Item number: A2826

Year: AD 1903-1911

Material: Copper

Size: 28.1 x 28.1 x 1.0 mm

Weight: 6.65 g

Provenance: Fuchin Coin 2020

This is an intriguing coin produced by Korean profiteers and Japanese ronin. It was crafted using a counterfeit mould of the Zhejiang Province “Water Dragon” Guangxu Tongbao coin, but it is based on the 5 Fun copper coin issued during AD 1893. This type of coin is commonly referred to by collectors as the “Korean Pirate Version.”

The obverse is based on a Korean 5 fun coin, over which an image of a water dragon expelling a flaming pearl, in the style of Guangxu Yuanbao, has been stamped. Behind the water dragon, the original inscriptions of the Korean coin remain faintly visible along the outer rim, including “Joseon” (朝鮮), “5 FUN,” and “502nd Year of the Founding of the Nation” (開國五百二年).

On the reverse, traces of the original floral wreath decoration from the Korean coin remain faintly visible. At the centre is a beaded circle enclosing the inscription “Guangxu Yuanbao” (光緒元寶) in Chinese characters, arranged clockwise in the order of top, bottom, right, and left, surrounding a six-petalled floral motif. Outside the beaded circle, the inscriptions “Minted in Zhejiang Province” (浙江省造) and “Value Ten” (當十) appear along the upper and lower edges, respectively. On the left and right sides, Manchu script inscriptions read “ᠪᠠᡠ” (Bao) and “ᠵᡝ” (Zhe), corresponding to the province designation.

In the 26th year of Guangxu (AD 1900), after China began minting Western-style copper coins, the provincial mints responsible for these operations, to speed up production, began importing copper blanks that had already been partially processed in Japan. After being stamped, these blanks could quickly be turned into coins. This channel was discovered by unscrupulous merchants from Japan and Korea, who imported 5-fun copper coins from Korea, which were of similar size but only half the price of Guangxu Yuanbao coins.

These coins were often only lightly polished before having the Guangxu Yuanbao inscriptions stamped on them, and they flooded the coastal markets of China. These counterfeit coins circulated widely from the Liaodong Peninsula to Fujian, with Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shandong provinces being the major regions where counterfeit Guangxu Tongbao coins were most found.

物件編號: A2826

年代: 公元 1903-1911 年

材質: 銅

尺寸: 28.1 x 28.1 x 1.0 mm

重量: 6.65 g

來源: 福君錢幣 2020

這是一枚十分有趣的，清朝末年由韓國奸商和日本浪人以韓國在公元1893年發行的五分銅幣為底版，以仿冒的浙江省造水龍版光緒通寶模具鑄造的光緒元寶銅錢，收藏界將這類錢幣稱作「韓改版」。

正面以韓國五分為底版，在其表面上壓印光緒元寶吐出龍珠的水龍意象。於水龍身後依稀能見原先韓國錢幣外圍的銘文：「朝鮮」、「5 FUN」(五分) 和「開國五百二年」。

背面能依稀看到原先屬於韓國錢幣的花圈裝飾。錢幣正中央是一道珠圈，裡面是按照上、下、右、左順序圍繞六瓣花飾的漢字「光緒元寶」。珠圈外圍的上下兩側，分別打印「浙江省造」和「當十」，左右兩側的滿文分別是「 ᠪᠠᡠ」(寶) 和「ᠵᡝ」(浙)。

光緒26年 (公元1900年)，中國開始鑄造西式銅幣之後，當時各省負責相關事宜的銅元局為盡快趕工，多從日本直接進口已經過初步加工的銅坯，經過印花之後就能直接生成銅幣。這一個渠道被來自日本和韓國的不肖商人發現商機，他們從韓國進口大小相似但是價格只有光緒元寶一半的五分銅幣，常常只有經過簡單打磨就打印光緒元寶的字樣，並且流入中國沿海省份的市場。這些錢幣流通於遼東半島至福建的廣大沿海地區，其中以浙江、江蘇和山東三個省份的光緒通寶為仿冒的大宗。