Some non-Qing Dynasty copper cash (China/Japan/Vietnam etc.)

Another one. I was going to give up on this one as a fantasy type, until I realized it's not Chinese but from Vietnam. I had misread the top character as "元" (yuan) instead of "光" (guang) at first, and couldn't find it anywhere. In my defense, it's pretty hard to make out the details of characters when they are worn or corroded. At my age, a good high-resolution photo can reveal a lot of detail which I cannot make out by eye.

The Hartill book, "Cast Chinese Coins" which I recently bought has really proved its value here. The finding guide lets you look up a coin by the first two characters, so I can quickly verify whether a coin even exists. It has the more common Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese types as well. If one is not sure of a character, one can scan through all the likely candidates with a similar shape and identify likely candidates.

Anyway: Vietnam, Quang Trung, Tây Sơn Dynasty, 1786-91, 1 cash
Obverse: 光中寶通 Reverse: Blank, 22 mm, 2.1 g

 

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This one is a bit of a puzzle to me.
I believe it is Vietnamese, Lê Dynasty, Canh Hung Thong Bao=景興寶通, 1740-87
Diameter is ~22 mm, weight is only 1.53 g
Most of the copper cash of Canh Hung should be about 3-4 g, 24 mm.
He issued a lot of coins, so I doubt it's a fake.
Maybe a contemporary unauthorized underweight issue.
There was also a tin issue of similar size, but no weight listed.
I'm not familiar with the appearance of tin alloys after 200+ years, but tin a bit less dense than copper, so it might be a possibility. This one doesn't have a lot of the greenish corrosion typical of older copper coins. I assume the tin coins are some sort of alloy mix anyway, so a density measurement wouldn't tell me much.
Any suggestions? Normal issue, tin, contemporary counterfeit, or smaller denomination? Advice and commentary welcomed as always!

 

Another Japanese Kanei Tsuhou coin (寛永通寶). This one doesn't have the waves on the reverse, so I believe it is a 1 mon instead of 4. These were made from the early 1600s to the mid-1800s, with hundreds of minor variations identifiable only by subtle differences in the calligraphy. According to Hartill (Early Japanese Coins), the best way to narrow it down is to look for distinctive variants in the forms of any of the four characters. In this case, the two feet of "hou" (寶) nearly touch in the middle, while in most variants they are well separated.

So my best guess is Hartill 4.196 "unknown mint", circa 1740.
24+ mm, 3.1 g, iron composition?


Here are some comparison photos next to a 4 mon Kanei Tushou (R) and Bunkyu Eihou (L). You can see it is significantly smaller than the 4 mon coins, and of a darker color than these copper alloy coins. So I think it may actually be made of iron. If you compare the feet of the hou (寶) on the center coin and the one on the lower right, you can see mow much closer they come to touching on my iron coin than in the typical character form.

 

Another Japanese one. This one has "bun" (文) on the reverse. Apparently, this is a reference to the Kambun Era. The Daibutsu, a large bronze Buddha statue, was destroyed by an earthquake in 1662, and copper recovered from the statue was used to cast coinage from 1668-83. Almost 2 million of this series were cast, and Hartill lists them as "very common." Still, some people consider them to be good luck because of their connection to the Buddha.
3.49 g, 25 mm, Hartill 4.101. Here's one on Numista for comparison.

I would have expected more corrosion and wear for a coin of the late 1600s. Still, the example on Numista looks very similar, and the stroke forms are a good match to the example in Hartill. So I am tentatively concluding it is authentic.

 

Two Korean Sang Pyong Tong Bao:

Left: 2 Mun, Seoul Charity Office, 1695-1742
Ob: 常平通寶 (San Pyong Tong Bao)
Rev: 賑 (Chin) 二 and a crescent shape on L

Right: 5 Mun, Kyonggi Provincial Office, ~1888 (ND)
Ob: 常平通寶
Rev: 京 十一 當
(I accidentally wrote 吉 instead of 十一 on the card. Too lazy to rephotograph)

I tied to ID these using this page.
Interesting that the 2 mun (31 mm) is larger than the later 5 mun (29 mm).
There must have been some inflation in the intervening centuries.

Korea had a ridiculous number of authorities with the right to cast copper coins. I think it's related to Korea's relatively late transition from a barter economy. I suspect that rather than funding various offices and military groups directly, the government instead gave them the right to cast coins in limited quantities. At first the supply was small and they held value, but eventually they were overproduced and driven down close to metal value. The introduction of larger denominations was highly inflationary, especially the copper 100 mun coins of 1866-7. The Wikipedia page on the history of the Korean Mun has some useful details.

 

Here's one of the troublesome inflationary 100 mun coins of 1866-87
They caused so much inflation that production was halted after half a year.
Not a junk bin find, unfortunately. I actually had to pay retail, for once.

 

Comparing two Japanese 1 Mon Kaneitsuhou coins by character variations:
Left: 24 mm, 3.80 g (slightly thicker)
Right: 24+ mm, 3.35 g
Here are two almost identical-looking 1 mon coins.
Hartill's "Early Japanese Coins" has a character variant section pp 40-42.

