I'm having a hard time positively ID'ing this small coin from China. My best guess is it's a 5 cent coin from the Chihli Province. It's about 19 mm and weights around 3 grams. The NGC website though says the 5 cent coin weights 1.8 grams and doesn't give a diameter. The third chinese character on the bottom is also different that other pictures I've seen. Any help would be appreciated.
I'm confused to be honest - the denomination says 7.2 candareens which means that it should be around 2.6 grams. 3 grams seems to be too heavy.
When I weighed it at 3 grams I was using my kitchen scale at home used for food. I took it to work today and weighed it on an analytical balance and it came right in at 2.6 grams. My kitchen scale rounds to the nearest gram. I also learned it's a 10 cent coin, not 5 cents, which 2.6 grams is the correct weight. Thanks for helping! Much appreciated.
Nice! I believe it's genuine - might want to have it graded. Don't get others low ball you if you are planning to sell it. I believe it's easily more than 200+ dollars, if not higher. I don't recalling it for sale recently.
Agree on genuine, but I'm pretty sure it's a $5,000+ coin in that condition. Look at this VF that hit $3k. This one looks XF-AU http://www.coinfactswiki.com/wiki/Chihli_1899_(year_25)_10_cents_Y-70 Major congrats @JickyD !
If it is as valuable as some think, your first step should be to get it authenticated and encapsulated by NGC or PCGS. Selling will then be much easier (perhaps via an auction house like Heritage or Stack's Bowers). Edited to remove Great Collections as a recommended auction house for uncommon world coins.
As jgenn said, first thing have it authenticated and graded. Once that's done I would suggest contacting Heritage and inform them you have a high end Chinese coin that you would like to consign to their next Hong Kong auction. They will take it from there. Also here is the PCGS China price guide for this type https://www.pcgs.com/prices/priceguidedetail.aspx?ms=3&pr=1&sp=1&c=4242&title=10c
Well...here's the encapsulated coin. I paid PCGS to have it "restored." I think they did a pretty good job of it. I was worried that those scratches on the reverse would make it come back cleaned. At least it's authentic. What do you think the cleaned designation does to the cost of a coin like this?
Tough one. I personally preferred to have left it as it is. Nothing was wrong with it. It's still a rather scarce coin at minimum.
Congratulations! From your earlier posts, it sounds like you want to sell it. I think we'd all like to know which venue you choose for the sale.
Unfortunate that it's a details coin, but still sharp details. Being that a straight AU goes for $5K+, I'd imagine yours is worth at least half that if not a bit more. It still has pretty good eye appeal as far as cleaned coins go.
