Chinese Lot

They're Chinese Cash coins from before 1911 at the latest.

Yours range from 1500s to the 1800s, and from the looks of it, most of them are authentic.

!, and oh yeah, 1000 of these equaled a silver ingot.

A client of mine lived in China for a long time and he gave them to me.For free :)
But can somebody give me more details in Dinatys and Kingdoms.

I think they are not authentic. I have seen similar coins and these are made the same way as the olden times (casting) and then they bury it to make it look authentic. You can buy these coins by the dozens in hollywood road in hong kong.

I believe that they are all authentic and i´ve been told that they were.

I'm 99% sure that these are all authentic. A very nice lot. I see quite a few from the 18th century, but many are older. From what I can tell, there are none from the 19th or very early 20th century. So this definitely is a good accumulation of older cash.

I play mah jong so numbers is not a problem and I can write my name in chinese (Ma - Horse; Tin - field) and I can distinguish different caracters. I can speak little chinese (cantonese). Kung Hei Fat Choi

Most of them look genuine to my admittedly inexpert eyes, but genuine cash coins do indeed look like this. If there are any that give me concerns, I'll mention them as I go along.

To open with a word of explanation: I'm no expert in Chinese; all I've got is a Jen catalogue of Chinese cash coins, and this wonderful Chinese <-> English website. All my Chinese renderings are in the Pinyin system currently in official use on mainland China; some catalogues and references use the old Wade-Giles system, preferred on Taiwan, so if you look these coins up in Krause, you'll find the spellings different. But hopefully there won't be too much misunderstanding.

If I don't tell you it's upside down or sideways, the coin is basically shown the "right way up" in the pictures.

OK, numbering rows (R) top to bottom, positions (P) left to right, this is what I can see you've got:

Row 1 Position 1: Song Dynasty, emperor Ren Zong, reign-name Tian Sheng Yuan Bao, 1023-1032 AD. It's upside down.

R1 P2: Qing Dynasty, the Dao Guang emperor, 1821-1851 AD, Suzhou mint (Jiangsu province). Rotate 90 degrees anticlockwise.

R1 P3: Qing Dynasty, the Qian Long emperor, 1735-1796 AD, I can't read the mintmark clearly. It's upside down. You'll find that coins of this emperor are among the most common coins ever made, anywhere; there are quite a few of this emperor in these pics.

R1 P4: Song Dynasty, emperor Hui Zong, "reign-name" Sheng Song yuan bao, 1101-1102 AD, "running script" variety. The large size and wide rims make me think this may be a slightly scarcer 2 cash variety (Jen #272). Rotate 90 degrees clockwise.

R1 P5: Same as R1P2, but Hangzhou mint, Zhejiang province.

R1 P6: Same as R1P3, but Board of Revenue mint, Beijing.

R2 P1: Sorry, this one's too far gone for me to read. It's probably Song Dynasty.

R2 P2: Also too far gone, but the script is clearly the "running" style favoured on some coin types during the Song Dynasty. It's a reign-name starting with "yuan"; if I had to guess, I'd go with Yuan Feng Tong Bao of Emperor Shen Zong (1078-1086 AD).

R2 P3: Sorry, I can't even tell which way is up.

R2 P4: Qing Dynasty, the Jia Qing emperor, 1796-1821 AD, Yunnan Province mint. The style of this one looks "strange" to my eyes; it might be one of those fakes MGT was talking about, but it could simply be be a hastily made cast coin, from way out on the fringes of the Empire.

R2 P5: Same as R1P3, but the mintmark is scrambled; I can't read anything there.

R2 P6: Same as R1P3 again; I think it might be Yunnan mint again.

R3 P1: Another R1P3, this time it's Board of Works mint, Beijing.

R3 P2: Another R3P1, another Yunnan mint.

R3 P3: Same emperor as R1P2; looks like Yunnan mint again, but this time there's something really wrong with the reverse casting; I think it's more than simple corrosion. Such "mint errors" are too common to add much value to Chinese cash coins.

R3 P4: Another R1P3, and I think it's Yunnan mint again. The predominance of Yunnan coins might indicate this area is a key source for this batch of coins.

R3 P5: Song Dynasty, same emperor as the one mentioned at R2P2, but this time it's his Xi Ning reign-name (1068-1078 AD). This is the "seal script" variety.

R3 P6: Same emperor as R2P4, but the mintmark seems to be worn away.

R4 P1: much the same statement as for R3P6.

R4 P2: Another R1P3, but the reverse is too corroded to read clearly.

R4 P3: Same emperor as R1P1, but this time it's from the reign-name Zhi He Yuan Bao (1054-1056 AD).

R4 P4: Same emperor as R1P2, Board of Works mint, Beijing (same mint as R3P1).

R4 P5: Same emperor as R2P4, but I can't see the mint. I'm a bit worried about the size and quality of this one.

R4 P6: Qing Dynasty, the Guang Xu emperor, 1875-1908 AD. I believe this is a machine-struck cash coin of the Guangdong Province mint.

That's half of them, but it's nearly midnight local time; I'm off to bed.

manilagalleontrade- Nice! Post pics in a thread and we'll see what we can do.

Sap- awesome eye! You definitely are rather good at analyzing this often confusing type of coin.