Japanese Coin | Chinese Cash, Qian Long

, to the community,

This is Chinese Emperor Kao Tsung from the Ch'ien Lung period 1736-1795.

These coins are called, here in the West, "cash". Smaller ones like yours are 1 cash; larger multiple cash also exist. In the later empire period there were 1,000 of these cash coins to a silver dollar, making the cash equal to 1/10th of a cent.

These coins were cast from moulds rather than being struck with dies like "Western" coins are, hence their crude appearance. The obverse is the second (bottom) pic; the reverse (top pic) shows the mintmark. In this case, it's from the Board of Revenue mint in Beijing. This is actually one of the most abundant coins in the world; millions were made every year throughout the long reign of the Qian Long emperor, with no date or other easily discernible change from year to year.

Cash coins became obsolete in the early years of the Republic, and had effectively disappeared from circulation in China by the 1920's.