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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;manymore, post: 1798361, member: 17118&quot;]It&#039;s a silver medal issued in 1992 by the Central Mint (Taiwan) to commemorate the Year of the Monkey.</p><p><br /></p><p>The inscription written vertically to the left of the monkey is <i>taiwan mihou</i> (台湾猕猴) which translates as &quot;Taiwan <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaque" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaque" rel="nofollow">macaque</a>&quot;.&nbsp; Written below the monkey is <i>ren shen</i> (壬申) which, according to the traditional Chinese calendar, represents the year 1992.</p><p><br /></p><p>The inscription at the bottom of the reverse side is <i>zhong yang zao bi chang</i> (中央造币厂) which translates as &quot;Central Mint&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>The single Chinese character in the diamond at the top is <i>chun</i> (春) which means &quot;Spring&quot;.&nbsp; The Chinese refer to the new year holiday as the &quot;Spring Festival&quot;.&nbsp; The character is written upside-down which in Chinese makes the auspicious pun &quot;Spring has arrived&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>According to <a href="http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/ihsiungkimo/article?mid=3256&amp;prev=9002&amp;l=f&amp;fid=219&amp;sc=1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/ihsiungkimo/article?mid=3256&amp;prev=9002&amp;l=f&amp;fid=219&amp;sc=1" rel="nofollow">this Chinese source</a>, an authentic coin has a diameter of 38 mm and a weight of 27 grams.&nbsp; Another source mentions that there were 16,000 of these coins minted in 1992.</p><p><br /></p><p>Please be aware that there are many fakes of this coin.&nbsp; For example, <a href="http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=15045238678" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=15045238678" rel="nofollow">this website</a> is selling a 45 mm version of the coin for about $1.00 each and you can buy them even cheaper in quantity.&nbsp; If your coin happens to be 45 mm then you can be certain that it is a fake.</p><p><br /></p><p>Gary[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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