Chinese Coin Or Replica?

OK, if you guys figure this is a real coin and don't see anything fishy about it, then I'll take your word for it.

I've searched online for more pictures of cash coins from the emperor in question, and what stands out about them -- particularly given the very simple and standardized design of such coins -- is how wildly inconsistent their looks are. It's almost like every single specimen was made by a different person.

You have to remember : these coins were not struck but cast.

An original coin would be made, often by the lost-wax process (the wax model being made by hand, or possibly by pouring wax into a hand-carved mould), and used to make a mould which was then used to make a number of "mother" pieces which in turn would be used in the moulding process. Hundreds of coins would be cast simultaneously in a single pour, in an extremely complex mould. Within one pour (not to speak of variation from pour to pour), the weight of any given piece might vary by perhaps as much as 40%, due to differences in thickness and porosity, and the composition might also vary due to stratification of the melt. As a result, circulation wear on individual pieces might be quite different from one to another, even before you account for the habit of carrying them on strings for large payments.

AlfredG - I just now saw your post. What makes you say it's a fake?

Because bao yun mint (yunnan mint) has a unique way of casting coins, and all the coins from the yunnan mint looks more or less the same way, i.e the metal composition are similar, and the styes of the characters are similar. This coin looks 20000000 miles away from coins made from bao yun mint, and I have personally seen a full set of coins like this one made for each mint, I am guess these were made to fool tourists.

I'd love to see a side-by-side comparison with a genuine coin, AlfredG

yeah but the above side by side comparison was bao quan mint not bao yun mint, here is a genuine Dao Guang Tong Bao Bao Yun Mint:




As you can see, the Yunan mint's coins are rather crude, so that is very particular to this mint and quite easy to distinguish from the rest.

AlfredG appears to know this series very well so perhaps he will post an image of a genuine specimen so we can see exactly what he is talking about.