Postby Bill in Burl » Fri May 06, 2016 4:52 am
I have 2 friends that specialize in Chinese and Far East coinage and won't touch them. For over 100 years the official coinage has been copied/faked, so that very few dealers (except those who specialize) will buy any of these Yaun(dollar) or 1/2 yaun(50 cent) coins. With computers and new dies, the situation is much worse. Without better photos and specific size/weight, it's hard to tell what's fake or what's not on a computer screen.
Your coin appears to be "restruck imperial coinage" that are rein-dated 1875-1908, but were restruck at intervals from 1911-1949 using old dies, and gradually reducing the silver purity of the original coins(.850). I'm guessing that it's Krause Y#480 at the start of the "Republic" coinage. Since 2000, almost ALL Chinese old silver coins of the larger denominations have been CAD-CAM'd produced using laser-etched dies to resemble the old dies. As Shylo stated "It has 11' pole marks all over it".
Bill in Burl