Kwang-Tung Province One Tael Coin

I have seen an auction lot of these recently that were described as very deceptive fakes. They certainly were. About a dozen of these were included in the lot.

Impossible to pass judgement re authenticity on this one, even with excellent pictures. Take it to a dealer who knows his stuff, and have it tested.

If it turns out to be genuine, you have a valuable coin, but don't raise your hopes too high just yet.

I examined in the auction lot very closely. I didn't apply any tests on them, I wasn't in a position to weight them, or to do a comparison ring tone test with a genuine coin, but with a visual in the hand inspection only, I couldn't really fault them. The estimate was not much above their silver melt value.

There is currently a rapid rise in demand among the Chinese for genuine silver Chinese dollar sized coins, and the fakers are eager to satisfy this demand, with their excellent quality fakes.

Similar situation to the U.S. Trade dollar.