Can anyone help positively identify this coin? I believe it is a Year 18(1929) Chinese 5 Yuan/Dollar silver coin. It has Sun Yat Sen on the obverse with a Junk on the reverse. I understand from the few references I could find that several foreign mints made coins this year, but most references mention a one dollar coin, not this 5 Dollar version. It is bigger and I believe heavier than a Morgan Dollar. Is it real, or a 'fantasy' coin? I bought it a couple months ago at a Japanese Shrine Sale (antique market). Thanks in advance for any help. Rob
It does appear to be a fantasy: The Standard Catalog of World Coins does not list any 5 yuan/dollar coins of the pre-Taiwan Republic The portrait is very similar, if not identical, to that on a 1927 2 chiao/20 cent commemorating the death of Sun Yat Sen The reverse junk is a three-master sailing in a somewhat different direction than the two-master pictured on both versions of the only pre-Taiwan Republic 1 yuan/dollar coins showing a junk, which are listed in the SCWC
Thanks for the info, Hontonai. Is there any value in this type of coin? How could I tell if it is even silver?
Try to pick it up with a magnet. If it picks it up, you know it's not silver. That's a start anyway. You could also weigh it if you have a very accurate gram scale.
Well the obverse says - Year 18 (1929) Republic of China. Obverse is a poor portrait of Sun yat-sen. now in 1929 the Chinese government asked all the national and foreign mints to submit coins with Dr. Suns image on one side and a junk on the Reverse. The symbols on the reverse are 1 and 5. Without knowing the weight or dimensions of the coin makes it hard to ID. This may or may not be one of the submitted coins or perhaps a fake using the dies of one of the 1929 entries. Best I can do for you. i would lean toward counterfeit without more info. As for testing for silver, you can run a magnet over it as suggested or calculated the specific gravity of the coin or do a Brinell hardness test on the coin. Regards Traci
The symbol to left of the junk looks like gan, meaning the first year of reign in Japanese. I don't know if it means the same for Chinese coins or not.
I never knew that. I never really found myself interested in Chinese coins. Thanks for the extra bit of info that will be added to my ever-expanding knowledge base! It's lucky for the inquisitive collector that the internet is around.
I weighed it with a not-so-accurate digital kitchen scale and it came out to 37 grams and with a ruler it measures 44-45 mm in diameter and 3-3.25mm thick. I used a strong magnet and it does not attract it at all. I found one of these a few months ago on an auction site, and just found a very similar one here - http://cgi.ebay.com/CHINA-REPUBLIC-1929-Year-18-5Dollar-coin_W0QQitemZ280426963607QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Coins2?hash=item414abfe297 These two are the same style of coin, but you can tell there are some differences between the ebay coin and mine, mostly with the size of the characters and rim. Thanks again for all the great info.
Do fantasies come in heavy, solid silver? I bought one last weekend from a Chinese gentleman at an international craft fair in Lisbon (who spoke no Portuguese or English, and since returned to China). It's beguilingly beautiful even if a crude representation of Sun Yat-sen and the junk.
The previous conversation was held in 2009... I can find nothing before or after this date concerning this fantasy coin - which is a bit odd
