Most Chinese coins are worth little: the round bronze coins with a square hole, called cash coins, usually sell for approximately $1-10 each, because China cast them in the billions for more than two thousand years. Chinese silver dollars from about 1890 to 1949 are worth real money when genuine, typically $50-300 for common types, but the large majority of the dragon dollars and "Fat Man" dollars found in drawers and bought on trips are modern copies made of base metal. The quick checks are the four characters on a cash coin, and for a silver dollar the weight, a magnet and the sound it makes. Rare cash coins and rare dollars do exist and run into the thousands, but they are also the ones most copied.
Quick answer
- Square hole cash coins are mostly $1-10; Qing dynasty coins of Kangxi and Qianlong are the most common. A genuine common silver dollar is $50-300.
- Look for: the four characters on a cash coin, and on a dollar a weight near 26.7 g, no pull from a magnet and a long clear ring.
- It is worth more when the cash coin is a large denomination or scarce reign, or the dollar is a genuine provincial or pattern rarity in good condition.
How to check yours, step by step
- Sort by shape. A round coin with a square hole is a cash coin. A large round coin without a hole, about the size of a US silver dollar, is a dollar or a modern copy. A coin shaped like a knife or a spade is ancient Zhou era money or, far more often, a reproduction.
- On a cash coin, read the four characters on the front. They read top, bottom, right, left. The top and bottom pair is usually the reign title, such as 乾隆 (Qianlong) or 康熙 (Kangxi). The side pair is usually 通寶 (tong bao, "circulating treasure") or 重寶 (zhong bao, a heavier denomination). A two character coin reading 五銖 (wu zhu) is a Han dynasty style coin; 開元通寶 (kai yuan tong bao) is a Tang dynasty type.
- Turn the cash coin over. Qing dynasty coins carry Manchu script on the back, the mint mark, sometimes with a Chinese character as well. A plain back is common on earlier dynasties. Large numerals on the back such as 當十 or 當百 mean "worth ten" or "worth a hundred," the large denominations of the 1850s.
- On a silver dollar, read the date and legend. A portrait of a stout man in uniform is Yuan Shikai, the "Fat Man" dollar, dated year 3, 8, 9 or 10 of the Republic (1914 to 1921). A dragon with an English legend naming a province (Kwang Tung, Hu Peh, Kiang Nan, Pei Yang) and "7 Mace and 2 Candareens" is a Qing dragon dollar. A bust of Sun Yat-sen with a junk boat on the back is the 1934 "junk dollar."
- Weigh it. Genuine Chinese dollars weigh about 26.4-27 g at 39 mm. Many copies weigh 20-25 g, or are the right weight but made of brass or copper-nickel.
- Hold a strong magnet to it. Silver does not stick. Some copies are iron cored and jump to the magnet. Passing this test does not prove silver; failing it settles the question.
- Do a ring test. Balance the coin on a fingertip and tap it gently with another coin. Silver gives a high, long ring. Most base metal copies give a short dull clink. The silver testing guide covers further checks.
What Chinese cash coins are worth
| Cash coin | Era | Typical value |
|---|---|---|
| Northern Song types (many different reigns) | 960 to 1127 | $1-5 |
| Kai Yuan Tong Bao | Tang dynasty, from 621 | $2-8 |
| Wu Zhu | Han dynasty and later | $3-15 |
| Kangxi, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang Tong Bao | Qing, 1662 to 1850 | $1-5 |
| Ming dynasty Tong Bao (Hongwu, Yongle, Wanli) | 1368 to 1644 | $2-15 |
| Xianfeng large denominations (worth 10, 50, 100) | 1850s | $20-300, rare mints into thousands |
| Ban Liang, early round coins | Qin and early Han | $10-50 |
| Rare reigns, rebel issues, unusual mints | various | $100 to many thousands |
| Charm and amulet coins, "coin swords" | mostly 20th century | $1-20 as decoration |
Not every square hole coin is Chinese. Japan cast its own Kan'ei Tsuho (寛永通寳) in huge numbers, Vietnam cast coins with Chinese style characters for centuries, and Korea issued Sang Pyong Tong Bo (常平通寶). They look alike at a glance, sell in the same $1-5 range in most cases, and are easy to tell apart once the first two characters are read: the reign title or coin name places the coin in its country.
The volume is the key fact. Northern Song mints alone produced billions of coins per year at the peak, and huge hoards still turn up. Strings of Qing cash sold as souvenirs are almost always genuine but common, or modern castings.
