Cast Chinese Coins: Second Edition

This book goes into much more detail with hundred of variations and small differences. Easy to look up your coins and tell if they are of any value.

I've been an amateur collector of Chinese cash coins (exclusively of The Qing Dynasty) for about 8 years. I had a copy of "Chinese Cash: Identification and Price Guide" that was my sole book for all of that time. I don't want the talk bad about that book, it was a great source of info. Then I moved and it vanished along with an entire box of books. I found and ordered this book and WOW! So much info with super images and descriptions. A MUST have if you collect Chinese Cash Coins of any era or dynasty.

If you collect Chinese cast coins you'll need this reference.PLUSES- Comprehensive with details and coin varieties not found by me elsewhere.- Illustrations are mostly quite clear.- Illustrations are actual size. Place your coin against the illustrations to check its size for helpful identification.- Includes background information such as some mintages, mints, years, coin metallurgy, terminology, dynasties, rarity, approximate coin values, etc.MINUSES- One needs to know something about how to read a Chinese coin and its characters. It's not as simple as it seems. Chinese coins are not dated and do not have the Emperor's name on them. All Chinese books I've seen, including this one, are not clear on coin identification basics.- You need a good magnifying glass as many of the printed Chinese characters are quite small.To Identify a Chinese Cast Coin1 Locate the coin's top character.2 GUESS how many "strokes" it takes to write this character.3 In the "Finding Guide" section try and visually match the coin's top character with those in the columns that match with your stroke guess. This will identify the page your coin will be found on.4 On this page, or on a few pages that follow, match your coin with the size of the illustrations.5 Next match all 4 of the Chinese characters on your coin with an illustration.6 Now match the varieties found in the text identified by the illustration (many of these varieties are quite minor).

Cast Chinese Coins: Second Edition: This book lets me identify a majority of the "oriental junk coins," that grizzled old US/Europe-only collectors disdainfully tossed my way for free or near-free in the early 1980's. Those guys are long gone. Now, I'm the same age they were then. It's very rewarding to know that I've learned enough about Chinese characters (hanzi) from studying coins to move through this well-organized & illustrated specialty reference, faster than a strictly English-only reader. It's my one "must have" volume after the Krause catalogs, for Chinese cast coins. Highly Recommended.

Standard text on the subject. No photos but lots of line drawings.