These three are bugging me because they shouldn't be hard. The Ottoman coin seems to have nothing for me to work with. I think I can see a 92 in there. One of the Ottoman controlled countries? The Arabic coin is dated 1340, if that's AH dating its about 1920, if its SH dating then its about 1961. The coin looks a lot more like it might be from 1961 rather than 1920. Did anyone except Iran ever use SH dating? For some reason I keep thinking Yemen with this thing? The Chinese coin seems to be from Kwangtung (based on the mint name), but I can't find this thing in the catalog, but my only catalog is Krause. Am I not finding it because Krause misses stuff? Any help would be greatly appreciated on these.
India-Hyderabad 2 Pai, pics are too small to read date. Afghanistan 2 Afghanis, SH1340-1961. I don't think #3 is a coin. Token/charm/fake?
Thank you. Got the Afghan one and the Hyderabad one. Simple!!! Just like I thought they should be. I don't think the Chinese one is a fantasy piece. It resembles other coins from Kwangtung, it just has different symbols on one side.
The inscription reads guang ming shi jie which translates as "World of Brightness" and the reverse side indicates that it was struck at the mint in Guangzhou. While it is believed that this coin was minted during the last years of the Qing Dynasty and, perhaps, at the Guangzhou mint, very little else is known for sure. Some believe it is "spirit money" made to be buried with the dead. Others believe that it is connected with the secret "Heaven and Earth Society" that was working to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty. Still others believe it is a gambling token or a game piece. For additional information on this mysterious coin and its varieties, please see "Chinese 'World of Brightness' Coin". Gary
I see why Krause doesn't list them! Yikes, given that description I'm almost sorry to have found the "coin". I love a good coin mystery, but when the coin mystery has liitle to no chance of being solved, then the mystery becomes not as much fun! Thanks for the info though, very interesting.
