Expert: Lazar Trivunovic - 2/5/2012

Question
Greetings Lazar!
 My name is Katrina and I am having trouble identifying a coin and was wondering if you could help me please?  I believe it it Japanese in origin but I am very new to learning to identify world coins so please forgive my naiveté.

On one side of the coin contains nothing but a picture of a dragon (no dates or lettering whatsoever).  On the reverse side contains what I BELIEVE to be Japanese script, however, I am not fluent in Japanese.  I have included a photo of the side with the Japanese characters for help with identifying it.

I was wondering if I could possibly get your help Identifying and learning more about this coin?  Any information you could give me would be wonderful!

Thank you for your time!
Katrina

Answer
Hi Katrina,

My first impression is that this coin is Chinese and looks to be a modern copy of a silver coin.

Yes i found it and it is Chinese - SINKIANG province 5 Miscals (5 mace ).

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCGS-XF40-1905-China-Singkiang-Silver-Dragon-5-maces-mis

http://www.ebay.com/itm/P4020-Sinkiang-Military-Silver-Coin-5-Miscals-1910-/3505

First i was afraid because strange dots position but it looks genuine coins are also with badly positioned dots in the circle. You can see on left side of inner circle some confusion.

This is Krause catalog coin number:

Y# 6.7 5 MISCALS (5 Mace)
17.9000 g., Silver Ruler: Kuang-hsü Rev: Bat above uncircled
dragon's head
Date Mintage VG F VF XF Unc
ND(1905) — 175 300 450 700 —

Y# 6.8 5 MISCALS (5 Mace)
17.9000 g., Silver Ruler: Kuang-hsü Rev: Turki legend around
uncircled dragon
Date Mintage VG F VF XF Unc
ND(1905) — 400 600 — — —

Hopefully you have genuine coin because as you can see there is some good value. But this is also a reason to counterfeit a silver coin - rare and valuable!

Picture is a bit blurry so i cannot say what is going on there. So you must get some precise scales and take a weight of a coin. It must be cca. 17,9g - 17,85g (if worn)! If you get 15g or something similar than you have a modern reproduction.
Newest copies are very precise and weight is almost the same as genuine coins but they are usually thicker!

Katrina wish you luck and best regards from Slovenia

Lazar Trivunović