In the last 5 month I started collecting Chinese coins for my daughter. I think like 2 months ago I came across my first sycee and was bit by them as far as wanting several varieties. Its hard to find them those are authentic and then further that are cheap enough not to cost a house payment. I so far have obtained the following 3 they are fairly small. Keep in mind the information I have below is from various sources and friends I have in China. #1 is 43.4 Grams and equivalent to about 1 tael. It is the standard boat style. the Chinese words =Quangxi Emperor #2 is 47.4 Grams and a round bowl style, It has one Chinese word in the old days meant money. this is more of a private stock. #3 is 72.7grams and a saddle style. Its Government Tax Fund. from my understanding the government would take the tax money and put them into these for emergency use like war and such.
Do you have Joe Cribb's book on sycee? Its the standard for the field. Personally I would only trust respected dealers well known to US collectors. About 99% of these from China are fakes, and they make extremely convincing ones. That is the reason I do not own any, since I cannot assure myself of authenticity. I just bought a Vietnamese 10 dong bar that was from the estate of a well known US dealer and documented in his inventory in the 1970's. I am not claiming to be an expert in these, and others here might be, but the bottom two especially bother me. The darkness looks like painted fake patina, not naturally occurring toning. The shen of the characters of all three do not look right to me either. However, I defer to others here who might be more knowledgable on these than myself. I have, though, held in hand a couple of dozen authentic pieces. Maybe Bill, (@Ardatirion ) has more knowledge of these.
These are fake. None of them match the common shapes and styles that I have seen. Additionally, the metal is wrong, and it lacks the usual bubbles and folds that one would expect to see. Compare the metal with these: http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=285736 http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=271917 http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=218967