Old Chinese(?) Coins?

http://www.calgarycoin.com/referenc...a8.htm#ching

Left: Kangxi, 1662-1722, Board of Revenue. Worth maybe $2-5.

Right: Qianlong, 1736-96, Board of Revenue. Worth maybe 25 cents.

Both are cast "cash" coins, wielding about 25-50 cents' buying power in modern terms. They were minted in the high billions or tens of billions, as China was enjoying a booming economy and stockpiling Spanish silver in exchange for silk and other luxury goods. They were usually strung together through the middle hole in "strings" of 1,000 coins for larger purchases.

Fun fact #1: Both emperors reigned for exactly the same amount of time, because Qianlong did not want to dishonor his grandfather's legacy as China's longest-reigning monarch. He abdicated the throne to his son and spent his final years enjoying retirement and being a helicopter parent to the new Emperor.

Fun fact #2: These were legal tender until 1912 when the Empire of China collapsed. It was said that finding a Kangxi cash in circulation was an omen of a long and prosperous life. They still carry a numismatic premium in China for that same reason.

I acquired a large lot of these coins from a relative. After educating my self about them in an attempt to be able to identify a valuable and/or rare one I learned a lot about Chinese coinage from this time period. That was fun in itself.

The poster above is relatively correct about the average price on a per coin basis.

I experimented a bit with selling strategies when I was liquidating the large quantity of these coins I possessed with the sole goal of achieving max profit.

At the end of the experiment I found selling these coins as "ancient" or "vintage" or "dynasty" Chinese coins in small lots of 10-30 coins per lot yielded the greatest average price per coin at the end of the day.