gxseries

For the last 5+ years, Australia has been minting colored 2 dollar coins from 2012. Mintage figures have been quite low and trust me - once they appear in circulation, they get wiped out quite quickly, not just by collectors but by people who think they may be worth a bit more in the future. They aren't quite wrong - because of their 'scarcity', often they get sold more than face value. Put it this way, I was only lucky enough to find just 3-4. I had a mate that didn't care too much and changed it for face value. To add to the fire, Canadian Mint has threatened to sue Royal Australian Mint as Canadian Mint claimed that RAM has infringed on coloring patent. At one stage, Canadian Mint wanted RAM to destroy circulating color coins. Here's one link https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/18/royal-canadian-mint-sues-australia-possum-magic-coins This is from circulation - honestly this can take a lot of effort! Some of the mintage figures are absurdly low, one starting at just half a million... Please feel free to post any circulating color coins. I guess our Canadian friends would like to show some?

I missed this exciting topic. Congratulations Sigi!!!!!!!!!! Simply WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I came across this coin and remembered this thread. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Canada-2015-Pan-Am-Parapan-Toronto-Games-20-Silver-Maple-Leaf-Proof-Mokume-Gane/161735200269?hash=item25a82b4e0d:g:wx0AAOSwCZ5Vfsso Canadian Mint did end up having an example!!! And to think I thought of this back in 2010...

extant4cell, there was only one mint (Incheon) that stuck these coins from 1892 to 1899. Yongsan came online later but for a very short period of time 1898 to 1902. The mint was setup with the help of a German diplomat, Mollendorf and Japanese mint officers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Georg_von_Möllendorff And I didn't realize how important he is. It seems clear that Korea did not want to sandwiched between China and Japan and wanted more support which Russia came into play. This view still exist today when you talk to any Korean on the street; they feel frustrated with their country's politics as they feel that they are bullied between China and Japan's politics. At that time, literally everything had to be imported from Japan - mint technology all the way down to planchets. I believe the 5 yang, quarter yang, 5 fun planchets are the same to the Japanese 1 yen, 5 sen and 1 sen planchets; 1 fun and 1 yang coins had to be specially made. I could be wrong about the 1 yang coin but I'm certain it's a bit smaller than the 20 sen coin. While there is no mintage figures available, there seems to be strong indication that the mint was behind production. While there are coins dated 1892 and 1893, these coins were only released in circulation in 1894. To make matters worse, the Chinese Emperor Yuan Shi Kai at that time strongly objected to the wording "Great Korea", hence the varieties of "Great Korea" and "Korea". Please feel free to use this as a reference from my collection https://issuu.com/gxseries/docs/korea_year_type_album

Very interesting! I have been collecting Korean coins for quite a while. While there is some quality control issue with the Incheon mint such as die rotation, weight tolerance - it's very rare to encounter error coins. To me, this looks like a die clash coin and I have not seen a clearer example like this. The Chinese overstruck over Korean 5 fun is a completely different matter - these copper coins were exported to China as scrap metal and some crooks used these as planchets to overstrike as new coins. As such, only Eastern side of China were flooded with such coins. While most coins are of contemporary overstrike counterfeits, there are some examples that seem like they are from the official mints. Looks like you got stuck with a new bug?

extant4cell - I think at this point of time, it's hard to pinpoint where this coin was produced. The denomination "dollar" does not make any sense whether it was produced by the Koreans, Japanese or Russians. Again, I think it's a bit too early to dismiss anything. BUT - if I had to throw in an absurd theory, it could even be a pattern by the British. They did produce so many coins around the word - it would not be a surprise if there are some undocumented examples. It's only quite recent that a fair number of highly prized Chinese pattern coins appeared in the market that were indeed produced by the British and they were struck around the same time frame. Here are some scans relating to this - this is from the Bank of Korea 1969. http://gxseries.com/ct/rus_korea1.jpg http://gxseries.com/ct/rus_korea2.jpg http://gxseries.com/ct/rus_korea3.jpg http://gxseries.com/ct/rus_korea4.jpg According to this reference, it seems that the Russians did play some kind of influence in the production of such coins. But to what extent, it just doesn't seem to be clear cut at the moment. Would be interesting to see if there are more references to understand what the situation was like back then.

