Hello,
I’m having trouble identifying these cash coins (who am I kidding, I always do) and I need some input. I can’t seem to find these exact types in the Numista catalog, at least, and I don’t think their Manchu text on the reverse has a match. Or do they?
The mint on the first one is boo-su, and it's a kind of boo chiowan for the 2nd one.
But in my opinion they are both fakes. The characters are strange and I don't know the way it's cast or struck gives me a bad feeling.
What metal is it ? It doesn't look like brass.
Hmm. Not sure exactly what metal, but I was just wondering if brass wears like this! If these are fakes, contemporary or not (if not modern, maybe a little later than contemporary), maybe they were made here in Japan? These were among the small lot of Kan’ei Tsūho I got a while ago, and my understanding is that these Chinese cash coins had been circulating (and imitated by “private mints”) in Japan for a long time, though it’s still strange as the usage of such coins must have been mostly discontinued by the 18th century...
Interesting! Both coins are of dark-ish grey, with some traces of sandy colour here and there. Can't tell what metal they are but I feel like tin is definitely possible -- more than brass, at least.
