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 Replies: 19 / Views: 3,480 |
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New Member
United Kingdom
9 Posts |
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Moderator
 United States
189320 Posts |
 to the Community! I moved your post to the appropriate forum for the proper attention.  |
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New Member
 United Kingdom
9 Posts |
Thank you 'jbuck' for correcting my error.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
1: Purporting to be a 100 cash of Qing dynasty emperor Wen Tsung, 1851-61. The dots and crescents are very strange, and this looks too light to be a bronze coin. I suspect it to be a replica.
2: Unsure
3: Try 1 rupee of Mughal India, maybe 18th century?
4: Quick Google search seems to show that these coins are a sort of emergency currency made privately in some colonies. Google the inscription on the back of your coin for more details.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3253 Posts |
#2:   |
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Moderator
United States
189320 Posts |
Quote:
Thank you 'jbuck' for correcting my error. No problem! |
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New Member
United Kingdom
9 Posts |
philadelphian - thanks for the info. That's the coin but unfortunately I am unable to read the text :( Is there a translation in English?
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Pillar of the Community
Belgium
2895 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1323 Posts |
3. Is a Rupee from Hyderabad Y#17 AH1300 (1882)
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Valued Member
United States
309 Posts |
The second is a jeton of King Philip II of Spain, who was once married to Queen Mary of England (1554). It was issued in the Low Country (Province of Gelderland) in the Spanish Netherlands. Philip married several times. In 1570 Philip II married Anna of Austria (daughter of Maximilian II of the Holy Roman Empire). She appears under hands holding the crown over her head in the jeton image, becoming Queen of Spain at age 20. Philip II was both her husband and her uncle by the way. She lasted only ten years after the marriage.
The fourth is an English coin weight for a Portuguese or South American colonial gold coin, the Johannes (6,400 reis). The Johannes "Joe" was popular in colonial America with about 0.44 Troy ounces of gold. The coin weight indicates a king and a year, such that it may have been part of a later manufactured set that held representative weights for every unique coin by weight "recently" issued. If you look up exchange rates for 36 shillings (five shillings the crown, four crowns the pound, 21 shillings the Guinea), the weight specifies a Portuguese coin worth three crowns more than a guinea.
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New Member
United Kingdom
9 Posts |
Thank you to everyone for the replies and information it's much appreciated.
Just a bit of background to these coins. They were collected by my grandfather - probably between the 1930s and 1960s. I have recently been given a large tin which contains many lovely coins and I have been going through them trying to identify each one. I have sent pictures of all four of these coins to various people. The main problem I am having is that no one has seen a coin exactly the same as the top one (100 Cash coin) depicting four stars and four moons. For this reason a few people have said it must be a fake or a replica. I don't believe this is the case as I doubt that my grandfather would have kept such a coin given that he was an enthusiastic and quite knowledgeable coin collector.
All these coins were kept in a safe deposit box in a bank. He also had many coin books and paperwork showing purchases from companies such as Spinks.
Anyhow, if someone can solve the puzzle of the first coin shown I would be most grateful.
All the best
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Moderator
United States
34427 Posts |
@wiiw, I can confirm that the characters on the first coin affirm Finn235's attribution of your first coin (Emperor Wen Zong 1851-61). I can also confirm that your specific coin was never made by this Emperor. There are about 70 pages of coins in Hartill's Cast Chinese Coins, and not a single one of these hundreds and hundreds of coins contains those extra crescents and dots.
This isn't to say that your grandfather wasn't both enthusiastic and quite knowledgeable about his coins or that he didn't purchase this "coin" back in the 1930s or so. All I'm saying is that either he discovered a unique and as yet still unreported variety, or (much more likely in my opinion), he got fooled at some point and bought a fake. Happens to all of us, despite all sorts of technology, reference books, and places like CCF to double-check. It is still an interesting "coin" and perhaps there are even some people who collect old fakes of Chinese cast coins (certainly there are plenty of new fakes coming out of China).
"If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
Can you provide an accurate weight and diameter of that cash coin? It looks to be about 50-55mm which seems about right, but I think weight could help to narrow down what exactly your grandfather had. The Chinese were very distrusting of anything that wasn't silver, or a 1-cash coin. That is why these 100 cash coins were so huge, and why they very rarely circulated (large as they were, they almost never had as much copper as 100 1-cash coins).
First and foremost, the coin is not magnetic, correct? It might be the white balance in your pic, but it does seem to be a very peculiar grey. Iron was not used in official Qing dynasty coinage, so if a magnet sticks to your coin, you have some sort of modern fantasy.
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New Member
United Kingdom
9 Posts |
Thanks once again for the info. The coin isn't magnetic. The photo was taken with a flash at quite a close range so colours etc. have been enhanced/altered. I've been looking on sites such as Stephen Album and I've seen photos of coins from the same period with exactly the same patina as mine.
The coin is approx. 52mm in diameter and approx. 2.5-3mm thick weighing (and this could be out by a reasonable amount given the accuracy of cheap kitchen scales) 36 grams.
I have sent images of this coin to people such as the above-mentioned Stephen Album, Spink and other ancient coin dealers in an attempt to identify it. I am still awaiting replies.
Looking through some past auctions I have noticed coins very similar to mine which do have stars and crescent moons on them but not four of each across both sides.
Edited by WIIW
04/18/2016 09:12 am
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Moderator
Australia
16849 Posts |
#4 is actually a "coin weight". It was not intended to be used as money, but to weigh gold coins on a coin scale, to test whether they were genuine and/or had not been clipped. The "Portugal piece worth 36 shillings" is the gold coin usually referred to by modern collectors and in modern catalogues as either a "half-johanna", peca, 6400 reis, or 4 escudos. The actual goind coin design can be seen on the NGC page. I suspect the "1746" date is the date of the sample coin used as the model for the weight design, and not the year the actual weight was made, which was more likely to be late 1700s - early 1800s. 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
United Kingdom
9 Posts |
Thanks once again for the info.
Can someone please explain the terminology 'fantasy coin'? I personally would have thought that this term refers to a coin that is completely false in what it depicts. Not so much a fake or replica but a coin-like object that has imagery on it that wouldn't normally appear on a standard authentic coin.
I only ask as someone has come back to me saying they also can't identify my coin and suggest that it might be a 'fantasy coin'. My coin matches in every way when it comes to 100 cash coinage from the Ch'ing Dynasty, Wen Tsung (1851-1861), Hsien-feng (1851-1861), mint Wuch'ang, province Hupeh. The only difference is the four stars and four crescent moons. Does that qualify as a 'fantasy coin' or is it that the coin is an unknown variant of an authentic 100 cash coin?
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Replies: 19 / Views: 3,480 |
Posted 04/12/2016 12:08 pm
