Can someone please help identify this?
- Thread starter Tropixhunt
- Start date
Help Support Prospecting Australia:
Definitely a Chinese coin but hard to see the symbols for ID from the photos.
There are a number of sites that can help ID Chinese coin dynasty etc., like below, if you can see the symbols on both sides well enough.
https://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/china/chinaid.htm
There are a number of sites that can help ID Chinese coin dynasty etc., like below, if you can see the symbols on both sides well enough.
https://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/china/chinaid.htm
Hey thanks for the link that really helps. It's looking like a common 4 character coin from the Ching dynasty. Now to narrow it down I guess. I found it in an area not known for gold prospecting but I saw some other evidence of mining and what I now think would have made a great safe campsite with a sweeping view of the valley below. Funny, I only went there on a whim and it's about the most interesting thing I've found in 6 months. Didn't even have a pick or scoop with me lol just had the Gold Monster...I'll definitely be going back to go over the area properly now.
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2024
- Messages
- 19
- Reaction score
- 22
Looks like a Chinese coin I once saw.
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2015
- Messages
- 74
- Reaction score
- 156
Looks like a bullet to me thats hit something hard. What is it made of?
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2022
- Messages
- 129
- Reaction score
- 246
Agree, definitely a projectile as shown in the 2nd photo
Ok thanks, that's food for thought and something I didn't think of at all. The shape of it had me convinced there was a little hole on the skinny end but I don't think there is. I'm pretty sure it's lead and it has a white coating. It's a very interesting spot and I can't wait to get back. I found both of these items in a bottleneck of a seasonal creek, at the foot of a mountain which goes straight up nearly vertical to over a thousand metres. Neither of them were buried that deeply and I was finding little pieces of unidentified junk that were really old, made of copper I think, and none of the usual more recent trash. Makes me think the area hasn't seen a lot of people for 120 years or more. And I have a feeling there is more to be discovered there, when I can open it up and remove some overburden.
I know the Chinese were treated very poorly by European settlers - it wouldn't have been a friendly or safe place for them. Maybe the coin was dropped in some sort of altercation. That would explain a (possible) projectile nearby. I can't see a Chinese guy just being careless and dropping his possessions while walking or working etc. I would think his money and valuable possessions would have been squared away. There might be a story here... God I love this hobby!
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2022
- Messages
- 129
- Reaction score
- 246
I used to detect around Sofala and found about 10 Chinese coins and thousands of projectiles, bullet shells and even live rounds. It must have been a mighty battle that took place there!
Looks like a meerkat playing coits 
Some kind of dimension of the round base in the 2nd photo would give us a better idea.
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2015
- Messages
- 74
- Reaction score
- 156
Its pretty easy to lose something. Put something in coats top pocket and forgot it was there (especially if having strokes of good luck) later lean over to pickup camping wood and it fell out. I found it later with flash light but back then they had candle light. Clothes get worn holes in them or tears, i teared my pants easily getting through a fence to pan in a creek. Or maybe old timer hid it for security reasons of it being stolen and forgot where they put it or died to never find it again. Most the time they could easily drop it staggering back from good night at the brothel or some other kind of celebration. And projectiles often get lost when they are shot in the air, travel long distance and hit something and fall to the ground and later could get washed down into a creek overtime and end up in remote area where its considered untouched land by early explorers.
Last edited:
The thing is people were a lot quicker to shoot at each other back then. Especially those "inferior" to them like the Chinese and Aboriginals. This was a time when human beings were hunted and slaughtered for sport in Australia. Maybe something did happen where you found your stash of coins and rounds. You never know buddy.
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2022
- Messages
- 129
- Reaction score
- 246
The gold fields are full of projectiles, I know I’ve dug more bullets and bird shot than nuggets. Miners lived on what they could source locally like rabbits, Roos, birdlife etc. Coins are lost all the time for many reasons and probably a gun fight would be way down the list.
If I was shot at I think I’d lose the contents of my bowels before the contents of my pockets. If I was shot and killed I doubt you’d find a coin, it would be in the pocket of whoever shot me.
If I was shot at I think I’d lose the contents of my bowels before the contents of my pockets. If I was shot and killed I doubt you’d find a coin, it would be in the pocket of whoever shot me.
What if someone was shooting at you as you were running away, and it got dropped as you were running for your life? This isn't in any gold field either. This is in the middle of nowhere. No gold has ever been found here as far as I can tell. Just a bit of broken up quartz. It's not an area that's ever been settled or had any industry. Maybe I get carried away a bit. But my point that no one knows what happened and there was a whole lot of murdering being done by our 'pioneers".
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2022
- Messages
- 129
- Reaction score
- 246
Possibly right. I’d send both the coin and the projectile to the Federal police, not the state police as they don’t have the latest technology.
If the bullet has killed a chinaman, his DNA might be imbedded in the projectile. They should be able to match it using mitochondrial DNA technology to the DNA which should be still present in the finger print sweat on the coin.
Be careful not to personally handle both the coin and projectile yourself as you don’t want to be charged with killing a chinaman back in the 1800s
If the bullet has killed a chinaman, his DNA might be imbedded in the projectile. They should be able to match it using mitochondrial DNA technology to the DNA which should be still present in the finger print sweat on the coin.
Be careful not to personally handle both the coin and projectile yourself as you don’t want to be charged with killing a chinaman back in the 1800s
Years ago when ammunition didn't cost and arm & leg we fired hundreds of rounds in remote bushland, target shooting.
when my father was a young man they had a shooting range/galley on the farm (1930's)
there would have been thousands of rounds let go over the years
and the curse of all detectorist's, the left overs
i would have no idea how many rounds were fired in the whipstick from dingee to sailors gully chasing the underground mutton in my younger days
there would have been thousands of rounds let go over the years
and the curse of all detectorist's, the left overs
i would have no idea how many rounds were fired in the whipstick from dingee to sailors gully chasing the underground mutton in my younger days
Chinese were also market gardeners xelling produce to the miners
