This one arrived today. I have been hunting this one for four years, but I was never able to catch a nice example for a good price, until now. I bought this from a German auction company. This coin is denominated as "Yi Fen" (the two characters on the reverse), making it equivalent to 1 Fen (or candereen) of silver. To be such a valuable denomination, it is huge - 47mm and 18.2g. I was hoping for a larger one (~50mm), but this will do. This coin was cast by Ming rebel Sun Kewang from 1648 to 1657. When his father, rebel Zhang Xianzhong, died, Sun took the remnants of his father's army to Guiyang city in Guizhou province. There, he took on the reigh title Ping Dong Wang, or the King who Pacifies the East. He went on conquering areas in the southwest until he was forced to surrender to the Manchus (the Qing) in 1657. The characters "Xing Chao" (top and bottom) translate to "Prosperous Dynasty," which shows Sun's ambition to establish a new dynasty.
This is a great historical period to collect in Chinese coinage. Most of the rulers are affordable, but there's different denominations and varieties that you can go after that are much harder to find.
That's a great example. I've been collecting the Ming Rebels for a number of years and have at least one from all the various pretenders. The difficult one is Koxinga, who was also a pirate with a huge fleet. His history is a must read on Wikipedia. The link is to my Moneta Gallery pages for photos and links to a wonderful history of these rebels from the coinage angle and a Hartill numbered checklist (Excel) if you're seriously collecting the series.
