Probably Chinese, possibly but probably not, money. The characters in the left picture (except for the "10" - looks like a plus sign) are in the classical script modernly used primarily for personal seals, and very difficult to read. That picture is properly oriented, but the right picture needs to be rotated 90º to the right. The central four characters, read top right, bottom right, top left, bottom left, appear to be a Chinese regnal year and the denomination 1 Ryo (Japanese reading - I don't know the equivalent Chinese word). There is also what may be some Manchu characters on the sides. The vast majority of Imperial coinage is cast, not struck, and your piece is almost certainly struck, causing me to suspect it is a token of some sort.
Thank you for the info, I am new to this. It is a huge heavy coin. What would its use have been for a token?
Does your coin really look the same as the first image??? The reason I ask is because all twelve Chinese characters in the inscription are reversed left to right. In other words, to read the characters, one would need to hold the coin in front of a mirror and then read the inscription in the mirror. I'm not sure if the coin actually looks like this or if it is a function of your camera or software. In any case, I am able to recognize some of the seal script characters. The long inscription in the first image says that the coin was produced during the 10th year of the Guang Xu reign of Emperor De Zong which would date the coin at 1884. The inscription also says that the coin was produced at Jilin (Province) in northeast China. The large circular character at the top of the coin is a very stylized "Shou" character meaning "longevity". There are also two very stylized dragons, one to the right and one to the left of the inscription. The second image states that the denomination is "one liang" which is one tael. I cannot read the Manchu characters. Incidentally, the second image is not a mirror image. I am unclear as to why only one image is reversed. Unfortunately, I do not collect this type of coin and do not have any references on these struck silver coins so I am unable to authenticate or provide any additional information. Gary
This is so great to find out so much about the coin. Here is the image as it is on the coin. I don't know how it got reversed, but I corrected it. Thanks again.
This is the first time I see dragons looking like smooth earthworms with feet on a Chinese coin......
help identify these two coin. moved and lost my two reference books. labeled one coin Japan 1862-67 bk1 p. 695
