Cash Coins

[HardPack]

I am not an expert on Chinese cash coins but I will give it a shot. Feel free to correct me. Apparently, the Chinese miners in the goldfields traded for supplies with Chinese merchants using a variety of Chinese cash coins; 1-wen, 10-wen, 1000-wen. I beleive 1,000 wen equal an ounce of silver. This coin may be either copper or bronze.

I think this coin is a Kangxi Tongboa 1-wen minted from 1661-1722 during for the rule of the 3rd Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi; 

 

I have no idea what the symbol on this side mean.

[HardPack]

I believe this Chinese cash coin to be a Qianlong Tongbao minted 1735 to 1796 for the 5th Emperor of the Qian Dynasty. The currency symbols were different for Universal, Original & Heavy.

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[CVISChris]

They sure lost a few.  I have dug a lot of them in the Mother Lode.  

[HardPack]

1 minute ago, CVISChris said:

I have dug a lot of them in the Mother Lode.

One had a rolled piece of beveled metal inserted in the square hole; for stacking the coins? From what I read the Chinese would string the coins up a thousand 1-wen pieces. Apparently the string would often break during placering operations. 

[HardPack]

From the web: How to ID Chinese cash coins.

First read the symbol at the “top” of coin then combine with the “bottom” symbol for Period: Dynasty/ Emperor.

Second read the symbol on the “right” of the coin then combine with the symbol on the “left” for currency*

*The “bao” symbol is the usually on the “left” meaning currency, the right symbol will be either Universal, Original or Heavy.

Use the web Chinese cash coin “photos” to determine top from bottom, front from back.

side note: A 1850’s $10 gold coin was dug up by a local utility worker in the Old Chinese section in town that is now a parking lot. You never know what may turn up in the next scoop. It could be copper, it could be silver, it could be gold.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Despite that these coins , found in CA (and elsewhere in the USA) can date to as old as the 1600 and 1700s, yet :  Those dates have utterly no bearing on the date they were brought here or lost.   Apparently they were stored in barrels, over in China, for hundreds of years.   And taken out to prepare for long-distance voyage / moving.    So when they were lost here, they could already be 100 to 200 + yrs. old.

[HardPack]

2 hours ago, Tom_in_CA said:

So when they were lost here, they could already be 100 to 200 + yrs. old.

That helps explains the time difference. The cash coins were detected on a 1850's placer claim with very little modern trash.