300 year old coin found in Northern Il.

Merf · Jun 19, 2009

I had an hour to kill late yesterday afternoon and with few spots left to hunt I went back to a very trashy 1800s site. Started digging every signal except iron and got lucky.
I dug the beat up indianhead first and after digging lots of trash I got a steady 50 on the VDI and dug up this Chinese coin. I posted it on the What is it forum and was almost floored when Mackaydon and Fast Dave IDed it as a coin from the Ming Dynasty 1662 to 1722. Thanks Guys.

""""Lower image resembles Emperor SHENG TSU
AD 1662-1722
reign title: K'ANG-HSI, AD 1662-1722
"BOO YUWAN" (Board of Works mint). The Manchurian mint name translates to Pao-yuan or "The Source of all Currency".F $2.00 VF $3.50
Scroll down to "S1422"

Don.......

Source:http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/china/china8.htm """"

I put it in the tumbler for 1/2 hour and it cleaned up well.
It is not worth much but it is sure a thrill to find a coin that old.
Best luck my friends. :hello:

Merf · Jun 22, 2009

""""You had fur traders in the area long before that. Bet there are some early French, English, or American coins hiding somewhere in Illinois.""""

Thanks Davew :thumbsup:

The fur traders and trappers could have been the source of the coin.
I also thought that about the 1751 Coin. Too bad there is not much recorded history about this area back then. :thumbsup:

Merf · Jun 22, 2009

Thanks ED-NH :thumbsup:

Thanks Mark :thumbsup:

Tom_in_CA · Jun 22, 2009

Those persons replying, who say this was probably an 1800s loss (100 to 200 yrs. after mintage) are correct. Those cache coins show up all the time in sites that WELL post-date their mintage. Apparently they were made by the millions, and stored in crates and such for generations, or simply circulated into oblivian with no regard for their age.

Humorously, an archie found one of those in a pacific northwest archaeological site (OR or WA state, I forget), and assumed "Oh wow! The chinese came here 100 years before the Europeans", (simply because they discerned that it was a 1500's coin). That got picked up by the media, and unquestioned (after-all, a credentialed archie is a specialist who knows everything, right? ::)

) The archie simply had no idea that these are as common as sn*t (yes, even that old!) in any area where chinese coolies/immigrants/RR workers/miners came to in the USA.

kimsdad · Jun 23, 2009

Another rare keeper!!!

Merf, you never fail to surprise us! :thumbsup:

Merf · Jun 23, 2009

Thanks KD

prolab69 · Jun 23, 2009

Thats very interesting. now if you could only talk to the person who dropped it.
I swear, you find the coolest stuff sometimes.

Pro-

hikeinmts · Jun 24, 2009

Great finds....I find many many of the Chinese coins here in S. Korea.
The coin you found is not a 1600's coin. It is a coin dating 1736-1795. The people who gave you the info about the mint are
right.....just one Chinese king, date wise, off.
Would like to let anyone know that I would be glad to i.d. any Chinese coin that might be found. I have 5 different reference books of Chinese holed coins, and the Korean coin catalogue's entire first section is on Chinese coins, as the Chinese were the
first in the far east area that minted coins. Korea's first minted coins were in the late 900's.....but it didn't take, as the Korean
people were a trading people, and they didn't accept the coins. Still find a few of these real early ones. Coins here finally
were accepted in the 1400's, ChoSunTong Bo.

Again, great find, and YES, I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE STORY BEHIND HOW IT GOT THERE. If only they could talk. ::)

Merf · Jun 24, 2009

hikeinmts said:
Great finds....I find many many of the Chinese coins here in S. Korea.
The coin you found is not a 1600's coin. It is a coin dating 1736-1795. The people who gave you the info about the mint are
right.....just one Chinese king, date wise, off.
Would like to let anyone know that I would be glad to i.d. any Chinese coin that might be found. I have 5 different reference books of Chinese holed coins, and the Korean coin catalogue's entire first section is on Chinese coins, as the Chinese were the
first in the far east area that minted coins. Korea's first minted coins were in the late 900's.....but it didn't take, as the Korean
people were a trading people, and they didn't accept the coins. Still find a few of these real early ones. Coins here finally
were accepted in the 1400's, ChoSunTong Bo.

Again, great find, and YES, I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE STORY BEHIND HOW IT GOT THERE. If only they could talk.