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Chinese coin found on our place today by my son . It has a hole punched or drilled for a pendant ? Gold Rush Camp Lunar New Year Find NOX 800
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They found one similar to it on the curse of oak island. But I can't remember the age. Neat findNW Georgia, -
Coil find!SW ConnecticutComment
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Hey Dennis, Nice find. That's not something you find every day.Michigan Yooper
If You Don’t Stand for Something, You’ll Fall for AnythingComment
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My parents had a coin like that in their coin collection. They let an "expert" take the coin collection home to study it in greater detail. When they received it back again a few coins were missing, including a coin that looked similar to that one. Maybe it's worth something.South CarolinaComment
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A really cool find.Floridaboy.Comment
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Excellent find Dennis, son done goodSouth East Ga. Twin CityComment
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Undoubtedly dropped by one of 20,000 Chinese laborers who built transcontinental RR, right? Very cool, very important part of American history. Maybe find Irish coin, too, but probably not, since only 1 in 10 RR workers Irish, rest Chinese. They laid 10 miles of track a day. Can you imagine? Maybe coin became pendant later for descendant. Does it have a date stamped on it?
Very very cool.....Digging in GA, ‘bout a mile from the Savannah RiverComment
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This coin was dropped by a Chinese? laborer mining for gold . We have found a number of coins and other Chinese artifacts on our place . -
Mining for gold so much better backstory than laying RR tracks. Altho I imagine that could’ve been equally hard life....unless of struck gold! I’ll go back back and look at your old posts for Chinese stuff, coz tho don’t metal-detect or collect coins (much, altho have Irish, Spanish, and Greek coin necklaces, all with Horses on them!) do love Chinese symbolism often found on related artifacts.
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The history that must lie below your feet, don't you wish it all could talk?Searching the fields of NW Indiana and SW MichiganComment
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I have found three here in NJ they have a date or time frame by dynasty or emperor but I don't read Chinese ! Nice find. For your son !Last edited by Bullheadtee; 02-13-2021, 07:17 AM.New JerseyComment
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What you have is a copper ‘cash’ coin from China struck between 1662-1722. The cash (from which we derive our term for money) was the main unit of currency in Imperial China.
Chinese Emperors, in addition to the name they were born with, were given an era name as their ‘reign title’, and then a ‘temple name’ as a mark of respect after their death, together with a full posthumous name as an honorary title. The four Chinese characters on one side of your coin indicate it was produced for the Kangxi Emperor, the third Emperor of the Qing dynasty.
Born with the given name ‘Xuanye’, he inherited the throne in 1661 at the age of 7 or 8 but his Imperial reign title of ‘Kangxi’ wasn’t used until February the following year. Then, after his death in 1722 he became known as ‘Shengzu’.
Note that there is a difficulty in translating Chinese characters to English. Some folks use the nearest ‘letter-for-letter’ equivalent and some use nearest phonetic pronunciation, so you will see other expressions than those I use above (eg K'ang-hsi rather than Kangxi and Sheng Tsu rather than Shengzu).
On the other side, the two characters indicate the mint where the coin was produced. For yours, it was Peking (now Beijing) where there were two principal mints, known as the Board of Revenue Mint and the Board of Works Mint. Your coin says “Boo Ciowan” in Manchu (Pao-Ch'uan in Chinese) which is for the Board of Works Mint (translated to English as “the Fountain Head of the Currency”).Last edited by painshill; 02-14-2021, 12:05 PM.I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.Comment
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Thanks painshill more than just an old Chinese coin now . A lot of history and a long voyage by sail then an overland trip to the mother load . Found close to where the California Gold Rush started . I have a few I found and my son has 4 or 5 there all different sizes .Last edited by south fork; 02-13-2021, 06:23 PM.Comment
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It's a cool find. With occasional exceptions these are not valuable coins and yours is of a commonly found type. Long after their use as currency, Chinese people used them as good luck charms and as gifts to bring prosperity to the recipient. Here's such a gift from my collection known as a 'money sword', which would have been given to bring great fortune to the household if hung on the wall or above the door.
The custom still persists today and, over the years, numerous reproductions/imitations of older coins have been made for that purpose. Generally they have a brassy appearance, crisper definition of the characters, and often have inscriptions that are non-authentic for the Emperor or period. Yours is an original currency issue (as are the coins in my sword).I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.Comment
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