Requesting some help to see if anyone could help me ID this 100 mon coin/amulet/fantasy piece, because I'm not sure which it is. I only have the Schjoth book and Hartill's Early Japanese Coins, so my library is sparse. It's 58mm in diameter, and it is the same size as H.6.40 (Matsudaira clan coinage in Sendai) but the calligraphy is different, please see picture. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
If I saw it at a show I would not believe its authentic. The poor quality of the fields and rims make it look like some kind of poorer quality offstrike, (fantasy). Unfortunately all of my references are at home.
It is Chinese, not Japanese. The inscription reads ying sheng yuan bao (應聖元寶) and the coin has a denomination of "Value One Hundred". Coins with this inscription were cast in the year 911 by the Emperor of Yan (Liu Shouguang 刘守光) of the You Zhou Autonomous Region. However, only coins with a "Value Ten" were cast so the coin is not authentic. Also, the calligraphy and casting are not correct. Authentic coins are extremely rare. In 2006, this specimen sold at an auction in China for about $39,000. If you can read Chinese, the coin is discussed in more detail here. Gary
Thank you medoraman and manymore! That's what I thought, but as I don't read Chinese, it was hard for me to find a reference to the inscription. In looking at the calligraphy, it is quite different indeed. I have been using it as a paperweight before, so it looks like I can continue to use it as one!
