China 1920 Yuan Shikai Dollar

very nice coin


I wonder if the Chinese are counterfeiting their own coins too.

One frequent detail about such coins are the denticles that seem to shift in size and shape.
Some parts also seem to vanish going around the rim.
Not sure if an authentic coin would have this, but it frequently does exist on many of my fakes.

Surprised that obverse toning dipped off that "cleanly"...

Well, of course they are. They were mass-faking Chinese coins long before they started mass-faking foreign coins.

It isn't even illegal in China to make fake Republic or Empire coins - those regimes are, after all, still "the enemy" as far as the PRC government is concerned, so an early Republic dollar isn't seen as "theirs"; anything that discredits the economy of the enemy can only be a good thing. It's making fake Communist-era coins that would be likely to see you sent for re-education.

lol 'Jowls' never heard that coin term before, are you some plastic surgeon?

nice one - Jowls! new term for fat coin profiles.. I wonder in the "Churchill" coin has them

What you have here is a year-9 variant with year-9 fine hair on obv and year-3 on rev.

Actually with toning it is much easier to authenticate a coin esp with the coin in AU condition.

By removing the nice toning you have removed 2/3 of the value.