If they have squiggly writing on the back, that's Manchurian script, which means they are Qing Dynasty Chinese. Of the large images: 1) Qian Long 2) same 3) Dao Guang 4) probably a late Tokugawa-era 1 mon coin from Japan. I'm no expert, but they look authentic and fairly common.
What he said. They all look to be fairly common Chinese (NOT KOREAN) Cash coins with the exception being the top right. You can take your own crack at ID'ing them by using this site: http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/china/china8.htm#chien lung or this one: http://www.sportstune.com/chinese/coins/idpage.html
1) Qian Long Tong Bao - Boo je Qing Dynasty, China Hangzhou, Zhejiang Mint, 1740-1794 2) Qian Long Tong Bao - Boo jyi Qing Dynasty, China Baoding, Zhili Mint, 1747-1796 3) Dao Guang Tong Bao - Boo chiowan Qing Dynasty, China Board of Revenue Mint, 1821-1850 4) Kanei Tshuho - Bun Tokugawa shogunate, Japan New Style, 1668-1683 Dates may be a bit off but here is what I had.
Thanks! Here are 5 more I have if you guys are game. I literally gave myself a migraine trying to make heads or tails(no pun intended) of Asian coins.
Clockwise from top: Dao Guang, Qian Long, Guang Xu, Qian Long, Qian Long All Qing Dynasty, China. If the characters are the same, it's the same emperor. The mint marks may be different, but it rarely makes much difference.
So were the Japanese just that much better at casting? Their coin looks down right modern compared to the Chinese coins, which are younger.
The quality of Chinese coins casting varies widely from mint to mint. I believe there were also a lot of contemporary counterfeits of Chinese cast coins, which eventually drove their value down to close to the metal value of the copper content.
Ah. That answers another question I had. How could almost 300 year old coins only be worth a couple dollars each?
Same reason you can get low grade Roman coins for a couple bucks. A huge empire which lasted for hundreds (or thousands for China) of years, so there just isn't that much demand for low grade coins unless they are an unusual variety. Even the official coins were cast in immense quantities.
