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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;manymore, post: 644785, member: 17118&quot;]Your three &quot;coins&quot; are not actually coins but &quot;charms&quot; which is why you may have had a problem in trying to identify them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Based on your images, I would agree with your suspicions that they are &quot;fakes&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>I cannot give you rules on how to determine &quot;real&quot; from &quot;fake&quot; because it really comes down to experience.&nbsp; The best teacher is the experience of examining hundreds or thousands of authentic old Chinese coins, although even the top experts are sometimes deceived.</p><p><br /></p><p>Without going into great detail, the base metal, patina, calligraphy, and wear patterns of your charms are just &quot;not right&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>But I find charms, even modern ones, fascinating.</p><p><br /></p><p>Your first charm has the Chinese inscription &quot;jia qing tong bao&quot; which was found on coins cast during the reign of Emperor Ren Zong (1796-1820) of the Qing (Ch&#039;ing) Dynasty (1644-1911).</p><p><br /></p><p>The reverse side has some interesting symbols.&nbsp; At the top, if you ignore the &quot;X&quot; or &quot;cross&quot;, there are seven dots connected by a zigzag line representing the &quot;Big Dipper&quot; constellation.</p><p><br /></p><p>The &quot;X&quot; or &quot;cross&quot; is rarely seen on charms but it is seen on the reverse side of some Qing dynasty coins.&nbsp; It&#039;s exact meaning is still unclear but it may represent the number &quot;4&quot; in an ancient Chinese form of numbering system known as &quot;rod numerals&quot;.&nbsp; (If you are interested, I give a little more detail and some examples at <a href="http://primaltrek.com/charmcoins.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://primaltrek.com/charmcoins.html" rel="nofollow">Emergence of Chinese Charms</a>.)</p><p><br /></p><p>At the right of the square hole is a &quot;star&quot; and to the left is a &quot;moon&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>Below the square hole is a tortoise with a snake entwined around it representing Xuanwu.</p><p><br /></p><p>Your other two charms are essentially the same.&nbsp; Both have the inscription &quot;dao guang tong bao&quot; which was found on coins cast during the reign of Emperor Xuan Zong (1821-1850) also of the Qing (Ch&#039;ing)</p><p>Dynasty.</p><p><br /></p><p>The reverse sides have the inscription &quot;tian xia tai ping&quot; which can translate as &quot;peace under heaven&quot;.&nbsp; (Further information can be found at <a href="http://primaltrek.com/peace.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://primaltrek.com/peace.html" rel="nofollow">Peace Coins and Charms</a>.)</p><p><br /></p><p>I cannot really tell you what your charms are &quot;worth&quot; but they are certainly not old and not rare.</p><p><br /></p><p>Please do not feel disappointed that your charms are not &quot;real&quot;.&nbsp; Unlike coins, charms are not money but serve a different purpose.&nbsp; They have a mystical and symbolic meaning to people.&nbsp; Just because they are not old does not detract from this.&nbsp; So, when it comes to charms, I personally do not think in terms of &quot;real&quot; and &quot;fake&quot;.&nbsp; Instead, I evaluate charms as &quot;older&quot; and &quot;less old&quot;, and &quot;well made&quot; and &quot;less well made&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>Hope you find the above helpful, and welcome to the forum!</p><p><br /></p><p>Gary[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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