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Hong Kong 50 cents 1980

Started by blackev, September 07, 2008, 11:54:19 PM

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blackev

It seems that when you tell people you collect euro coins they tend to give you some foreign coins they have lying around.
Here are another 2 commonwealth coins I have.

All the way from Hong Kong.


This one has 12 sides:


-blackev

Edit: discussion of Canadian coin moved here


Figleaf

Compare what's in the inner cicle of the Hong Kong coin to this traditional Chinese cash coin. Ain't it fun?

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

blackev

Im confused,
Are you saying its fake?

-blackev

Figleaf

#3
Not at all. I am saying here is a coin from 1980 and look, it has four Chinese characters in cruciform, just like traditional Chinese coins since 618 AD. Think the English part away, replace the central dot by a square hole and you are left with something every Chinese knows: a cash coin. The characters should even be read in the same order (N, S, E, W). I think they say Hong Kong fifty cents, but Martin can say more about that.

For comparison's sake, I attach a picture of my oldest Chinese coin, a cash of emperor Chen Tsung (Zhenzong) of the Northern Sung dynasty, period Hsiang Fu (xiángfú, 1008 - 1016), almost a millennium before your Hong Kong coin.

@Martin, sorry or using Wade-Giles. Old documentation.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

BC Numismatics

Kevin,
  That is a very nice find.Although the 50c. coin is still extremely common,it is nice to have.The 1980 5c. & 10c. coins are extremely scarce.

The Canadian 1c. coin is another nice find,despite the fact that the Canadian 1c. coin could be very well on the way out,due to its spending power being far less now than say,30 years ago.

Aidan.

blackev

Thanks for your feedback Peter & Aidan,

-blackev

translateltd

Quote from: Figleaf on September 08, 2008, 01:59:54 AM
Not at all. I am saying here is a coin from 1980 and look, it has four Chinese characters in cruciform, just like traditional Chinese coins since 618 AD. Think the English part away, replace the central dot by a square hole and you are left with something every Chinese knows: a cash coin. The characters should even be read in the same order (N, S, E, W). I think they say Hong Kong fifty cents, but Martin can say more about that.

For comparison's sake, I attach a picture of my oldest Chinese coin, a cash of emperor Chen Tsung of the Northern Sung dynasty, period Hsiang Fu (xiángfú, 1008 - 1016), almost 2 millenniums before your Hong Kong coin.

@Martin, sorry or using Wade-Giles. Old documentation.

Peter

Yes, indeed - because there is no fixed direction in which to read characters (they can go top to bottom, left to right or right to left, just not bottom to top, which is a common misconception!) they're actually quite handy on coins because they can be arranged in this way to make maximum use of space *and* keep all the letters the same way up, which you can't do very easily with alphabetic languages.

Peter: just to be irksome, your Song dynasty coin reads clockwise (N E S W)!  Look at the "southern" character and you'll see it's the same as the one in "eastern" position on most cash coins of other periods.

The HK piece reads Hong Kong Five Mao (five dimes, if you like), as the "10c" unit has its own name in Chinese.

Figleaf

Indeed. I should have said most cash coins read that way. On any rule in numismatics there are exceptions. I remember seeing a cash coin that should be read diagonally (N E W S).

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

Enlil

It reads NSEW and says Heung Gong M Ho, or Hong Kong one ho, as one ho = ten cents.

Figleaf

Are you sure? It is a 50 cent piece and I see the character for five in the Eastern position...

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

Enlil

My wife is cantonese from Hk and I speak it, so I am 2000% sure. It is like the Chinese system, instead of jao it is ho, and 1 jao or ho is 10 cents. So 5 ho is 50 cents. I hope it is clearer now.

Figleaf

Yes, that does clear it up. I would have called it 5 jiao. Thanks.

Imagine the scene, it is 1979, I have escaped from the official group visiting Beijing, but that also means no lunch and I am getting hungry. Fortunately, I find a bakery shop on my way. I go in and am immediately followed by a throng of Chinese in blue or green Mao suits who want to see what the roundeye will buy. I pick some delicious looking buns. The young lady puts them in a paper bag. I take out a ballpoint pen (a prized possession in China at the time), flatten part of the paper bag and give her the pen. The congregation discusses this for a while and comes to the conclusion that I wish to know the price. She writes a five and a character I don't know. I decide 5 fen is too little, but 5 yuan seems far too much. Well, there's no going back, so I bravely take out a 5 yuan note. Great laughter. My purse is taken away from me and they give 1 yuan to the sweetly smiling girl. I get half of it back in change. That's how I discovered 5 jiao. They are probably still talking about the stupid bignose who can't count in that shop :)

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

Enlil

Hahahaha, but to be realistic, they do take into account that you were a foreigner and proberly know you can not read chinese, but yer they would have laughed about you for a long time.