Please translate

[murfsnr]

Can someone please translate this small tablet I received from my grandfather, I would love to know what it says?

[Kamille]

山東製造局

Looks like a silver coin from emperor Guangxu era. 

 

Possibly worth money.

 

How did your grandfather happen to acquire that coin?

[murfsnr]

Thank you Kamille, my grandfather had always said he bought it while fighting in the war.

Had no idea what is said but I always liked it.

[Kamille]

There should be writings on the other side too. 

Do they say 足紋五錢 or 足紋二両 ? Or even something else ?

[murfsnr]

Yes there is an image on the other side but it has no writing on it.

I posted it for you.

[imron]

Actually there is writing on the other side.  It says 足紋二両

[Kamille]

There's something I don't quite understand here: from what I just read one 兩 (or 両) is equivalent to 10 錢, making 2 兩 four times the equivalent of 5 錢.

Now according to what I found on auction sites, your coin (2 兩) is worth 1,800 Yen, which is not much (€12 more or less), but the other one, the 5 錢 could be going up to 1,200,000 RMB, which is quite a lot (€ 150,000).

 

What's happening here   ?

[skylee]

Yen? Did you mean RMB 1800 like this one? -> http://ec.artron.net/product/10124756.html

If that is authentic, that is a coin of the late Qing Dynasty (around or pre-1900) and it should be rare. A website says that there are only three 5 錢 found in the world (you should decide whether to believe this), and two of them are in the Shanghai Museum. So if that is a real thing, and if it is in a good condition, it might be worth some money.

[Kamille]

Precisely. But I always thought that ￥ was the Japanese currency (now why does it have two horizontal strokes in the middle on the website but only one when I copy/paste it here, that's another mystery, but yeah, one stroke, according to wikipedia is RMB). I also found it strange that the price was in yen on a Chinese auction site.

 

But anyway, murfsnr's coin is not a 五錢 but a 二両, and RMB 1800 (€200 or so) is still not as much as for the 五錢 (€ 150,000, remember). When in history did the 五錢 start to have more value then the 二両 ? Maybe actually, as you said, skylee, there's very few 五錢 left, but still a lot of 二両. Offer and demand.

 

Now murfsnr, it appears that your coin is still worth RMB 1800 (provided it's not a fake), according to that auction site. It's up to you to decide what you want to do with it

 

Now there must be some 五錢 buried in the ground somewhere under Beijing. If you'll excuse me, I'll go buy myself a plane ticket and a shovel

[skylee]

It is good to keep something left behind from one's own grandparent.

Re Japanese Yen, my understanding is that it is 円 = 圓 = 元 so actually the name of the unit is the same as that of RMB. And the former is usually called JPY and the latter CNY, so you see they are that similar. (Which reminds me that the now defunct Italian Lira is the "same" unit as the British Pound ... http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_789625bf0100p351.html)

[murfsnr]

I am very greatful for the outcome, rare coins are valuable for a reason.

I would like to thank you for your help with the translation of this beautiful coin.