Greetings Everyone, I got this silver Chinese coin mailed to me recently and I have no idea how to identify it (since it is not listed in my Krause catalog that I am aware of). I need to find out the identity, denomination, silver content, retail price and grade of this coin. Any help is appreciated. Thank you. Sincerely, 40_Red_Apples See links for photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22317312@N05/4076106274/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/22317312@N05/4076112080/
Its a part of a fantasy series portraying earlier emperors. Yours shows the first emperor of the Qing (Manchu) dynasty, Nurhaci. Worth maybe a dollar or two.
To provide a little additional information, the Chinese inscription at the top of the obverse side is read right to left as da qing tian ming huang di which translates as "Emperor Tian Ming of the Qing (Ch'ing) Dynasty". "Tian Ming" was the reign title for Nuerhachi, the leader of the Manchus, who proclaimed himself Emperor in 1616 and thus founded the Qing (Ch'ing) dynasty. The Chinese characters written vertically at the side of the portrait are read top to bottom as nu er ha chi which, in English, is variously spelled as Nuerhachi, Nurhachi, etc. The reverse side has the Chinese characters da qing meaning "Qing (Ch'ing) Dynasty" written right to left at the top. The bottom has the inscription (right to left) shi er da huang di which translates as "the 12 Emperors". One last point of interest. If you examine the dragon closely you will see that the foot at the 3-4 o'clock position has five claws. In Chinese symbolism, a "five claw" dragon always represented the emperor. Gary
