Chinese Coin Identification (Id: 19th Century China 1000 Cash)

At high level of thing, it is China 1854 Xianfeng Boo-Chiowan 1000 cash like this:
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces95047.html
However, this coin was frequently faked during both contemporary and modern times.
So, proper expertise based on wight, size, calligraphy and metal composition is due.

I'm not sure about over $100k (just that *I* would never pay that,) but if genuine, this coin is worth some good money. That of course means it is very attractive to forgers; more so because the original thing was hand-cast and the original may not necessarily have much patina that could be tested to determine real vs. artificially aged. For now, assume it's fake and work from there.

To start, what else was in the collection. If genuine, this would have been expensive, and part of a serious collection.

Hello to you all, Thanks for getting back to me with this information and it certainly was interesting. I will now have to find somewhere to get this valued and most importantly to find out whether it is the real deal or as you say a copy. I'm not getting my hopes up until someone can tell me its authenticity. Just to let you know the gentlemens father who originally had this coin spent a lot of time in China so that would date back late 1800's at least. The person I inherited this from was 92!

Anyway, I will find someone to help me with this and when I find out I will update the topic so at least you know the outcome.

I have some other items which I will be asking for help very soon.

Thanks for your help so far!!

Hi, Thanks and sorry for my lack of knowledge here - what is the NGC? Thanks in advance!

If you have more Chinese coins you inherited from a relative who you know actually purchased them in the country awhile back be hopeful and post others. There is a good chance you have an authentic coin of value in the mix.

Unfortunately the coin in your post is a contemporary fake.


China Kansu (Gansu) Province, Hsien Feng (Xianfeng) Reign, 1000 Cash (1000 Wen) 1851 to 1861

1st pic (face of coin)-

characters at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock translates to Hsien (Xianfeng)
character at 3 o'clock translates to Yuan
character at 9 o'clock translates to Pao (Bao)

2nd pic (reverse of coin)-

character at 3 o'clock translates to Empire (i.e. not provincial)
character at 6 o'clock translates to the number 1000
character at 9 o'clock translates to Boo (coin)

I had a situation very similar to yours. About 130 coins inherited from a relative who spent time there in the late 1940s and early 1950s. About 90 of them were so common or in such poor condition to be worth a dollar or two maybe. About 20 were in very good condition yet very common low denomination copper coins but worth $4 to $12 each. 15 worthless fakes. The remaining five were relatively rare pieces, in very good condition, high denomination and/or silver and brought sold prices between $35 and $440.

I am of course an idiot and sold them in 2001, when no one cared about old Chinese coins, to finance a dot bomb company. I looked at realized auction prices for the five rare coins last year and almost wept. Not because of the money so much as how could I have been so blind in the early 2000s to not think about that little rapidly emerging economy over there in Asia called China. Easy to overlook those 1.3 billion people I guess (sarcasm).

On top of that I'm married to a Han Chinese wife who spent half her live living and traveling back and forth to Hong Kong and mainland China. I remember her exact words from 2001, "if you sell those coins now, when you don't absolutely have to, you will one day regret it".

This quote just popped into my head- "Genius has a limit but there is no limit to stupidity."

Hi there, I am a new member registered in this Forum, but an experienced Asian cash coin collector.

This is a China Hsien Feng 1000-cash, the uploaded photos have low solution and kinda blurry, your post was in 2017, and now we are in 2022, not sure if you already got the answer, but if you still need to identify its authentication, send me some clear photos please. I can provide some help.

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At this point, this one doesn't look like a modern counterfeit.

It looks authentic, however there is a huge crack in it, so its value is likely greatly diminished because of that, pity.