Ancient Extremely Old Square Asian Coin? Help Please

Is this Chinese, and is this a coin? What is this?

 

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Its a Japanese 1 Bu (Ichibu) silver coin. 1859-1868

 

Thank you

 

The only thing is that this coin is not silver.

 

Are you sure it's not heavily tarnished silver?

 

Looks like it could be heavily tarnished silver, with a cupric deposit on it.

Hardly ancient, more like antique...

 

I don't collect Japanese coins but all the specimens of the ichi bu gin coins that I have seen over the years have had a different reverse side.

The reverse side usually indicates the name of the mint and a character guaranteeing the fineness.

This coin has the same inscription on both the obverse and reverse sides.

Can anyone confirm that there are authentic coins with a double obverse?

Gary

 

I agree with you, I have a small collection of ichi bu coins also, and this doesn't look like them - notice the counterstamp is not present. It is probably not too likely, but this could be a provincial issue in bronze - indeed they were made but they are rather scarcish. This piece appears to be cast also, which suggest that form of manufacture was used for this piece.

 

Yes, I am positive this is not silver

 

Thanks to all for your help on this.

 

I'll look in my older Krause catalogue in the morrow to see if I can find any "1" denomination - like a rin or sen for a provincial coinage. During the Shogunate era coinage in Japan was not as centralised - especially for lower value coins. There is another member who has apparently not yet seen this thread that might be able to fill in some details - since he could be able to read more on it than I can read the numeral "1".

 

It does not look genuine to me to be honest. Fonts just doesn't look right. Will look up a reference when I get around to it.

 

Thanks GX - I knew you were the guy I had in mind about being the one in the know.

 

Thanks scottishmoney - looks like I'll have to put more than a couple of cents in this.

Here's an example over at ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japan-Old-c...3343624?pt=US_World_Coins&hash=item338452b008

As you can tell, the flora pattern on what's shown here just seems to be rather crude. This particular type of coin actually has filed edges for security measure as well as a counterstamp to ensure that the coin has been checked.

Note that this particular type of coin was struck in various alloys - from 80% silver up to 99% (!) silver if I am not mistaken. This can only be determined by the strokes which is just too difficult to explain without illustrations.

 

"Gin" - that was the denomination I forgot!

 

Thank you kindly for all the information.

 

One that actually belongs to my daughter: