I broke down and did something silly. Curiosity got the better of me, and I bought a lot of 8 "ancient chinese uncleaned coins" off ebay. I don't know if they are real or not, from what I saw of the seller, he did sell alot of "replica's" of high value US coins, and he clearly stated that they were replicas, so the fact that he says these are real helps a little. Also I've read that there are millions and millions of cast bronze ancient chinese coins out there. Either way, it does not really matter. I've had a grand time looking at the coins and reading about them online and in catalogs, I guess that's the point really. I've attached a picture of the best coin of the lot, ie the most identifiable. My questions are is it real (can you tell or does it not matter) and be can it be identified. I know the picture is a little fuzzy, my AF had trouble with the corrosion on the coin. From my research online I think it might be an S-545, a 1 cash coin from the emperor Shen Tsung. Even if it's fake, I've had a lot of fun researching and learning about these coins. I really might have to give ancient coins a go, it's a lot of fun. Do you think it would be worht my while to try and clean the other coins just to see what they are? or to practice cleaning on something that cost, with shipping less than $0.25 each? Thanks, David
Here is an image of the back of the coin that I just took. It dosn't really help matters any... The back is mostly filled in with corosion, but as far as I can tell, there are not charactors, dots or cresents on it... I hope this helps...
With that reverse there is a high probability that you have a Japanese coin. That would narrow the possibilities from thousands to a few hundred.
Probably the two most comprehensive books available to English speakers about cash coins are Fisher's Ding, a translation of Ding Fubao's classic catalog and Fredrik Schjoth's Chinese Currency. Both show up as used on EBay, Amazon and Barnes & Nobel, but can be fairly pricey. Both are available for loan to members from the ANA library. With either one expect to spend hours comparing your coin with pictures.
The book that is replacing Schjoth nowadays is Chinese Cash Coins by Hartill. It has everything Schjoth has and much more. It is easy to use, if you are used to Schjoth, and fairly reasonable in cost. (It is also the reason the price of the Schjoth has dropped so much.
Looks like a Northern Sung Chinese coin. http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/roberts/coins/Chinese coins/index.html
