Posted 01/17/2014 10:42 pm
Hello and welcome. 
Sorry to give you bad news on your first visit to the forum, but allranger is correct. This is a modern machine-made replica of a Chinese cash coin of the Tong Zhi emperor (1862-1875). Original cash were cast in sand moulds; the "bubbly" background surface of the obverse is an attempt my the manufacturers of this replica to imitate the porous surface of a sand-cast coin. The tilted-downwards writing style of the reverse inscription is also very distinctive of this particular brand of replica. You can see more replicas in the same style in old forum threads here, here and here.
These modern replicas are primarily used for Feng Shui purposes, though I have also seen them glued onto souvenir cards illustrating "old Chinese coins".
Incidentally, both of your pictures have become mirror-imaged. You might want to fix that next time if you have more coins you'd like to ask us about.
Sorry to give you bad news on your first visit to the forum, but allranger is correct. This is a modern machine-made replica of a Chinese cash coin of the Tong Zhi emperor (1862-1875). Original cash were cast in sand moulds; the "bubbly" background surface of the obverse is an attempt my the manufacturers of this replica to imitate the porous surface of a sand-cast coin. The tilted-downwards writing style of the reverse inscription is also very distinctive of this particular brand of replica. You can see more replicas in the same style in old forum threads here, here and here.
These modern replicas are primarily used for Feng Shui purposes, though I have also seen them glued onto souvenir cards illustrating "old Chinese coins".
Incidentally, both of your pictures have become mirror-imaged. You might want to fix that next time if you have more coins you'd like to ask us about.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