extant4cell - thank you for your time and detailed research! When I was writing, I did not do my research properly. I was initially under the impression that there were 3 coins dated 1901-02 (1 chon, 5 chon and half won). These are the more 'common' types which I initially thought were struck overseas. Turns out after I did a more detailed research that these were struck in Korea as the timeline did not match - the bank was only open in 1899. However it is very clear that this was struck under a pro Russian Minister who wanted to get rid of the Japanese yen. Therefore it is the 1899 coinage that is of significant importance. Now I'm trying to see if there is actually an example struck. I wrote my response in another forum which is as follow: --- I had to do some research - the history of Korean coinage is just confusing and sad in many sense. The reference that I just used is from "The History of Korean Money - The Bank of Korea (1969?)" With the early cash coins, people had a general distrust with their own coinage as they have known that Korean mints have melted down good quality 'copper' coins and debased them with cheaper brass coins. Some were even debased with iron. At its worst, it is estimated that one old coin was melted down to make THREE coins. Of course, the general public was not impressed with this. To solve this issue of 'bad' money, the King attempted to circulate silver coins by importing Chinese sycee to stabilize the currency issue. This did not work as traders hoarded all these coins and sold them overseas as the price of silver increased. Of course, this meant that silver hoarders literally killed their circulation. In 1884, the Korean government appointed a German - Mollendorf to oversee the mint operation. More can be read here. https://coinweek.com/dealers-compan...ern-coinage/ Some attempts were made to circulate machine struck coins in 1888 (5 mun, 10 mun and 1 hwan struck in Seoul) but this proved to be unpopular and was discontinued. In 1892, minting machines, planchets and even technicians were imported from Japan. While these coins were supposed to be of reasonable success - international politics had to come in play. This will not be the first and last of it. At that time, Chinese Emperor Yuan Shi Kai strongly objected to the wording "Great Chosen" as he feared the Japanese influence. He had good reason to be. The First Sino Japanese war in 1894 - 1895 ended up to be in China's loss. Hence you can see why in between the coins struck in 1892 to 1896, it just seemed Incheon Mint could not decide whether to go with "Chosen" or "Great Chosen". Or it might be the Japanese mint officers snubbing China. In between 1893 and 1897, as no silver coins were struck and large amount of nickel copper coins were issued. A large amount of silver and Mexican dollar flowed into the country. The general public had good reasons to be worried as they feared a repeat of being defrauded with 'cheap base metals'. In 1897, the matter was made worse as Japan adopted the gold standard and the silver Japanese yen was no longer legal tender. To avoid major panic, silver yang was issued in 1898 and countermarked yen coins (now no longer legal tender in Japan) became the choice for circulation. As described by Lembafc, the Russo-Korean bank was setup in Korea for a good reason. Russia was started to be concerned with the Japanese influence as Japan started to make a big headway in China. Now the real question is this - where were these coins struck? St. Petersburg? I cannot see how these coins were struck in Korea as Japanese mint officers were in charge of operation. I personally believe they were struck in St. Petersburg in 1899. Sensing the negative intentions of the Russians, the Japanese paired up with the British (it's ally back then) had a military demonstration in Incheon Habour. Three months after the establishment of the Russo-Korean Bank, Alexeyev got recalled. Now this is where things get MORE complicated than it needs be. Just when you think everything is all good and sorted - no it does not end there. I did not know this either until right now. In 1901, a pro Russian figure was appointed as the Minister of Treasury, Yi Yong-ik. With Russian support, he planned to get rid of the Japanese silver yen and issue pro Russian coinage of 7 different denominations: 20 hwan, 10 hwan, 5 hwan in gold, half hwan, 20 chon in silver, 5 chon in nickel copper and 1 chon in copper. (WOW) These were actually struck in Korea. A small batch did get produced but needless to say, was confiscated and melted down by the Japanese Army. Not all denominations have survived. In 1904, the Japanese decided to shut down mint operations in Korea. Lack of funds is the most likely reason but perhaps the Japanese didn't find the 1901 issue to be entertaining and was determined not to allow Korea to strike coins ever again. I'll leave it for now. This is a lot more intense than I expected!

