Found Chinese temple cache with silver coin in Taiwan today. With pics

Benjamin52

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Apr 26, 2011
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Hey everyone!

Here`s the story:

Today I was out with my new Vaquero that finally arrived 2 weeks ago here at a local park in Taichung, Taiwan.
It was about 5pm and sun sets at 6, so I wanted to chill out detecting for an hour or two before going back to studying for an exam tomorrow.
Luckily I brought my strap-on headlight, because I was going to be in for the big show....

Started out detecting a park I had never been to before, after 2 minutes a horde of 3 little children come jumping along, among them a hyperactive 8-year old or so that was able to speak English so I had no excuse for ignoring him as he asked me about what I was doing, if he could also hold the detector, dig the hole, etc... I like children but he was just being a pain in the a** because I constantly had to reach out to protect my detector from him jumping on my search coil or worse..
We dug up some trash after 10 minutes of interrupted digging and other children came by, I was about to give up and go home when luckily the mother came and took him away.

Great, sun was almost down and I was very annoyed, only 3 holes dug and all garbage, park seemed like a dump anyways, things worsened when I dug up some irrigation system lids and an old lady came by and told me these lids were all over the park, I should`t destroy them...bla bla :BangHead:

Knowing the park was basically a very bad location due to irrigation system lids and garbage + sun was away now, I decided it was not my day and wanted to go home.

I was detecting my way back to by bike and finally got a decent hit as an old man came by with 2 small children and stood next to me watching me dig.
After I dug up the pull-tab (*sob*) I thought, OK, I lost anyways here so I can just as well be friendly and greeted the old man.

He asked about the detector and I explained in my mediocre Chinese.

Then he suddenly said: "You know what, why don`t you try and go over to that corner of the park, I remember there used to be a little temple with an where people used to buy little offerings a long time ago, maybe you can find some big old coins.."

I laughed to myself and thought, okay, lets play the game, nothing to loose anyways and at least it was a lead.

Long story short: We arrived at the park corner, the man told me where the temple or shrine had been and told me to search in a small area about 5x3 meters big.

20 seconds later, crystal clear hit, huge, ancient-looking Chinese coin popped out right under the grass. Wow, now sh*t is getting real i thought and went on, sure enough every 2 or three swings, same story, 5 minutes later I had found nothing less than 7 huge old coins.

Unluckily other people saw what was happening and came by to look, I made the mistake to lend a coin to one lady and another old man who said please, please let me keep it I remember these when I was small.. I said "okay okay" that was a big mistake maybe, suddenly everyone wanted a coin and I just could not say: "No, I am raiding your fancy little old temple site and you guys are not part of the fun" So i ended up giving away 5 coins to people standing around and 2 coins to the man who had helped me find the site, leaving me with 2 coins (I had found 9 by then)

I then said I had to go home and everyone started leaving. I pretended to ready up my detector for leaving and waited a while.

After 10 minutes everybody was gone and I took the detector back out and put on my head-mounted light.

Very unfortunately I got some very bad interference on my vaquero, threshold wouldn`t keep steady, always humming and chopping, tried to change all settings, no use at all but I knew it was now or never, tried to tweak it as good as was possible and went to it.

I dug up 9 more of the huge coins until the area was clear of signals, I left some iffy ones to be dug up next visit (As I definately plan on going back)
And went for the clear ones.

Very satisfied I rode home and cleaned the coins.

If anybody can help me with some ID`s I would appreciate it a lot.

I am sure one is silver, they are all very heavy, very dirty and appear to be made of at least 2 different materials.
All coins have a dragon on the heads side with the words "HU-PEH" PROVINCE over it and the words ""7 MACE AND 2 CANDAREENS" under the dragon.
The back shows Chinese symbols, I can not translate it yet, I know the top part means where that coin was minted, each is a bit different but I can not be sure of details.

There is only 1 coin with a totally different back side (see picture) it looks really freaky that one coin

I have ready that there are many fake ones of these around but I guess these are not fake because they are from the ground not from a dealer.

I know the upper left one is probably silver, the upper right one is made out of a golden looking material (Brass?), looks different from the others but maybe it is just because I cleaned it more....I dare not think it is gold as I guess it would not be that dirty as gold does not corrupt in that way I assume, but who knows, maybe somebody knows better..

