Chinese Cash Coin Info

@yooper, yes I agree with your identification and am going to move this thread to the world coin section of CCF so that we can get some more eyes on it.

Looks genuine. No real value as they made millions of them.

I can't speak for Bacchus, but I agree with his assessment. For me:

- The coin isn't an obvious, modern, "Feng Shui replica". Those tend to look like this one, with obvious evidence of machine-striking. For cash coins, you have to "unlearn what you have learned" about Western coinage: evidence of casting is good, evidence of being machine-struck is bad.

- The coin isn't a "Vietnamese fake". From the 1400s through to the 1700s, Vietnam went through several periods where the private production of coinage was tolerated (or the government was too weak to stop it), and these privately-made "trade copies" or pseudo-coins often copied Chinese coin types, both then-old and then-current. At the same time, Japanese merchants also mass-produced fake cash for use in trading with Vietnam. Such objects usually have a distinctive appearance, which this piece lacks. Notably, such pieces are often very thin and lightweight, incapable of casting a shadow like this coin does.

- This coin is nowhere near valuable enough for someone to produce a high-quality, realistic-looking fake. There simply isn't the demand or need for such things.