My oldest coin...ever!

[digger27]

Chinese, not real rare and the most common Chinese coin found in this country but I never found any Chinese coin before and it is very old so a bucket lister I can cross off.
A gazillion made, tons of barrels of these things were brought over in the early days by Chinese immigrants and they spread out far and wide but here in Birmingham Ala. not a very common find at all.
Found in a neighbor's lawn across the street from my house so a nice surprise.

1 cash- Qianlong coin Boo-chiowan minting from 1736 to 1795 so minimum 225 years old.

It will hold that place as my oldest coin until I find a more rare American coin to replace it.

 

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[Noah_D]

Nice! I found a Qianlong earlier this year as well, my only 1700s coin so far.

 

[Timbermaster]

Congrats! Im still lookin for mine!

 

[digger27]

Thanks guys, not rare or valuable but not junk either so a great find, I think.

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Randy Combs]

Makes you wonder how it got here

 

[JeffInMass]

Very cool find- Congrats!

 

[digger27]

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

Thanks!

 

[digger27]

Very cool find- Congrats!

Thank you!

 

[Joe-Dirt]

I’ve found six, in spills of 3. I’ve been told that folks would sew them into their clothes for good luck. I’ve only tried to ID mine once, gave me a headache, but they are usually pretty old. Congrats!!!

 

[digger27]

Makes you wonder how it got here

I will never know but a few possibilities.
When a new Chinese emperor mints his coins all the previous ones are usually demonetized so that country ends up with many tons of tiny, useless pieces of metal.
When immigrants came here to mine, build the railroads or whatever, they brought barrels of these things with them.
Many were used in many different ways, as money, decorative items, sewn on clothes, used in crafts and for jewelry, many sold as cheap collectables.
They are everywhere in this country, many hunters find them all the time from sea to shining sea.
This particular coin probably was a collectable or part of a craft item lost by someone that lived in that home which was built between 1925-1935.
It was at a deep enough level there is also the possibility that it might have been lost a few hundred years ago when they were still in use dropped by hunters, trappers or just someone traveling through this area a long time before there was any civilization around here.
I have found a few flat buttons in this area that are as, or almost as old as this coin that had to have been lost by one of those types at about the same depth where I found this coin.
Like I said I will never know the truth but it is much more fun to believe that it has been sitting there in the ground for a few hundred years waiting for me to come along and dig it up so I am just gonna think that way until someone proves me wrong.

 

[Wildcat1750]

Cool find!

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

Great Find!
The coin would have been held in high regard, as it reminded the Chinese gentleman, of HOME...!

I use this site to id my coins
Chinese Coins

 

[Yang Hao]

Congrats on finding a 乾隆 coin. I think when detecting for coins in North America the Chinese coins found will be from the Qing Dynasty or later. It would be interesting if a NA treasure hunter while detecting finds Chinese coins from the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644). How a coin of that era ended up in ground in North America would be quite a mystery.

 

[against the wind]

Nice old coin,, Congrats

 

[digger27]

Thank you, all.
Fun to look up the history of these things, something cool to feel good about while I am waiting for the next piece of treasure to pop up.

 

[digger27]

Great Find!
The coin would have been held in high regard, as it reminded the Chinese gentleman, of HOME...!

I use this site to id my coins
Chinese Coins

Excellent reference, very interesting so thanks for that!

 

[Silvermonkey]

Very nice Digger! Any 200 + year old coin ( US or not) is a winner in my book! Congrats to you.

 

[WannaDig3687]

I will never know but a few possibilities.
When a new Chinese emperor mints his coins all the previous ones are usually demonetized so that country ends up with many tons of tiny, useless pieces of metal.
When immigrants came here to mine, build the railroads or whatever, they brought barrels of these things with them.
Many were used in many different ways, as money, decorative items, sewn on clothes, used in crafts and for jewelry, many sold as cheap collectables.
They are everywhere in this country, many hunters find them all the time from sea to shining sea.
This particular coin probably was a collectable or part of a craft item lost by someone that lived in that home which was built between 1925-1935.
It was at a deep enough level there is also the possibility that it might have been lost a few hundred years ago when they were still in use dropped by hunters, trappers or just someone traveling through this area a long time before there was any civilization around here.
I have found a few flat buttons in this area that are as, or almost as old as this coin that had to have been lost by one of those types at about the same depth where I found this coin.
Like I said I will never know the truth but it is much more fun to believe that it has been sitting there in the ground for a few hundred years waiting for me to come along and dig it up so I am just gonna think that way until someone proves me wrong.

I really like and agree with what you posted here! When I was a very young adult, my grandmother gave me my grandfather's coin collection. It wasn't much, but there were several of these types of coins. Always fascinated me and made me wonder how he came across them. Some of my answers have been answered on this site, but you can only imagine most of how, when, and why. I found them hard to ID. Makes my head hurt.
Congratulations! It's really cool to have something that old.

 

[A2coins]

Congrats thats really coo I remember my first Chinese coin it looked ancient