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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;manymore, post: 931772, member: 17118&quot;]Hi iulint,</p><p><br /></p><p>Thank you for the private message which I received today.</p><p><br /></p><p>Hontonai is quite correct in saying that this coin is similar to the other coin that was recently posted.&nbsp; In fact, except for the date, the inscriptions on both the obverse and reverse side of the two coins are <u>identical</u>.</p><p><br /></p><p>Both coins are written in ancient seal script and there are slight stylistic differences but if you look at the image in <a href="http://www.cointalk.com/t115004/#post930350" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/t115004/#post930350">this post</a>, you will see that the only difference between the inscription on your coin and that on the other is the third character down on the far right column.&nbsp; The character on the other coin looks like a &quot;cross&quot; which is actually the Chinese number for &quot;ten&quot;.&nbsp; On your coin, the character looks more like two curved vertical lines and is the number &quot;eight&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>The inscription on your coin states that it was made in the 8th year of the Guang Xu reign of Emperor De Zong of the Qing (Ch&#039;ing) Dynasty which would be the year 1882.</p><p><br /></p><p>The inscription further states that the coin was produced at the &quot;Machinery Bureau&quot; in Jilin which is a province in northeast China.</p><p><br /></p><p>The inscription on the reverse side of your coin is also identical to that on the other coin.&nbsp; On your coin, the characters are read in the following order: top, bottom, right, left.&nbsp; (<a href="http://www.cointalk.com/t115004/#post927821" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/t115004/#post927821">The reverse</a> of the other coin is read top left, bottom left, top right, bottom right).</p><p><br /></p><p>The inscription says that the denomination is &quot;one <i>liang</i>&quot; (top and bottom characters) which is &quot;one tael&quot;.&nbsp; The other two characters (right and left) indicate that the denomination is according to the &quot;Factory Scale&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>During the late years of the Qing Dynasty, the government used several different standards when it came to paying and receiving in silver.&nbsp; Depending on the situation, there was the &quot;Official Scale&quot;, &quot;Commercial Scale&quot;, &quot;Treasury Scale&quot;, &quot;Taxes Scale&quot; and &quot;Customs Scale&quot;.&nbsp; According to your coin, there must have also been a &quot;Factory Scale&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have a strong interest in trying to understand other cultures through their use of symbols.&nbsp; On the reverse side of your coin, I interpret the small circles with the dots in the middle as representing the &quot;sun&quot;.&nbsp; The symbols at the corners of the square, which resemble a three-prong fork, appear to be the Chinese character <i>shan</i> meaning &quot;mountain&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>What is intriguing is that the symbol at the top right corner of the square is different.&nbsp; It has two of these three-prong forks, one on top of the other.&nbsp; Everything else on the coin is symmetrical except for this one symbol.&nbsp; This symbol may possibly be the Chinese character <i>chu</i> which can variously translate as &quot;to go out&quot;, &quot;to produce&quot;, &quot;to issue&quot;, etc.</p><p><br /></p><p>As I stated in the other thread, I have no familiarity with these kinds of coins.&nbsp; My guess, and it is only a guess, is that both these coins are modern reproductions of very rare Qing Dynasty silver coins that were produced in very limited quantities and that &quot;real&quot; coins would be worth a great deal of money.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks again for the message and I hope you find the above information helpful.</p><p><br /></p><p>Gary[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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