This is from the same link I think it's very hard to deny the resemblance. Of course, this does not mean much yet as it could just be some pro Russian Koreans that struck coins in their basement. I've tried hard to search what I can - my Russian is awfully rusty as it has been almost 20 years since I last used it... This is the agreement on Korea between Russia and Japan http://istmat.info/node/27275 This link gives a much better explanation of what I can - in Russian https://koryo-saram.ru/kurbanov-s-o-rossiya-i-koreya-klyuchevy-e-momenty-v-istorii-rossijsko-korejskih-otnoshenij-serediny-xix-nachala-xx-stoletij/ It does briefly describe that the Russo-Korean bank was setup but got shut down quite quickly. I acknowledge that this may not be related to Russian numismatics but you know what I'm like - I like to turn every stone and there may be something yet to be discovered.

This reference book that I used is from the Bank of Korea issued in 1969. In this book, it is quite clear how Japan was slowly taking over Korea and into China as Japan did invade China in 1894 - 1895. It is also noted that the mint was suspected to be of Russian origin. This article may be of interest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_royal_refuge_at_the_Russian_legation Queen Min was assassinated under the Japanese as she was trying to forge closer ties towards Russia. It was clear at that time that Japan did everything she could to stop Russian and Chinese influences. I cannot see how any mint in Korea could get away striking such coins. But of course, it's rather odd that highly significant coins are not noted in any Russian catalogs (or not that I know of)

I did forget to mention that in order to counter the Japanese influence in Korea, Russia supposedly invested half a million rubles in the newly setup bank. While I do not know how much that is in today's term - I'm certain it was no tiny figure back then. This topic is worthy to be investigated. My Russian is just too rusty to be of any use. Extant4cell - can you please post this in a Russian coin forum? Someone might know better.

There were three Korean coins that were issued in 1899. M. Alexeyev was the financial advisor that was sent out to inspect the coinage in Korea. This is one of the examples: Is there by any chance that there are reports by St. Petersburg Mint of striking such coins? I have been reading a couple of Korean catalog and it just seems to be very unlikely that they were struck in Korea, considering that the mint at that time was run by Japanese officers. Thanking you in advance!

Nice! What mint is it from? Paris, Brussels, St. Petersburg?

Found a link that may be of interest. This is written by Eduard Kann who lived in China in early 1900s and left when the Communists took over. His interests in Chinese coins led him to write very detailed information about coins from that era and it still is very very useful today. Sadly I don't think he have written anything about copper. Perhaps it would be another encyclopedia worth for copper / brass / bronze coins alone. Page 293 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015025952790;view=1up;seq=299 Before you start screaming copyright - this is an old catalog that has expired a long time ago. There are reprints available and I would highly recommend you to get it. I still cannot get my heads around the amount of information and coins that were issued back then. One of my questions is definitely answered - the portrait is definitely Sun Yat-sen. Lin Sen was the governor of National Government at that time. For US coin collectors, this may be of interest as the master dies were prepared in Philadelphia (!) and were shipped off to Shanghai. As Shanghai could not keep up with production, Austrian mint was also involved to produce additional nickel coins. Sadly as the Sino-Japanese war started, production had to be relocated more inland into different provinces. As nickel prices rose, I can only speculate that there were attempts to strike coin in brass and aluminum. This may have varied in different regional areas. I'll leave this for now - this is quite intense and I have not got around to absorbing all the information.