For example, if you look at the right character, "tsu" (通), you can see that the right coin has the "long tsu" variant of the radical which surrounds the left and bottom sides of the character. The other one has a normal "tsu". Only a few coins have the "long tsu" variant, so it narrows that one down to a type issued by Jakkoji Temple in the city of Nikko starting in 1737 (series end date unknown).


The leftthand coin has a variant for the character "hou" (寶) in which the two legs at the bottom touch and are formed from a single stroke. This is the "6 stroke hou" variant found in the Old Kanei series (1636-40) as well as some iron coins of Kameido and Kosuge. This one appears to be copper, so it's probably an "Old Kanei" type. On some Old Kanei coins, the mint can be distinguished by minor character variations, but many are not attributable except for the Old Kanei series, official issues (Hartill 4.10-4.55).


The reverses are unadorned.

 

I haven't worked on this set for a few weeks, but there are only about 10 left in the box, so I'll try to finish up. There is also a fair handful which I think are fakes/replicas, which I can post later if anyone is interested.

Vietnam, 10 Văn, Duy Tan Thong Bao, 1907-16, 27 mm, 4.05 g
Ob: 維新通寶 Rev: 十文

 

A tiny little Japanese cash (Left)
1.19 g, 20 mm
Because of the size, I think it may be Hartill 4.219:
Kuzumaki, Rikuchu Province. Hartill notes these were low quality coins which only circulated internally in that province. Keio Era (1865-67)

The Meiji restoration came just after in 1868. You can see the inflationary effects of larger denomination coppers, especially the 100 mon coins, which put downward pressure on the size of the 1 mon coins which remained in circulation.

Right, for size comparison: Hartill 4.100 Kanei Tsuhou "bun" 1 mon, 1668-83

 

Almost done with this box of cash, so I guess I'll try to finish up.

These were tricky for me because the seal script for 祐 is so different from the modern version. China, Northern Song, Yuan You Tong Bao 元祐通寶, 1086-93
Left might be iron. It's heavier at 3.82 g and the color doesn't look like copper.
Right is 2.45 g. both are a little over 24 mm diameter.
I think L might be Hartill 16.266, R 16.261

Variant is tentative as it's hard to make out the fine stroke details at this point.

 

Some sort of Japan 4 mon Shin Kanei Tsuhou.
Looks like it was lacquered on the front side or something.
I suppose I could try acetone, but these aren't rare enough to be worth bothering. Can't tell the variant in this condition, but 1769-1859 date range for non-iron ones.

 

Northern Song, Jia You Yuan Bao (嘉祐元寶), 1056-1063, 3.09 g, 23 mm, Hartill 16.150

Almost done with this whole set. I don't think I could have read this coin's
characters in this state without Hartill to check against, and a rough idea
what I was looking for. Fortunately "嘉" is in a bunch of other Imperial Era
names, including 嘉慶 (Jiaqing) from the Qing Dynasty.

 

One more Northern Song:
Yuan You Tong Bao (元祐通寶), Running Script, 1086-93,
Probably Hartill 16.274. Bronze, 4.03 g, 24 mm

I think these older coins are generally considered medal alignment, even though the blank reverse makes it moot. I tried to line up the orientation of the chunk out of the permieter at 8:00 on the obverse and 4:00 on the reverse to be consistent.

 

A Japanese Shin Kanei Tsuhou 1 mon coin. (1668-1867?)
It's too corroded for me to attempt to ID the variant beyond that. The color and degree of corrosion make me believe it is one of the iron rather than copper types. Many of the officially issued coins were iron, including common ones, so that is not remarkable. Looks like it may have spent some time in the ground.

 

The last few coins are ones where I have doubts about the authenticity.
Please feel free to offer any feedback on these.
This one is one I'm most on the fence about. It's not a rare or valuable type, but the patina and wear of the characters doesn't look quite right to me.

If real, I think it is a Tang Dynasty Kai Yuan Tong Bao 開元通寶, Early Type (621-718)
Possibly Hartill 14.1 Reverse is blank. 3.30 g, 24 mm
There were later coins with the same characters in the 10 Kings and Taiping Eras, but the characters would look enough different that it couldn't be one of those.

 

Taiping Rebellion coins are scarce across all issues..Hartill has a few errors in the book. Say, the Xianfeng Pingding issues (He lists them as R8, when a large chunk of Xianfeng irons on Zeno are of that variety. A contact who specializes in Chinese cash told me). Or Taiwan cash too (Should be around R11 IMO). Taiping coins often command upwards of $50 in Stack Bowers Hong Kong Auction and other auctions. There are scarcer issues too, which bring several hundred. I would be careful though; I once found a similar coin except without the reverse words (mine just said Taiping Shengbao) and thought it was an unlisted Taiping issue (not on Hartill). Turns out it was a Annam issue of some sort. Don't have enough experience with Taiping rebellion coins to give you a definite answer on authenticity but everything checks out