I've been sorting and trying to ID my cast Chinese coins.
I have two that I believed are pretty clearly made by machine and not cast. So I figured that they would have been made in the late 1800s or 1900s.
However the characters match those of Shih Tsu / Chun Chih from 1644-1661.
Hopefully the pictures are helpful. I have included a genuine cast coin for comparison. The graininess in the suspect coin's background is fake. Many of the spots in the background even seem to match. The characters are outlined very well and even have some luster around them. They are very flat and the edges are smooth. They weigh ~3.2-3.3 grams and are not magnetic.
I don't know if this emperor is rare enough to be targeted as a numismatic fake. Or maybe there is a more benign reason like they are part of a set not intended as fakes? Just wanted to share and to at least make sure that my assessment of machine-struck-not-genuine is correct.
-wheatiefan

