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Ancient Chinese Cash Coins Help
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6 posts in this topic

I have had a few dozen coins in my possession for decades and have just not done anything with them.   I acquired them from someone that actually had friends in Indonesia that dove wrecks.   They are not all from the same wreck but I believe most of the ships are Song dynasty.  They are in various degrees of condition from able to make both sides out very well to some that are heavily encrusted in marine growth that I have not attempted to remove.   I am curious what they are and wondered if I can post pictures here and get opinions as to what they are or if that is not allowed?   I could post them in groups of 5 front and back using a scanner.   I know nothing about them, have no idea how to make out the Chinese characters and not sure where to start.   I don't think coins of this type have a lot of value but curiosity now has me wondering what they are no matter the worth.   Thank You for the advice.  I posted a few just as an example of what I have but they all seem somewhat different.

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If you want them identified, post them in their own threads, cropped correctly, with weight and diameter. I don't recommend posting five at a time. Also please orient them correctly, rather than at random. If you at least pick an alignment, you have a one in four chance of being correct. For many of us who have the resources and background to ID them, they are a fair bit of work and we would appreciate it being made easier.

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34 minutes ago, JKK said:

If you want them identified, post them in their own threads, cropped correctly, with weight and diameter. I don't recommend posting five at a time. Also please orient them correctly, rather than at random. If you at least pick an alignment, you have a one in four chance of being correct. For many of us who have the resources and background to ID them, they are a fair bit of work and we would appreciate it being made easier.

Thank You for the guidance.  I did not know if one at a time would be kosher or not.   I will start soon and will label the threads "Chinese Coin 1"  etc.  Just extremely curious what they even are and have no idea where to start.   Ran across this site when researching and looked to be full of people that know a lot more than I do about coins - especially Chinese coins.  Thank You!

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13 minutes ago, osborne311 said:

Thank You for the guidance.  I did not know if one at a time would be kosher or not.   I will start soon and will label the threads "Chinese Coin 1"  etc.  Just extremely curious what they even are and have no idea where to start.   Ran across this site when researching and looked to be full of people that know a lot more than I do about coins - especially Chinese coins.  Thank You!

I understand the concern. The etiquette of posting can vary from forum to forum. In this case, the logic is that one coin per thread means that any discussion is clear as to which coin is meant. That works to everyone's advantage.

If you get really interested, there's a large softcover reference called Cast Chinese Coins that is fairly comprehensive. One thing to realize is that cash-type coins may not be Chinese; there are Korean, Japanese, Annamese, and other coins that appear in the same style. As I learned painfully, poring over references until I finally realized that I should be looking in the Koreans, or the Annamese...you get the idea.

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10 minutes ago, JKK said:

I understand the concern. The etiquette of posting can vary from forum to forum. In this case, the logic is that one coin per thread means that any discussion is clear as to which coin is meant. That works to everyone's advantage.

If you get really interested, there's a large softcover reference called Cast Chinese Coins that is fairly comprehensive. One thing to realize is that cash-type coins may not be Chinese; there are Korean, Japanese, Annamese, and other coins that appear in the same style. As I learned painfully, poring over references until I finally realized that I should be looking in the Koreans, or the Annamese...you get the idea.

Wow - no wonder I had very little luck searching online.   I will look up that book and get it as I do have a lot of interest in this.   Ok so I will start a new thread per coin and just number them so I can keep track of them.   I have a few ready now so let me know if you see I need to change anything.  I am completely guessing at orientation but I do have a kitchen scale that measures grams and dabble in stamps so I can measure in mm.    Appreciate being put on the right road.  Big Thank You!

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5 hours ago, osborne311 said:

Wow - no wonder I had very little luck searching online.   I will look up that book and get it as I do have a lot of interest in this.   Ok so I will start a new thread per coin and just number them so I can keep track of them.   I have a few ready now so let me know if you see I need to change anything.  I am completely guessing at orientation but I do have a kitchen scale that measures grams and dabble in stamps so I can measure in mm.    Appreciate being put on the right road.  Big Thank You!

Glad to help. Doing this is so much more fun when people are willing to follow some basics to make it easier. It's very motivating.

With cashes, first thing to get is diameter, because the size typically tells the denom. Next is to identify the emperor, typically the character at 6:00 obverse. Mint is generally the thing at 3:00 reverse. Often the 9:00 reverse thing is the dynasty; for example, the loopyloop thing that I would describe as looking like Arabic waws and qafs without the dots is for the Ch'ing dynasty, the last before the proclamation of the Chinese Republic.

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