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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;AnYangMan, post: 3280667, member: 87271&quot;][USER=100070]@happy_collector[/USER], thank you for digging up this topic once again!</p><p><br /></p><p>I hate to break it to you, but that second spade is a well-known fake I am afraid. It imitates a <i>Liang-yi</i> spade, but no genuine example has a crotch this high. These (and related equally granular fakes) notorious fakes have been circulating since at least the late nineties, and pop up now and then on the market. A selection of examples seen recently:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]867347[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]867348[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]867349[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The calligraphy matches down to the length and thickness of each single stroke. Also note the rough surfaces on all of them, much more granular (look at the edges) than on genuine spades. The calligraphy is also off, but the patina is a major red flag as well. Yours is slightly better done than those presented above, but still, such a uniformly dark green patina with what I personally call a ‘wet’ look is something to be very wary of!</p><p><br /></p><p>The first spade, inscribed <i>Xiangyuan</i>, is however likely to be genuine! This is one of my favourite types and a nice of example of it at that. Some of these, such as one of my examples I have posted below, have very faint numerals in the top right corner of the reverse (<i>Shi yi</i>, 11, in my case). Any chance yours has this?</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/spade-2-jpg.693251/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Kind regards,</p><p><br /></p><p>Mika[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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