Chinese coin help

Without pictures, I'll guess that that they are Chinese provincial or national silver dollar. Answering a question like this is like a numismatic expert taking questions on a radio show.

To get a better answer than this, take them to your nearest reputable coin dealer; he should be able to identify them for you, and if he is interested, offer to buy them off you for a reasonable price.

Zeno.ru has an excellent compilation of images of fake and fantasy Chinese dollars, as well as genuine coins. See here for "tourist copies", here for fantasies, and assorted subcategories here and here for the more convincing replicas.

While zeno.ru is by no means comprehensive listing, it's fair to say that any coin you can only find listed as a fake, with genuine examples either nonexistent or listed as being very rare, then your coin is probably a replica.

If you can get accurate weights, that can go a long way towards proving authenticity, or at least disproving it; while some fake coins are made to the correct weight, many are not. Check NumisMaster for catalogue pics of genuine coins and for what the weights of genuine coins should be.

But in the case you can't identify it, post it here! At least I can read the coin for you.

sigh... time to pull out the "if" key... as in "if" they are real. For the most part, they do look real some of them look real, and I see 2 of some considerable value.

So... identification will go like this
ABCD
1
2
3
4

A1: Shanghai/HongKong Tael: This coin was struck in Shanghai, and would be considered one of the first "western" style (as in round coined) silver coins in China. Some people would consider this a pattern coin, as there weren't many minted. I actually think it was a private issue... Krause lists at a few thousand. (IF real hahaha.... D; ) Too bad there are sooooo many copies of this out there...

B1: Empress Cixi commemorative: western style silver dollar commemorating Empress Cixi. I think it's quite common...

C1: Circulating Yuan Shikai Silver dollar from ROC year 7 (1918). Why is it yellow... and smaller than the imperial dollars? I thought they should be the same size, but I don't remember...

D1: Xuantong (last emperor) Yunnan struck 1/2 dollar coin. This design would be regular of the imperial issues (with the dragon and the characters on the other side). Yunnan province... I think that was a mint with few issues....

A2: Does this one scream fake? Most likely hahaha... The design is from a coin commemorating the first year of the republic of China (1912). It says a dollar, but the Chinese says "Five Dollars" huh...

B2: Da Qing Ying Bi: Qing dynasty silver coin. Is it really uniface? It's supposed to show the dragon on the other side. Looks to be Beijing minted by the treasury mint (not the public works mint)

C2: Same as C1, except with Sun Yat-sen. Republic year 24 (1935). Again, why is it yellow? Tarnish? Does it mean it could be real? heh....

D2: Guangxu (1871-1908) dated 1/2 dollar, struck in Heilongjiang province. Western style coinage started somewhere halfway during his reign.

A3: Guangxu dollar, Zhejiang province. Kuping means imperial treasury standard.

B3: ... ah! Here's a site for it http://www.mycollect.net/antiqueEst...45448-1.html have fun!
Just kidding, after reading that site, it is a Hunan province private strike one tael, meaning it was not government mandated. Quite rare, I think... (this is the 2nd rare one)

C3: Same as C1

D3: Same as B3, except half tael and err... Guangxu reign instead

A4: Same as B3... except why is it much smaller? It's the same inscriptions...

B4: ... I have never seen a front facing Sun Yat Sen dollar. Could this be fake or a trial piece? In olden days they did make essais in brass/bronze...

C4: On the top it says "Every 2 pieces equals a dollar) and in the middle it says "middle dollar." Never seen these either before, but it reminds me of Japanese 1/2 and 1 sen pieces, that also carries the inscription "### pieces equals 1 yen"

Hope that helps! You would need to look at it closely to determine those aren't fakes. If they aren't, then you have quite a lot of heft on your hands. Now look for them in Krause! (If they have them listed)

Are you near Hong Kong by any chance?

well, some of this collection are coins that never existed, like B1, someone just made it up by imagination. many of the others are keys of keys, unless your mother-in-law is a world famous coin collecter, otherwise these could not be real. Some of them do show problems in patterns and characters.