Chinese Dollars Fakes Or Not?

Yes, these are some of the new "good fakes" that are coming out into the market right now. I bought 2 last winter when I went back for 40RMB each (the guy wanted the real price - over 1500RMB!)

They seem to be mostly CuNi with a very very small amount of silver (it rings like low-purity silver). As far as the details go, they are getting better at it, but Yuan Shikai's sleeve is still a bit dull. Otherwise, a casual look would rate them as genuine.

But yes, the best way is to weigh it. I bet they are a few grams off.

Eurocoin Based on the source, you are likely dealing with fakes. The "Fat Man" Dollar is very common and was forged on many occasions. There are some valuable early forgeries however, so not all fakes are immediately junk.

Your coin is the year 10 (1921) Dollar which should have oblique reeding. When you say "look at the rim" is that what you are referring to? Yours appears to have vertical reeds and I think I see a hint of edge grinding. That would tend to class it as a late "junk" copy, but at least is not the super common year 3 type.

The pictures are not clear enough for me to give an absolute verdict on how it was made. The characters seem thick and dull so an erosion method may have been employed.

The edge of most "junk" counterfeits will be vertically reeded with split top and split tail reeds. (See earlier posts for several discussions of edging with a ring die.) Other edge types - even counterfeit types - usually bring a premium from collectors like myself.

Weight is also critical to any collector so if you can get a "good scale" that is to your advantage.

I own 12 different counterfeit varieties of this particular coin and am always struck by how well some are being executed.

The really valuable counterfeits, in my opinion are the period forgeries made from hand engraved dies. Technologies of production will vary but the "awful looking" primitive copies always generate interest.