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A few interesting pieces here:
1. Chinese early Republican medal, perhaps Yuan Shai Kai?
The portrait is actually
Yan Xishan who was a Chinese warlord.
The Chinese inscription reads
zhu zhang gong dao (主张.e") although its exact meaning is open to interpretation according to
this Chinese blog which also displays images.
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2. 3 tokens/cash coins/ medalions
The piece at the upper left is a Chinese charm.
I have a "pendant" charm with the same inscription and symbols which
I discuss here.
The only difference between your charm and mine, besides the shape and the characters in the very center of mine, is the character/symbol below the round hole on the reverse side.
My charm has the Chinese character
xi (-) meaning "happy".
Your charm has a "spider". The Chinese word for "
spider" is
xi zi. The first character "
xi" has the same pronunciation as the character for "happy", so the "spider" is a rebus or visual pun for the word "happy".
The piece at the upper right of the group is a Japanese coin. I am not knowledgeable about Japanese coins but I believe it is a
Kuan Ei tsu ho coin which were cast during the years 1626-1859.
Regarding the medal at the bottom, I think it is from Hong Kong but the image is much too small for me to read the inscription.
Gary
Posted 11/21/2011 07:43 am
