Asian Coins

Medik98: If you are considering selling ANY of them, first know what you are selling, especially if a prospective buyer wants to pick particular coins out.

Such behaviour by a prospective buyer telegraphs to me is that he may be trying to take advantage of your relative (to his) lack of knowledge, leaving you with the less valuable coins only.

To obtain a copy of Schjoth or other good references you may have to go to your local public library and borrow a copy from another library with an inter library loan.

Just this sort of situation arose for me a couple years ago when I was investigating some Roman coins. I needed to refer to a particular volume of
'Corpus Numorum Romanorum', by Banti and Simonetti, at our National Library in Canberra. They did not have the particular volume, and asked if I would like to refer to that book in the State Library of Western Australia, in Perth.

They were happy to transport the book on a 4000 mile return journey from Perth to Canberra.

My copy of Schjoth was originally owned in a public library in Portland Oregon.

I would just like to make two points.

One is that part of the value in your set is the way it is put together. If you were to take those coins, throw away the written notes and place them in 2x2s, they'd be less valuable (in my eyes, at least). If there are any letters or other written notes about the coins, you should include those. Just thought I'd mention this, as in my past ignorant & impulsive days I might have gotten rid of the packaging.

Second, you'll get a lot more detailed help if you can get better pictures of both sides of each coin. One way would be to get a camera on a tripod or somehow held steady, and then slide the coins into view one at a time. Another way may be to plop the whole sheet onto a scanner and take hi-resolution scans. Then with software you can separate the coins into individual files.

Are you able to read the characters on the coins? Some of our members are able to.

In the past I've liked this site for chinese coins, but with my last batch I came to like Calgary Coins website.

In my area, common (1700-1900) cash coins sell for $0.50-$2.00 each. That's about the extent of my pricing knowledge.

Impressive collection, I am envious!
-wheatiefan

I don't mean to be a wet blanket on what may actually be a spectacular find.

But ......


I need to do some checking in my files because I recall seeing a virtually identical set complete with stitched coins and handwritten notes on paper with a pinkish border on ebay within the last year or two. I may have saved the pictures because the seller was a well known forger from Hong Kong.

I will let you know if I saved the photos or if I can locate any other information.

I looked but was unable to find it.

It was a Roger Lee product from Hong Kong as I recall, but that is based on memory only. I do not always copy pictures of counterfeits of minors so I may have never copied it. But I do recall the odd pink color border. That is what sticks out most in my memory.

My uncle had a similar set of Cash running back 400 or 500 years sewn to a cardboard back with the names printed on it in black. So I know the real sets were available at one time fairly cheap.

Has anyone translated what the notes say in this case?

Actually - don't take them apart! If they're tied on with string, and in this fashion, most likely it won't be a very rare variety.

Can you take a clearer picture of the other words on the board (if any on the backsides?) This looks to be a pretty complete collection... I think the first board you showed us has all the Qianlong cash coins from all the mints.

Actually not so fast - I worked on a collection like this when I was at the ANA 2 summers ago. It was tied down with brass fastners which reacted with the coins, but they were also packaged very like this. However, that one had a pedigree from the Coole collection, so I wonder if these things were circulating in the Early Republic era (1910s, 1920s). Coole was an American teaching in China at the time.

Ok guys I've taken all your advice and still unable to find out much lol. I guess its because I really don't know what I'm doing. Does anybody know of a trustworthy good place around DC or Baltimore that I might be able to get these looked at? I've googled places but haven't really found anything yet. I just got an offer for $1700 for this collection from a place in Texas. The problem is Idk exactly what I have lol. Anyhow if anybody knows of a place in that area please let me know and ill contact them. Thanks again everybody.

One more thing guys, since the offers I have on this go from $75 a coin to $1700 would it be fair to start an auction on this of a $500 starting price? Just want to make sure I cover all basis. Thanks fella's