What Chinese silver dollars are worth
| Dollar | Dates | Genuine, worn | Genuine, sharp |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yuan Shikai "Fat Man," common years | 1914 to 1921 | $60-150 | $200-600 |
| Sun Yat-sen junk dollar | 1934 | $60-150 | $200-500 |
| Sun Yat-sen Memento dollar | 1927 | $100-250 | $400-1,500 |
| Common provincial dragon dollars (Kwangtung, Hupeh, Kiangnan) | about 1890 to 1908 | $60-200 | $250-1,000 |
| Pei Yang and Chihli dragon dollars | about 1896 to 1908 | $80-300 | $300-1,500 |
| Scarce provinces and varieties | 1890s to 1910s | hundreds | thousands |
| 1911 Long Whisker Dragon, Kweichow Auto Dollar, patterns | various | thousands | tens of thousands and up |
| Base metal copy of any of these | made recently | $1-5 | $1-5 |
Silver content gives a genuine dollar a floor: about 0.77 troy ounces of silver, so the melt value moves with the silver price. Collector premiums sit on top of that, and the condition, variety and any chop marks (small merchant stamps) matter. Chop marks lower the price on most dollars but are expected on trade coinage.
Why most Chinese dollars are fakes
Since the 1990s, workshops in China have made copies of almost every Chinese dollar type, plus fantasy coins that were never issued at all, and sold them to tourists, online and in "old collection" boxes. The same workshops copy Morgan and trade dollars, as covered in the Morgan dollar guide. The signs:
- Weight under 26 g, or a strong pull from a magnet.
- A grey, dull or brassy color under artificial toning, sometimes with green crust in the recesses.
- Soft or wrong lettering, especially the English legend on dragon dollars, with uneven letter spacing or spelling errors.
- A rare date or rare province in a mixed lot. A box of ten dragon dollars from ten different provinces is a souvenir set.
- Fantasy dates or denominations that do not appear in the Standard Catalog of World Coins.
- An edge with uneven, mushy reeding.
Some copies are now struck in real silver at the right weight. Those pass the simple tests, and only a specialist or a grading service settles them.
The famous rarities
A handful of Chinese coins sell for six and seven figures at auction: early pattern dollars, the 1911 Long Whisker Dragon dollar, the 1928 Kweichow Auto Dollar with a car on the reverse, and a few cash coins from short-lived rebel states or rare mints. These come from documented collections and sell at specialist auctions in Hong Kong, the US and Europe. When one appears in an unsorted family box, it is almost always a copy, so treat a rarity as a question to check, not good news.
Modern Panda bullion
China has issued gold Panda coins since 1982 and silver Pandas since 1983, with a new panda design each year (2001 and 2002 repeated). They sell mainly for their metal. Since 2016 they are struck in metric weights, for example 30 g silver and 30 g gold for the largest standard size, and earlier coins are in troy ounces. A silver Panda usually sells for its silver value plus roughly $5-15, and older dates from the 1980s and 1990s, plus proofs, can carry larger premiums. Gold Pandas follow the gold price plus a few percent. Fake Pandas are common too, so weight and dimensions matter here as well.
Common mistakes
- Assuming a cash coin is valuable because it is hundreds of years old. Age alone means very little in Chinese coins.
- Trusting a silver dollar that "looks old." Artificial toning is part of how copies are made.
- Using a magnet as the only test. Most base metal copies are not magnetic, so passing proves nothing.
- Reading the characters in the wrong order and searching for the wrong reign.
- Pricing a whole box from the auction record of a rare coin with similar characters.
- Cleaning coins to "see the characters better." It lowers the value of the genuine ones.
- Missing modern bullion. A silver Panda in the box may be worth more than all the cash coins together.
What to photograph
- Both sides of each coin, straight on, filling the frame, in light from one side so the characters stand out.
- For cash coins, a close-up of the back to show any Manchu mint mark or denomination.
- For dollars, the coin on a scale with the weight readable, and the edge at an angle to show the reeding.
- A ruler beside the coin for the diameter.
- Any holder, envelope or label that names where the coins came from.
For mixed boxes of world coins, start with are foreign coins worth anything, then come back to the Chinese pieces.
When to get it looked at in person
A genuine-looking dollar of the right weight, a large denomination cash coin, or anything resembling a known rarity is worth a specialist opinion. PCGS and NGC both grade Chinese silver dollars, and their holders are what buyers in the Asian market trust; for cash coins, NGC and specialist Chinese grading services are the usual route. Standard fees run roughly $30-100 per coin, more for high values, and the grader's opinion on authenticity is often worth more than the grade itself. Note that fake PCGS and NGC holders with fake coins inside are themselves common, so check the label serial number on the grader's website. A dealer who specializes in Chinese and Asian coins can usually sort a box quickly. For a bag of ordinary cash coins, an opinion costs more than the coins are worth.