Panda Coin

i have a coin that has the words group issendai on the back and what looks like a panda bear on the front?

You did not mention if it has a date. If not, it is probably a medal or token. If it was from China, who mint a panda coin, it would be dated and also have Chinese characters on it. If all it has on it is the panda and the words you listed, then it maybe hard to find out what it is. These items are called maverick tokens and are sometimes hard to track down to the issuer. There is such little info to go by. The key maybe the words on the back. You could try the guy who writes the column Coin Clinic in Numismatic News. You nee to give him more info though. Size, weight and what metal you think it is made of. You need to give him the wording exactly as it is. If capital letters use them. You can scan it if possible and send Email to Answerman2@aol.com hope this helps.

Chinese Coins - silver panda coin obverse side country of china

Traditionally, Chinese money coins were cast in copper, brass or iron. In the mid 1800s, the coins were made from three parts copper and two parts lead. Cast silver coins were periodically produced but are significantly rarer. Cast gold coins are also known to exist but are very rare.

Chinese money coins originated from the barter of farming tools and agricultural surpluses. Around 1200 BC, smaller token spades, hoes, and knives began to be used to conduct smaller exchanges with the tokens later melted down to supply real farm implements. These tokens came to be used as media of exchange themselves and were known as spade cash and knife money.

The earlier coins were cast to weight standards in a direct relationship with the denominations, so if you weighted a coin at twelve grams it was almost certain a 1 Liang (or 1 Jin) denomination. During the Chin Dynasty, around about 250 BC, this modified and be begin to see coins issued with denomination marks that bare no relationship to the particular weight of the coin. This is best seen on the Ban liang (1/2 Liang) coins of the State of Jaw which can vary in weight significantly but the earliest enormous diameter issues weigh at least six grams (and often significantly more), but the size and weight steadily fell and when they were last issued in the Han Dynasty are typically seen at three grams or maybe less, but still with the Ban Liang denomination on them.

The Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese all cast their own copper cash in the second part of the second millennium similar to those employed by China.

The last money coins were struck, not cast, in the reign of the Qing Xuantong Emperor just before the fall of the Empire in 1911. The coin continued to be used unofficially in China till the mid twentieth century.

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