To me this looks like an ex jewellery coin.

Thanks for identifying the mint extant4cell! Is that your coin? Very nice!

I haven't really looked at what Japanese coins I have in my collection. In fact, when I last worked on my website for Japanese coins, I last dated it in 2009 (!) - almost 10 years ago. A fair amount was bought when it was quite cheap back then. Would you believe it if I said I bought a cleaned silver 1 yen coin for just 20 dollars? Mind you - this was when silver was just 5 USD / ounce. I took some time to sort out what I have and see what duplicates I have. Turns out there's way more varieties than duplicates than I hoped so. The basis of how I arranged it is on a Japanese catalog (JNDA). I found the varieties to be very annoying but I'll leave it as it is for now. There's one major variety that I don't think is documented, that is 1883 1/2 sen. As this collection is somewhat large, I've split it into three sections to make it a bit earlier to load. Granted the design is quite dated - I haven't figure out what is the best way to present neatly with this amount of photos. I've included two digital albums. One is the original Dansco Japan type set album and the other is my updated version. Guess I've talked enough - this is the link http://gxseries.com/numis/japantype/japantype_modern.htm Please feel free to post your Japanese coins!

Bought this some time ago. Thought this looks interesting Don't think I've seen much off center Peter III copper coins.

Seems unusually too big. I have a 1736 ruble coin but the diameter is at 41mm. I have an overstruck ruble but it's only at 43mm. 45.5mm is definitely large. On top of it, a thick edge would make much less sense as if it is indeed overstruck, the edge would be thinner, not thicker. Photos will definitely help.

Thanks for the information SMS! Will do a bit more read from my end. Found my Eduard Kann book which covers nickel and aluminum coins (sadly no brass or copper coins) Happy New Year!

Thedeadpoint, I don't believe it's a weak strike. If anything, this is a woodie - kept it as it has interesting streaks through it.

I have been doing some research and just cannot find enough information for what I am looking for. I'm looking at Sun Yat Sen coinage from 1936 to 1943. Here are my questions - 1) 1 fen coins dated 1938 and 1939. Mintage figures seem that they are somewhat common (12 million and 75 million respectively). Catalog value does not seem that they are rare. I have not yet to see any. Have you seen them? This is an example struck in 1937 2) Transitional period in between 1939 and 1940. It seems that there is a mix of aluminum, brass coins struck. For instance in 1940, 1 fen was struck in both aluminum and brass. 2 fen was struck in brass yet 5 fen was struck in aluminum. Why? Was it because they were struck in different provinces where some metals were more difficult to procure? I don't have an example of the 1940 1 fen in brass... 1 fen 2 fen 5 fen 3) The existence of Shi Kwan brass coins. They seem to be a very different type. According to somewhere I read, these were struck in Yunnan. Can anyone confirm this? 4) Numista reckon the portraits featured are Lin Sen. There may be more catalog that refer him. I somewhat doubt this is right as I suspect they are all of Sun Yat Sen. I'm certain he was featured in earlier coins as well as on Taiwanese coins. Thanking in advance

Both are fakes. There are some excessive rare patterns out there but both of them look wrong.

Is it any of this? https://www.ebay.com/sch/imperiacoins/m.html?hash=item41d6f04ff0%3Ag%3AZwYAAOSw4Z5aObzG&item=282778947568&_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=1926&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc&_trksid=p2046732.m1684

I'm certain it's one of those fantasy tokens based on genuine pattern coinage.

Thanks for your kind words thedeadpoint. I guess to answer your first question - there's sites that kinda already do it but it's doable. For instance numista.com, omnicoin.com. Of course they aren't very customized. Second question - if there's demand, yes I can always do it. Anything can be done with any world coins, US, Canadian, German, French, Italian, Chinese etc. You name it. I can even be very selective and pick the era, type, etc. It could be just US copper type set, nickel, silver - you name it!