Manchu Cash Coins?

Switch- I'm sorry to say, but your coin is a struck copy. It is obviously machine-struck, and has other features of modern-day copies and reproductions (the dots in the fields simulating the rough "cast" look of real cash coins,surfaces that are too smooth to be a cast coin, and the rim of the coin indicates that the coin was struck with modern dies.).

So your coins only really have value as novelties.

Switch- They actually used to cast cash coins up until the last quarter of the 19th century. While there were a couple of types of struck cash coins produced during that time in large numbers, the vast majority of cash coins every produced in china were cast in sand molds.

Ah cool, thanks. So those dimples are what set it apart from real ones? If they did strike coins during the period these coins represent, why simulate casting?

Also, if the dimples are put there to simulate cast, why not on the back?

That, and other things. The style of the script - the "font", if you like - is quite different to the official script used on the coins. While the Chinese characters on the obverse (dimpled side) are technically correct, the Manchu script on the other side is very badly rendered.


They did not make struck cash coins until the late 1800s; such machine-struck coins do not have dimpling on them. Prior to this, all cash coins were cast. These copies are machine-struck, because these days, making machine-struck copies is cheaper and easier than making cast copies from sand moulds. The dimples are there to give an at-first-glance similarity to a cast coin.


I would attribute that to "laziness". There are many purposes such replica cash coins are sold for - particularly from Feng Shui supply stores (apparently, the demons can't tell the difference between genuine 300 year old cash coins and modern replicas). But I most frequently see this particular variety of replicas glued onto a piece of cardboard in sets of 10, each coin showing a different emperor of the Qing Dynasty. These guys, for example, sell these replica coins individually, in bundles of three, tied up in assorted lucky arrangements, or in the card-of-ten (about halfway down the page). When they're glued onto a card, only the fronts need to be "realistic-looking", so only the fronts get the dimpling.


The first coin imitates a coin of the Guang Xu Emperor (ruled 1875-1908). The second is from the Tong Zhi emperor (1861-1875), the third is from the Yong Zheng emperor (1722-1735) while the fourth is from the Shun Zhi emperor (1643-1661). To get a feel of what genuine cash coins look like, this page is an excellent introduction to Qing Dynasty cash.