Full Version: ID please?
Chinese, ca. early 20th century, and a provincial issue. And then I differ to GX for the real expert opin on this.
Not sure which one but it looks like either a 1906 or 1909 Szechuan province 20 cash
Thanks guys...soon as someone tells me for sure I can change it in omnicoin. Right now its from Afghanistan 
It is definitely a Chinese 1906 10 Cash from the Hupeh province. This particular date has at least six different varieties to it. To identify these coins is more simple than you would expect if you have some kind of guide to the province mint marks and a cyclical dating matrix. on the obverse of the coin (the dragon is the reverse), hold the coin so that you have what looks like an 'F' with a line above it on the right hand side. Now you are looking at the coin right-side up.
If you have books and resources, this will help you in the future in identifying other Chinese coins. The date is at the top of the obverse, and it tells us that you have a 1906 coin. That's good to know, but in China at that time, there were ALOT of different places the coin could have originated. So we look smack dab in the middle of the coin. This is your mint mark (mint marks should be on most coins with the Tai-ching Ti Kuo dragon, which was standardized on Chinese coins circa 1905). This particular mint mark was easy to identify eventhough it was a bit worn. The character in the middle of that circle is for the Hupeh province.
So now you know you have a 1906 coin from the Hupeh province. The bottom of the coin gives you the denomination. Reading from right to left at the bottom, it reads "Equal to" "Standard" "Coin" "10" "cash". The character that looks like a "+" means ten, and the character just to the left of that signifies that it is a cash coin. So now you know you have a 10 Cash coin from the Chinese province of Hupeh that was minted in 1906.
Now to identify which of the six varieties it is. On the reverse side, take a close look at the dragon. You want to look at that circle thing right in the middle. Now, your particular piece is easy to identify, because out of the six varieties, yours is the only one without a cloud beneath the flaming pearl. If it were one of the other varieties, there would eatiher be a bar under the pearl or more of a claw shaped cloud just under and to the right of the pearl. I would refer to this as Variety 1. And because we can easily identify Variety 1 in this manner, you know that the flaming pearl had 7 flames on it originally instead of the 4 or 5 that the other five varieties have.
Hope this all helped!
If you have books and resources, this will help you in the future in identifying other Chinese coins. The date is at the top of the obverse, and it tells us that you have a 1906 coin. That's good to know, but in China at that time, there were ALOT of different places the coin could have originated. So we look smack dab in the middle of the coin. This is your mint mark (mint marks should be on most coins with the Tai-ching Ti Kuo dragon, which was standardized on Chinese coins circa 1905). This particular mint mark was easy to identify eventhough it was a bit worn. The character in the middle of that circle is for the Hupeh province.
So now you know you have a 1906 coin from the Hupeh province. The bottom of the coin gives you the denomination. Reading from right to left at the bottom, it reads "Equal to" "Standard" "Coin" "10" "cash". The character that looks like a "+" means ten, and the character just to the left of that signifies that it is a cash coin. So now you know you have a 10 Cash coin from the Chinese province of Hupeh that was minted in 1906.
Now to identify which of the six varieties it is. On the reverse side, take a close look at the dragon. You want to look at that circle thing right in the middle. Now, your particular piece is easy to identify, because out of the six varieties, yours is the only one without a cloud beneath the flaming pearl. If it were one of the other varieties, there would eatiher be a bar under the pearl or more of a claw shaped cloud just under and to the right of the pearl. I would refer to this as Variety 1. And because we can easily identify Variety 1 in this manner, you know that the flaming pearl had 7 flames on it originally instead of the 4 or 5 that the other five varieties have.
Hope this all helped!
well that was thorough...thank you very much SMS 
Wow, thank you for this information, SMS 
That's a valuable post SMS, thanks for your input!!
Because it has the characters around the top of the dragon inside the circle of dots, I believe that it is the Y# 10j variety
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