Back from vacation

[Ray in CA]

Hey folks,

Well, sadly I had to leave the high Sierras to come back home and earn a living. I didn't find a horde of silver or gold coins, gold nuggets or anything else of much value, but I did manage to make one of my goals while there, which was to find a chinese coin (I have found two previously but lost them). I have yet to identify this coin but I'm sure it dates between the mid to late 1800s:

Here's the backside:

I also got a "piece" of another chinese coin, though I think it is a different denomination as the first one since it is a tad thinner. Could be wrong, though.

I also found this bullet casing. It looked old so I decided to keep it. Plus, I like the "H" in the center. Any info on this casing from some of you bullet experts out there would be appreciated:

I also managed two 1946 wheaties and a 1957 wheatie. I'm pretty sure this old mining town has been detected to death, but at least I came away with a few goodies...till next year!

Ray

 

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[Ray in CA]

Forgot to mention...the fires in northern California must be real bad. Even though we weren't in any danger, we sure got a lot of the smoke our way. And we were up around 5000 ft. in elevation. Here's a pic of the lake we were fishing in at around six pm one evening:

Probably the best moment of the trip was when my daughter reeled in a BEAUTIFUL German Brown Trout. I had sent her to the car to get something and as she was making her way back the fish hit her bait. I immediately reacted and set the hook and yelled at her to get over there. She then fought the fish (and what a fight it was!!) to the shoreline and it measured around 14". I was so shocked at catching a brown trout as usually one has to go trolling in this lake to catch them. Here's my daughter with her prize catch of the trip!

Ray

 

[Jack(IN)]

I know there is a site for Chinese coins, but can't find it, I think it might be a little older too. Definitely nice catch by your daughter, beautiful fish!! Congrats to both(you and her, not the fish)!!

 

[spritch]

Nice finds Ray. The cartridge is from a Henry Repeater rifle. 1860s would be my guess. First repeating rifle. Both your daughter and her trout are beautiful. Way to go.
stuart

 

[Burdie]

you can't beat a vacation like that. congrats.

Burdie

 

[aa battery]

browns are good eating

 

[Slabman]

Nice finds Ray. The cartridge is from a Henry Repeater rifle. 1860s would be my guess. First repeating rifle. Both your daughter and her trout are beautiful. Way to go.
stuart

Yep! Otherwise known as a "Henry's" . There was a good segment on "Wild West Tech"
on Discovery channel, on how one guy out of 24, that had the new "Henry's", held off indians
for 6.5 hours. It was commented afterwards, that if he didn't have the Henry's they would
have been toast. Fun! Fun!
HH Slabman

Oh yeah, love the brown!!

 

[Carson Coin Master]

I can tell you that those are actually tokens that where used by the Chinese migrant workers when they built the railroads and helped with the mining. i have found several over the years near old mining sites and was told by a foreign coin shop that they are some sort of a token not currency at all. i could be wrong but that is what i was told.

 

[mlw67]

Your Chinese Cash coin dates from the Chien-Lung period, circa 1736 to 1796.

The 'Cash' was the Chinese monetary unit, so this was actual money, not a token.

 

[Winchester52fan]

I work in the ammo industry,but i'm not an expert on old shellcases.It appears to be an old Henry rimfire shellcase,hence,the firing pin indents on the rim.If it is the Henry rifle,it dates from least as early as 1873.
People who own these guns would certainly know better than me.

 

[Ray in CA]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Spritch, that's great info for the casing. I knew it was old, just didn't know how old. The firing pin indents certainly were different than anything I've seen.

aa, yes that trout was delicious! Tasted like salmon.

mlw67, that's a much earlier date than what I supposed for this chinese coin. The chinese who came to this area did so in the mid to late 1800s and there were between 180 to 300 who settled there for a while. Just out of curiosity, what makes you think it dates into the 1700s? Because if it does, that'll make it the oldest coin I've found yet!

Ray

 

[RickyP]

Its kinda strange that the cartridge has two firing marks on it in two different places

 

[Carson Coin Master]

Your Chinese Cash coin dates from the Chien-Lung period, circa 1736 to 1796.

The 'Cash' was the Chinese monetary unit, so this was actual money, not a token.

well if thats the case then the guy at the coin shop either lied to me or didn't know what he was talking about. i have 6 of those coins to be exact and if there that old then they must be worth some dough.

 

[mlw67]

Your Chinese Cash coin dates from the Chien-Lung period, circa 1736 to 1796.

The 'Cash' was the Chinese monetary unit, so this was actual money, not a token.

well if thats the case then the guy at the coin shop either lied to me or didn't know what he was talking about. i have 6 of those coins to be exact and if there that old then they must be worth some dough.

They aren't worth much, even though they are so old.

The reason is, they made bazillions of them. For example these coins were made exactly like this for 60 years--they didn't keep changing the date and mint mark like we do in the USA to give collectors more to collect--the Chinese just made the exact same coin for all the Chinese people, over and over and over, for 60 years. (in this case)

mlw67, that's a much earlier date than what I supposed for this chinese coin. The chinese who came to this area did so in the mid to late 1800s and there were between 180 to 300 who settled there for a while. Just out of curiosity, what makes you think it dates into the 1700s? Because if it does, that'll make it the oldest coin I've found yet!

Ray

Those are the marks that are on your coin--Chien-Lung. It isn't too unusual to find really old cash coins still in circulation much later, for the reasons I stated above about them making bazillions of them. My oldest coin that I've ever dug was a Chinese cash from circa 940 AD, and I found it here in Portland, OR, which is only circa 1850 AD. Another reason you can find old ones around is that people kept these coins as trinkets and souvenirs much, much later--for example my mom's sewing basket was covered with them. It was easy to keep them because you could run a string through the hole and keep several at once.

 

[spritch]

The Henry repeater had the distinctive double rim fire mark from the firing pin. It wasn't from two tries ti fire it.

 

[Detectingfreak]

Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun on your vacation!

 

[King-John]

Ray;
I found a little info on your Cartridge Case.

 

[King-John]

The Henry repeater had the distinctive double rim fire mark from the firing pin. It wasn't from two tries ti fire it.

It also appears that the Winchester Model 1866 had a Double Pin also.
Here is a little story about the Henry Riflehttp://www.hackman-adams.com/guns/henry.htm