Hello,
I collect mostly US coins, but I found the following Chinese coins at a yard sale. I know many Chinese coins are fake, but I was wondering if anyone could tell me anything about these? The tael coin is 30.7grams, the other is 32.4grams, neither are magnetic at all. Thank you!
No expert on Chinese coins, but I wasn’t able to find anything in the catalogue, nor did I find any evidence of ‘he-peh province’ ever existing. The antiqued finish (especially on the second coin) and the edge lettering throws me off. I recommend you do a silver test on them just to be sure, but I don’t think either of them are real.
Sorry to be abrupt, but there are so many Chinese counterfeiters, counterfeits, non existent types, issues, provinces, and junk coins from China it is exhausting to try and keep up proving they are not genuine. Assume everything Chinese is not authentic until prove otherwise. There is no such Chinese coin or province HE - PEH. I suspect these counterfeiters attempt to circumvent the law by substituting HE -PEH for HU-PEH. Thus technically, it is a fantasy coin and no law is broken.
I know literally nothing about Chinese coins, but there are so many fakes like these out there with the same glaring red flags to look for. My advice: don’t buy a Chinese coin unless it’s graded by NGC or PCGS.
both are fakes, just silver plated brass coins. 1st coin were never minted, only HU-PEH ONE TAEL were minted on 1904
the coin you posted are based on 1909 ver.
All coins from China are considered fakes until proven genuine.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Agree with all stated above, all Chinese coins are fake unless proven to be genuine. There are so many “fantasy types” created for tourists as a souvenir or as a fake to trick the unassuming buyer.
I am more experienced in the field of ancient and chinese coins, south-east asian coins included too!
In fact, totally only a small percentage of Chinese coins are fake. You have to remember that China has a long history in casting coins. In addition to that, China has a lot of relatively cheap coins that is not even worth counterfeiting. If, for example, 3.5 billion pieces of some cointype have been made per year, there is probably no point in making any more counterfeits. I agree that China has made a lot of counterfeits and still makes a lot of them, and I'm not defending China at all, but I think it's really wrong to say that all Chinese coins are counterfeit unless proven otherwise.
In fact, totally only a small percentage of Chinese coins are fake. You have to remember that China has a long history in casting coins. In addition to that, China has a lot of relatively cheap coins that is not even worth counterfeiting. If, for example, 3.5 billion pieces of some cointype have been made per year, there is probably no point in making any more counterfeits. I agree that China has made a lot of counterfeits and still makes a lot of them, and I'm not defending China at all, but I think it's really wrong to say that all Chinese coins are counterfeit unless proven otherwise.
I’m meaning those from the GuangXu period and Xuantong period with the struck coins in silver, as those are rare and worth quite the bit, therefore there are a lot of counterfeits floating around in the market. Mainly every Chinese coin like that comes on to the forums here and are mainly fake
I am more experienced in the field of ancient and chinese coins, south-east asian coins included too!
