Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="kaparthy, post: 22264, member: 57463"]My passion in Chinese coins was for the cash.  I bought quite a few from Frank Robinson.  Robinson's book Confessions of a Numismatic Fanatic describes his own interest in them.  From "knife" and "pants" money through the Warring States and Sung Dynasties to the 1800s, I had a pretty good run going and I got pretty good at reading the ideograms.  We always say, "Read the book before you buy the coin."  However, one day, at a coin store, waiting for the owner, I was playing with the coins in the "Four for a Dollar" junk box and I happened to see some of the 10-cash and 20-cash large copper coins from the early 1900s.  The big dragons were fascinating.  I owned "the book" The Standard Catalog of World Coins, but I had never seen these.  I bought them and then worked on widening the collection.  I had a lot of fun attributing the varieties and feeling comfortable with my lucky finds. I never felt much for the silver dollars, Junk Dollars, the Automobile, generals, and such.  Modern Chinese issues leave me cold.  The paper money is nice, as such things go, I suppose.[/QUOTE]