I have attached an image of a coin I am researching. I can't find anything exactly like it. The closest thing I can find are Japanese Cho-gin. All the stampings on mine are round while all the cho-gin I've found have rectangular stampings. The coin is 1.75 inches long and weighs 16.5 grams any information you can give me would be appreciated. My Grandfather brought it back from asia in 1904.
Cho-gin are pieces of silver produced during the Tokugawa Shogunate from approximately 1600-1865. There are many pictured in the Japanese Numismatic Dealers Assn. catalog with round stampings, but none exactly matching yours, which doesn't really mean much regarding genuineness. Munro in Coins of Japan, the 1904 work on Japanese coinage and its history which is the earliest comprehensive treatise on the subject published in English, describes them as "long slabs" of silver, which were customarily wrapped with mame-gin, the so-called silver "bean money" to equalize the silver weight. Neither Munro nor any subsequent English language author I am aware of, directly explains the stampings, but considering the source of the pieces (which were technically not "money" issued for circulation) they are probably similar in purpose to the chopmarks found on western silver which circulated in Asia - certification of weight. However, the stampings were probably done by the issuer, not one or more merchants through whose hands it passed. There are differences between the photos in the JNDA catalog and the plates in Coins of Japan, demonstrating that neither has a complete depiction of such pieces. The size of your piece is at the low end of the range of genuine cho-gin. The most similar one pictured by the JNDA is a Hoei Mitsu-ho piece from 1710-11, which is significantly longer. If your piece is genuine, I would conservatively value it at $2,500 in the condition pictured. I wouldn't trust any US slabber's opinion on genuineness, and I don't know of anyone outside of Japan capable of validating it. If it were mine, I would definitely take it with me on my next trip to Japan, and have it looked at by two or three specific dealers in Tokyo and Osaka. Do you know anything more about its origin than you posted?
Background info My Grandfather was in the U.S. Navy 1900 to 1904. He spent time in China, Japan, Malaysia, Celon, Haiti, Philipines, and several others, He brought back coins from all of them There are over 100 coins in the collection. I first saw the coins at my grandfathers house in the fifty's when I was a young boy. He died at 96 and the collection went to my mother and when she passed 6 years ago I got them. So I can personaly track them for the past 60 years. The newest Coin is 1904 with most being 1800s. If there are any that are not genuine they are 100 year old fakes Hope this helps. and thanks for the info
It's kind of odd that there are repeats of some stamps on both sides. Also that it has the same amount of stamps on both sides. Typically they have only 2-3 or no stamps on one side. It also does not have the right patina for these low silver content pieces. Perhaps it was cleaned, but I personally would avoid it if I saw it for sale.
Long provenance merely proves that it isn't a recent fake, but for as long as there have been coins (and bullion - which cho-gin really were) there have been counterfeiters. Numismat makes some good points. I might also add that genuine cho-gin are not typically as smooth and even in shape as yours. Too bad we can't ask your grandfather whether he got it in Japan, or in China.
PeteWay, if you still have this piece, do you have an idea of the material? I will take a copy of this to my dealer in downtown for you, if you like.
