Help with Chinese Cash Coin ID and Info

Hi, I was hoping to get some help identifying this old coin I keep on my desk to fiddle with during work calls.

Some facts:

• It appears to be cast, rather than struck. There are “seam” ridges inside the square cutout and what I think are casting marks around the edge
• It was bought from an antique shop in Brighton, England several years ago. The tag on it said “Old Chinese Coin” and I think I paid £8 for it
• I think it's brass
• It is 56mm in diameter
• It weighs 53g, according to my kitchen scales

I'm a total layman with no knowledge or experience whatsoever but I've tried to at least narrow down my search and I think the following is true:

• Chinese Cash Coin from Qing Dynasty
• Probably  Xianfeng Tongbao (pinyin), according to the writing on the “front”
• Emperor Wenzong 1850-1861, with similar coins dating around 1854-ish
• Value of Ten (wen?), according to the symbol at the bottom of the “back”
• Writing on the “front” is all traditional Mandarin Chinese
• Writing on the “back” is trad Chinese top and bottom, with Manchu writing on left and right
• I think the Manchu writing says “Jin Boo” which I suspect means “gold house” or bank?

Any information would be gratefully received but I'd especially like to know what each of the symbols means on each side. I'm reading them top-bottom-right-left, is this correct? A confirmed date and its position in history would be nice knowledge to have too.

 Your first picture is similar to the first picture on here 

N#44588 

N#44587 

 But nothing else - different reverse and size. 

Still, a start … 

Yes, I think those were two of the entries I found that helped me narrow down my search.

There's a wikipedia list here that features a listing for Xianfeng Tongbao (1850-1861), which looks like the correct symbols in a looser style.

It's fascinating, yet tantalisingly out of reach!

 How about the reverse of this 

N#226313 

 So a combination of both sides would be 

Xianfeng - Tongbao / Boo-jin 

ZacUK

 So a combination of both sides would be 

Xianfeng - Tongbao / Boo-jin 

Yes but sadly does not exist for this kind of huge coin

no XianFeng Zhong bao of this diameter

pchap

 

 

I'm a total layman with no knowledge or experience whatsoever but I've tried to at least narrow down my search and I think the following is true:

• Chinese Cash Coin from Qing Dynasty
• Probably  Xianfeng Tongbao (pinyin), according to the writing on the “front”
• Emperor Wenzong 1850-1861, with similar coins dating around 1854-ish
• Value of Ten (wen?), according to the symbol at the bottom of the “back”
• Writing on the “front” is all traditional Mandarin Chinese
• Writing on the “back” is trad Chinese top and bottom, with Manchu writing on left and right
• I think the Manchu writing says “Jin Boo” which I suspect means “gold house” or bank?

 

Very nice search anyway

gros

ZacUK

 So a combination of both sides would be 

Xianfeng - Tongbao / Boo-jin 

Yes but sadly does not exist for this kind of huge coin

Does this imply some kind of counterfeit/fake or simply that it hasn't been catalogued? Anything else I can do to help verify what it is?

An evocation  not a real coin