let's start some buzz on the coin thread!

[ToddsPoint]

I'm simply going to say, the professional appraiser who made the offer disagrees with your assessment, and if they were made by the Chinese, they buried them in Vermont, prior to 1962. Thanks for playing.

I’d run as fast as I could and get that $8,000. 🤣

 

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[l.cutler]

It may not look like much but this is one of my better coins. It is a 1787 Connecticut 33.28-Z.20 of which there are currently 8 known. I love trying to ID low grade coins, it can be very challenging but also occasionally very rewarding. I got this one as a buy it now on ebay unidentified.

 

[ARC]

Here’s one you may not have seen before.

After the late 16th Century, the ‘Spanish dollar’ (aka ‘Mexican dollar’ and ‘silver peso’) increasingly became the de facto currency for trade in the Far East, trusted in China especially for its reliable weight and silver fineness. China ultimately produced its own version as the silver yuan (‘dragon dollar’) which circulated alongside Spanish/Mexican coins in trade with its neighbours.

Following its defeat in the Opium Wars of 1839–1842 and 1856–1860, China was forced to open its ports to foreign trade. A general shortage of Spanish/Mexican coins resulted in a number of Western nations trading with China and other Far Eastern countries (for commodities such as tea, silk and porcelain) ultimately producing their own versions in equivalent weight and fineness. The coins were known as ‘trade dollars’.

In 1895, lobbying by the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce with support from the Straits Settlements (British territories in Asia) led to production of the ‘British Trade Dollar’ to alleviate the shortage. Like this one, from my collection (not dug).

View attachment 2183197
View attachment 2183198

The reverse has ‘One Dollar’ in Chinese script and ‘One Ringgit’ in Jawi Malay, with the Chinese symbol for longevity in the centre. Most were minted in India, but some in London, and mine has the ‘B’ mintmark for Bombay (now Mumbai) on the middle tine of Britannia’s trident:

View attachment 2183199

They were struck as 27.95g of .900 silver (a slightly lower standard than the silver peso, which circulated alongside it) and intended for wider circulation in British territories, but the adoption of the ‘Straits dollar’ in 1905 left Hong Kong as the only British colony using them and they ceased to be produced in 1935. The coin never circulated in Britain but had a fluctuating exchange value depending on the bullion price for silver.

Shame that it was cleaned at some point.

 

[Red-Coat]

Shame that it was cleaned at some point.

I'm sure it hasn't. It's virtually uncirculated apart from the bag marks and still has some original lustre. The lighting I used to reduce glare belies that.

 

[BigWaveDave]

Terry…. What the absolute fudge!
That 1795 dollar is giving me palpitations.
1803 not too shabby either….
You made my day posting those!
Thanks!!!

 

[BigWaveDave]

Red Coat….. your Hong Kong dollar is gorgeous. Never seen one of those.
Love your history lessons!

 

[Red-Coat]

Here are another couple you may not have seen before (my collection, not dug).

These 5 fen and 1 fen coins were issued as official currency (not tokens) by the Japanese-controlled puppet state of Manchukuo (Manchuria) in China in the Kangde era under Emperor Puyi. The 5 fen was issued in 1944 and 1945, and the 1 fen in 1945 only, circulating until the Soviets invaded in August 1945.

Towards the end of the war, metals were in desperately short supply for production of anything non-military and the coins were moulded from a red-brown rubberised fibre as an emergency measure. Many sources describe them as ‘fibre’ (some sources say compressed coconut fibre) and they certainly have a proportion of some kind of fibre, but mixed with vulcanised rubber. Magnesite (magnesium carbonate) was also added, and the resultant plasticised dough was pressed in moulds and then hardened.

The exact composition is not well documented and the material was experimental to the extent that there may have been more than one formulation used. Rubber was also in short supply and circumstantial evidence suggests that the rubber might have been obtained from locally-grown 'Russian Dandelions' (Taraxacum kok-saghyz) which yield a latex similar to that from the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis). Several countries experimented with it as an alternative to rubber and the Russians in particular cultivated it on a large scale during WWII as an emergency source when supplies of rubber from Southeast Asia were cut off.

 

[tamrock]

Coin collecting was pretty fun for a kid in the early 1960s. I lived in Kewanee, ILL and there was a coin shop uptown me and a friend would ride our stingray bikes up to see what we could afford with our allowance and lawn mowing money. Digging through your parents change to find spots to fill in the penny, buffalo & Jefferson nickels, Mercury & Roosevelt dimes, Liberty & Washington quarters and Liberty, Franklin and the new Kenedy half dollar books, which all those types were still in circulation was a great activity. Sadly I sold off most all the silver I had collected plus what was handed down to me from my grandma which was $87.00 face value of 1921 morgans and 1922 Peace dollars back in the early 1980s during the Hunt Bros silver manipulation era. When I cash in sterling silver at my local coin dealer, I always look over the ancient coins they have and think for a moment I should start buying a few of those, only because they're so interesting. I've held off, because I'm unsure if I'd be buying at the right price. I've never got around to the research of what you best spend your money on when it comes to ancient coins. They also have some old ship wreck gold and silver coins at times and those sell pretty quick at high prices. Most of what I collect today is what I find interesting and way under value in these hugh thrift stores we have around here. It's amazing what some folks toss out.

 

[pepperj]

While I never really looked into the value of these coins, I was offered over $8,000.00 for them last year (Not the quarter which is for size). Found by my father in the early 1960's using a modified WWII Mine detector.

Here's why your 1803 is a copy.

Here is the real deal.

So something isn't adding up.

 

[ToddsPoint]

The Chinese are getting better at making fakes. Most are easy to tell. A few are getting really close to looking original. I’d recommend to Terry to put his coins on a digital scale and take a pic and show us. An authentic silver dollar from that era should weigh exactly 26.96 grams.