My First Post

Those are some interesting coins. I wasnt aware that China used English on their coins though. I like them.

Welcome to the boards. I hope you stick around awhile. Your knowledge of Chinese coins will be useful. And I'm sure we can answer some questions for you in return

Wow!
Welcome to the forum!
And BTW that silver is beautiful just like any other.

Welcome!

Unfortunately, something tells me the bottom one is a counterfeit, or even worse - both could be counterfeits!

Sorry, Isofish, we're just a bit jumpy about Chinese coins generally - there's an awful lot of folks in China selling bogus silver coins (not just Chinese ones, but anything silver) on ebay. It's getting hard to find genuine ones for sale, and people are losing confidence (and interest) in the Chinese series as a result.

Of course, yours are "in the hand", so it's easier for you to test their genuineness, by eye and by weight.

As Isofish says, these are fairly common varieties - not the usual "ultra-rare" ones the counterfeiters prefer. The first is KM# Y329.6, dated year 9 (1920), the second one is KM# Y318a.1 (or similar), a legitimate restrike, circa 1927. CV for each is only a few dollars ($7/$7 in Fine, $30/$22.50 in Unc).

"Restrike"? Well, it claims to commemorate "the birth of the Republic", but was obviously not issued anywhere near 1911, unlike it's prototype, KM# Y318. The difference (according to Krause) is in the stars either side of the word "Memento". Original 1912 issues have a 5-point star; 1920's restrikes have a rosette.

The real question isn't whether a coin is common or not. Counterfeiters have faked any coins that prove to be valuable, or enough to profit. If you are in China, you should check your change. Recently, I found a 1995 counterfeited 1 yuan - yes, ONE YUAN, which is just a mere 12 US cents. Can you answer why such low values are counterfeited?

There isn't a need to say why other coins aren't prone to counterfeits.

As of why I said the second coin could be a counterfeit, that is a rather common counterfeited coin that I have seen. The denticles itself at the reverse is not conviencing me as well as the metal strike is not suggesting that it's silver, unless it's accidently struck in nickel-copper, which seems to be what the alloy is. What is worse is if you read the characters from the right to left at the stop, which is "zhong hua ming guo", the third character "ming" is not correct, as one of the lines is extended way too long into the "box". All Chinese speakers should be able to understand that this is odd unless this was a terrible engraving made in the first place. Details wise, I don't remember that the details were that "flat" while in UNC grade.

Back to the first coin, you must understand that there were restrikes made, but there were rumored unofficlal varient restrikes, which I am not too sure of myself either and will not use it to judge.

I enjoy the talking. I think that we would learning more knowledge about Chinese coin.
The first: The coin composition is 0.88 silver. Pic01(it and 50 Frances 1974),Pic02(it and not silver coin).
Second: You said the "ming" is not correct. I know the coin be mint in Tianjing,Sichuan and Nanjing. It may be some difference in detail.
Third: You look the edge.Looking the edge is the best method to differentiate Chinese silver coin. Pic03.

To Sap: Pic04 is correct about the coin. but I han't the coin.

Image: Pic01.jpg
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Image: Pic02.jpg
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Image: Pic03.jpg
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Image: Pic04.jpg
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welcome isofish , I could use the help on chinnese coins I come across an offer any help I can to you and all others

do you have knowledge on chinese currency I am trying to figure out why they had the bank of communications the farmers bank the bank of china the central bank of china. werent some of them puppet banks