three dollars worth of silver in them! lol.
SOME but not all of the fakes coming out of China are slightly magnetic. I have never seen one that was strongly magnetic.
