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 Replies: 22 / Views: 5,531 |
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New Member
Singapore
6 Posts |
Hi everyone!!  I'm new here!! I was wondering if you guys could help me ID these 4 sets of coins... I had gotten them as a kid, and have no idea what kind of coins they are. What I could roughly determine, from the words on them, is that they were from China...? I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me: - What kind of coins they are, - How old they are, and - How much they are worth today Thanks so much in advance!! Looking forward to hearing from the experts here!     |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2563 Posts |
You have got to be careful when dealing with Chinese coins. Many are cast copies.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2563 Posts |
And also  |
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New Member
 Singapore
6 Posts |
Thanks, CoinCollector2000! :D
It would be disappointing if these were cast copies... :( I'm hoping that they are real, but I guess if they did turn out to be fakes, it would still be a nice souvenir to have.. no out-of-pocket cost to me personally because they were passed down to me by a family member decades ago...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
I'm not an expert on the Chinese moderns, although I do know that extreme caution must be taken to avoid counterfeits and copies, especially of rare coins.
The three smaller coins are dynastic-era Cash coins. I don't have a reference in front of me, but they closely match the coins I have in my collection. From a glance, I'd say all of them were made between 1680-1850. The Chinese characters on the front identify the emperor under whose authority they were made, and the Manchurian script on the reverse is the mintmark. Just google "Chinese Cash Identification" and you'll find a few websites to get a better ID. These coins were made in extreme numbers, so they're worth about $0.50-2.00 each. Chinese locals loved to dump these on tourists once they were no longer legal tender in China.
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Valued Member
United States
453 Posts |
"UNITED MAXXICO AMERICA"? That one intrigues me.
Set 4 is also interesting with its mix of east and west.
Has China ever officially used the "dollar"? I am a big ignorant about their money.
Just a hunch but I think most of these are tourist trinkets.
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Valued Member
United States
453 Posts |
NGC website actually lists the UMA coin as " An unusual oriental fabrication".
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1234 Posts |
I had thought the Chinese fakes were a new thing, if you got them while you were a kid and are no longer a kid they may not all be fakes. but the maxxico is most likely a fake  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United Kingdom
17967 Posts |
The left-hand coin in Set 4 is a British Trade dollar. From the small size of the photo I can't tell if it's genuine or not. Welcome to the Forum! |
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New Member
United States
6 Posts |
I use a pretty good website to ID foriegn coins. Search "Don's World Coin Gallery". I have to fish around and guess alot, but I have been able to ID most stuff I dig out of the bargian bin. Hope they are real treasures.
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Valued Member
United States
453 Posts |
Also the ngc lists the maxxico coin at 8 to 10 dollars so thats pretty good
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New Member
Singapore
6 Posts |
Thank you all, for your replies!!  Finn235: WOW!! I took your advice and googled for Chinese Cash ID, and got to this site: http://www.sportstune.com/chinese/c...idpage1.html ... Turns out that the coins are from the Ching dynasty, and from the 1700s! I'm so psyched that I am holding onto such a piece of history! And the thing about the Chinese locals dumping these on unwitting tourists might solve the mystery of how these coins ended up in my family! hehe! :D srcliff: Do you mean this site: http://www.ngccoin.com/poplookup/wo...egory=141481 ? If so, then wow again!! Does that mean China "the orient" made these long ago? But it's really strange that China would want to create such a coin for mexico... Do you know if it was really mexican currency then, or is it just a curio that had no monetary value? Aslan TVorlon: Thanks for the welcome!! hmmmm I got them in the late '80s... is that long-ago enough? *crosses fingers* lol... And by fake, does that mean that mexico really had valid currency back then of this design? NumisRob: Thanks for the welcome too!! :) Ok I have uploaded larger pics of the British Trade coin here.. Please let me know if you would prefer larger pics.. Looking forward to your expert opinion! :)   krockit: I went to Don's World Coin Gallery, but found navigating the site to be too much of an adventure hahaha... When I selected one of the china entries in the drop down menu on the right, all I saw was a mind-boggling list of coins with names (e.g., y255 Republic 10 Cents - no date) I could not interpret... I couldn't figure out where to click to get pics of each of these coins... :( |
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Moderator
 Australia
16845 Posts |
Welcome, Helen. I wish we had better news for you but, sadly, we don't. The Chinese cash coins - the copper ones with the square holes in them - are all probably genuine, although these coins have also been known to be faked even though they are relatively cheap and common. Despite being so old, they are very cheap, since so many of them were made; official records from the period show billions of cash coins were made in some years and the Qian Long emperor reigned for a very long time, with virtually no change in design of his coins. The dollar-sized "silver" coins are, I'm afraid, all fakes. Fake "Chinese dollars" have been around since at least the 1960s, though before the Internet Age you had to actually go to China or Hong Kong to find them in bulk. Some of them have been copied from some extremely rare "pattern" coins; others (such as the "Maaxico" coin) are more properly termed "fantasies" rather than "fakes", since there never was a genuine coin like that to begin with. Grab a magnet off the fridge and see if it sticks to any of them. A magnet sticking means it's a steel fake. If the magnet doesn't stick, then it might be genuine. The British Trade dollar looks the most convincing, although if you got it from the same place as the rest of the coins then it too is almost certainly fake. 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
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New Member
Singapore
6 Posts |
Hi Sap, and thanks for your welcome and your insight!! =) I dashed to my fridge for a magnet, and it didn't stick to any of the coins!! That's a good sign, I guess?! Hehe! Hmm I got these coins so young, that I don't even remember who exactly handed them to me and whether the british Trade dollars were given to me at the same time... Just that it was a family member... So say if the china coins were to be genuine... Is there any definitive way to tell, and if so, how much would they be worth? |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1041 Posts |
helan I got. got last weekend they are fakes welcome to the club
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Valued Member
Australia
315 Posts |
Helen |
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Replies: 22 / Views: 5,531 |
Posted 03/01/2014 11:25 am
