Ancient Chinese Coin Collectors Guide. Authored by Adrian Loder. When dealing with ancient Chinese coins, there are two things to consider—the reputability of the dealer in question, and their skill in detecting forgeries. An honest dealer that cannot spot fakes—and there are some good ones—is eventually going to land you with some fake coins. The earliest form of Chinese money was shells (hence the use of the shell character in many other characters related to value, money and wealth). Money shells were later bronzed. In the period of rival states (770 – 221 BC) different shapes of money were used by different states: knife-shaped, spade shaped, and ant-nose-shaped. WORLD WAR II CHINESE COIN DEPICTS ANCIENT SPADE COIN This 1940 Chinese 1 Fen (1 cent) coin depicts an ancient bronze Chinese Spade coin issued by the State of Han between about 350 and 250BC. It demonstrates China's long history of coinage. The reverse has the denomination and date in Chinese.

Do you want to know if a coin is genuine? I give you the keys in this article to know how to effectively spot a counterfeit coin. This article will be in several chapters, presenting and explaining in detail each technique. (if you do not know the numismatic terms like dies or other, click here: https://www.all-your-coins.com/en/blog/antique/romaines/comment-identifier-les-monnaies-romaines.)

Summary:

Introduction: the points to remember.

chapter 1: the diameter.

chapter 2: the weight.

chapter 3: the metal.

chapter 4: the style and quality of engraving.

chapter 5: the patina.

chapter 6: the surface.

chapter 7: the blank.

chapter 8: the edge.

chapter 9: the same coin in several copies.

chapter 10: missing details.

chapter 11: the same die.

chapter 12: the wear.

chapter 13: the hybrids.

chapter 14: the mold fakes.

chapter 15: the electrotypes.

chapter 16: the tooling.

chapter 17: the problem of the contemporary fakes.

chapter 18: the ancient fakes.

chapitre 19: the fake coins for tourist.

Conclusion.

Introduction: the points to remember.

First of all, some very important points that will allow you to take a big step right away: put yourself in the head of a forger. Why imitate, how and what are the constraints. One imitates a coin for three reasons:

- to fool a collector and win money.

- to create replicas of extremely rare coins and to be able to show them to the public.

- to sell them as fake to collectors who want to plug a hole in their collection (when a coin is very rare).

For the last two reasons, there is always one or more details showing you that a coin is a replica. Because the people who created these currencies are honest. They do not wish to deceive a collector. And most importantly, they do not want anyone, with one of their copies, to try to sell this one as a genuine coin. In this case the coin may have the mention 'copy' on the slice or in the middle of the coin. As the little 'R' on top left, indicate here: 'Replica' on this coin:

Photo of a coin posted on forumnumismatique.com, link to the website and the topic: http://www.numismatique.com/forum/topic/28344-lettre-r-sur-une-monnaie-ancienne/?tab=comments#comment-141940.

The metal can be other than the authentic coins, we can also add or remove details ... or change the legend. For a connoisseur to make the difference right away. What are also called 'fake tourists' are the easiest to detect: poor print quality, unusual weights and diameters ...

For fakes used to deceive the collector or the investor, two cases: rare coins and commons coins. The more rare the coin is, the more likely the buyer will be to have a minimum of knowledge and many specialists will see the sale, because it is the kind of coins they are looking for. In this case the work of the forger will be very well done. It will probably respect weight, diameter, style... He will try to make a copy as perfect as possible. On the other hand, it will inevitably use modern manufacturing techniques which will leave traces and will make it possible to know that it is a forgery (one will come there later in the article). Given the profit made if the coin is sold, the forger will take the time to work long on his replica. He will also have a substantial material and be able to recreate the conditions of a real antique mint. Heat the blank, engrave dies... I let you imagine. This is therefore for a very small category of counterfeiters. We are talking here about coin on sale at several thousand euros ...

The second case, that of the current coins, is more complex. Indeed, who says common coin says: low selling price. It will therefore be necessary to manufacture a quantity large enough for the activity to be profitable. And there, the problems begin for the forger. He wants to make money easily and spending as little time as possible ... he has also turned to common coins because we are less wary of a coin sold 30 Euros than a coin sold 2000 euros. Probably also because he does not have the ability to create a fake of excellent quality to sell it very expensive. His work will cause several things: for example, there will be 100 times the same coin with the same centering ... which is impossible. If you see two coins of the same type with the same centering: no doubt it is a modern fake. I will detail all this further down in the article.

Before looking at the chapters below, you must understand several more things. The, diameter, weight and patina, alone, are not elements allowing to eliminate a coin of the authentic category. Indeed, an authentic coin can have a large diameter or a heavy weight. And a patina may have been made on a authentic coin but that had been cleaned. The 'repatinage' as they say, is common, to restore its antique appearance to the coin.

The fake antique coins, that is to say made in antiquity, also have a low weight, the diameter can be also. The quality of engraving will often be of very poor quality. To summarize, you can have a coin with a degenerate style, a weight and a small diameter, a metal other than that of the official coins, which is a fake antique. An imitation made on the same period. Of course, for metal, if you see a steel or tin coin, it is obvious that it is not antique.

Concerning errors and hybrids, as well as diameter and weight, this does not rank a coin in the category of modern fakes. A mistake of legend can happen during the engraving in an antique mint. Antique hybrids also exist. When we speak of hybrids, we designate an obverse and a reverse that should not be associated because of a different period. Example, an obverse mentioning that the emperor is consul for the third time and a reverse mentioning that he is consul for the fourth ... This is an example to show you that a hybrid combines two different periods. Modern counterfeit coins are sometimes hybrids because of a bad knowledge of antique numismatics from the forger. It can also be a desire of the engraver to create an original coin, so to sell it more expensive and to have fewer points of comparison available. The problem being that counterfeiters in antiquity also unwittingly created hybrids or their coins included legend errors. Why? Because many of them could not read, so it was difficult to copy the legends correctly. The other point and this can also be true for modern fakes: copy techniques. For example, when one practices the molding, it is common to mold several coin at the same time: one will thus take a mold presenting the obverse of a coin and a mold with the reverse of another. This creates the unlikely mixes that can be observed next.

That being said, perfect authentic coins coming out of an official mint, are sometimes hybrids, made by mistake by re-using an old die coin with a new one.

We must remain vigilant with all these parameters. If you are not used to seeing ancient coins, proceed as follows: Once you have identified the denomination (denarius, Antoninian etc.), the emperor or the region of strike, the period. Read the chapters of this tutorial and then compare your coin with others that are the same. I specify: same denomination, same legend (writings on the coin), same clothes, same type of reverses. Everything must match. I add in addition, the same mint. From one mint to another, the style of representation sometimes changes a lot. An emperor will have a large portrait with a small eye, and in a more distant mint he will be slim with a really big eye. This will prevent you from being disturbed by comparing coins.

Chapter 1: the diameter.

The diameter of an antique coin varies slightly, from one to two millimeters. Large diameter differences become suspicious. It is even possible for the diameter to become that of a lower

Ancient Chinese Spade Money How To Tell Real From Fake