I found this Chinese coin at a Civil War era house. Any info is greatly appreciated.
I found this Chinese coin at a Civil War era house. Any info is greatly appreciated.
Baldingboy, I'll let someone else answer the date part. Those go in "dynasties", not invidividual years. So they can cover, for example, 50 yrs, or whatever. Yours is one of the older ones, because the one side has only 2 characters, while the other has 4 characters. The newer ones had 4 characters on both sides. They ceased being made soon after the turn of the century, altogether.
Once you get your date-range, it has almost no bearing on when it reached your site, or when it was lost. Those coins were sometimes 100 to 200 yrs. old, before they even reached the USA. We find those cache coins by the handfuls out here in the west at some places (where there was heavy chinese immigration in the 1800s for the mining and RR workers). Some of them can date back to the 1600 and 1700s, but have no bearing on when they got here to the USA. I guess there must have been barrells full of them in China, which got opened at various times for travelling and/or use? Who knows.
And they are all worth nothing. But they're fun to find, because when you start getting those, you know you're in an area that dates to no later than the mid 1910s. Ie.: can get barbers or seateds.
....mostly true,aside from "all worth nothing"...................I have found three that have sold for $100....pretty good change if you ask me?For the most part they are VERY common and most worth very little