That is it for now, enjoy the pictures, any leads and possible value guesses would be appreciated,

I will go back to the site in 2 days, maybe I will find more, I will also clean these coins better and post more pics..

Pictures below, Have a great day
DSCN2350.JPG
freshly dug..
DSCN2355.JPG
DSCN2356.JPG
DSCN2359.JPG
DSCN2370.JPG
DSCN2367.JPG EDIT: FOUND RING WITH POSSIBLE DIAMOND ONE DAY LATER SAME SITE SEE PICS END OF PAGE
 

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Benjamin52

Benjamin52

Sr. Member
Apr 26, 2011
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695
Germany
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DSCN2380.JPG
all 11 coins
DSCN2382.JPG
DSCN2383.JPG
DSCN2384.JPG
back side of only different coin (last picture) have not seen this design on any numismatic webpage..
DSCN2385.JPG
 

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Benjamin52

Benjamin52

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Apr 26, 2011
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another one DSCN2400 2.jpg
 

SusanMN

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Can't help with identifications, but what an awesome story. It was nice of you to give away those coins, and karma paid you back with more. Bet you there is another whole layer underneath.
 

cudamark

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Nice finds! I hope you didn't give away any silver ones! I'd go back as soon as possible as the word it bound to get around now.
 

unclemac

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7 Mace and 2 Candareen....is the weight, how interesting.
 

Mr.T

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Very cool - maybe go back after it rains and get more depth. Great finds.
 

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Benjamin52

Benjamin52

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Update: So I went back to the site late yesterday night at around midnight to avoid curious people.
I took an extra torch and my headlamp and went on to find two more coins, one definitely made of silver as it was the best specimen and the silver surface is evident, although I did not clean them completely yet, they are soaking in Olive Oil right now.

Just when I was about to leave I got one more hit and was able to recover this ring.

It looks like silver and the stone looks like a diamond of orange color to my untrained eye, so I might be wrong, feedback appreciated, you can see the tip of the gem/diamond stick out on the inside surface of the ring.

there is a small mark inside the ring which reads "K白"

I do not know about the "K" but the Chinese character literally translates to "white", I have no clue what it means, hoping somebody knows..

I would also appreciate help on how to remove all the dirt and earth without damaging the coins, I soaked them in warm soap water and used a paper towel to clean them and also soaked them in olive oil but that only removed some earth there are still very unpleasant blackish and greenish stains and clumps on the coins, not the nice platina collectors like so much but really unpleasant stuff, should I try and use acetone? any other ideas?

Pictures below:

DSCN2406XX.JPG DSCN2409XXX.JPG
DSCN2422XXX.JPG DSCN2424.JPG
DSCN2427.JPG DSCN2429.JPG
DSCN2432.JPG DSCN2438.JPG
DSCN2428.JPG DSCN2440.JPG
DSCN2441.JPG DSCN2442.JPG

DSCN2443.JPG DSCN2444.JPG
DSCN2445.JPG DSCN2446.JPG
DSCN2449.JPG
 

BryanM362

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Can't help with identifications, but what an awesome story. It was nice of you to give away those coins, and karma paid you back with more. Bet you there is another whole layer underneath.

Exactly! Congrats!
 

unclemac

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well...the K could mean karat as in gold...the white could indicate white gold?...but any jewelry store in your city could tell you straight away...about the stone too....let us know...the stone looks sort of like topaz....

keep hunting...maybe other parks had shrines too....
 

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Benjamin52

Benjamin52

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Apr 26, 2011
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Took the ring to a diamond-selling shop, he said the stone is not a diamond, then he said it is a man-made one and not a natural one.
I know the diamonds made in laboratories are worth much less but isn`t that still a diamond? I might have not understood him right because of my chinese level..
Anyways, I don`t know, but apparently it is not an expensive diamond or a different kind of stone.

Here are some more pictures of the cleanest coins after olive oil bath and some acetone which didn`t do much actually..
DSCN2461.JPG DSCN2479.JPG DSCN2482.JPG
 

SusanMN

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Sorry about the ring. If the clear stones aren't diamonds they are probably glass. Try rubbing your silver coins with baking soda, that should brighten them up.
 

cudamark

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I'd leave them the way they are at the moment until you research them to determine value. If you get too carried away cleaning them, you might ruin some of the collector value. Frankly, I don't think they look all that bad. They have some interesting toning going on.
 

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