Howdy
I detected this coin at a gold miner stone hut the other day, if anyone could date it that would be awesome.
All the best
Matt
Hi Matt, if you flip the photo upside down, it says:
Kangxi Tongbao. If you Google that it will show you some clean examples. Quite a lot older than the miner who would have owned it! It was traditional to keep old coins for good luck/ chasing away bad spirits - the older the coin the better!
Your coin is a lucky one, because that King lived a long life, during a relatively peaceful era 
2 Likes
Cool find Matt. Something I have never come across in my years of gold detecting many areas that would have seen many Chinese back in the day. A Chinese coin is always on my mind when in those areas. A friend of mine detected a broken Chinese coin up 5 mile here in QT. It was in the creek. It was said to be somewhere around 2000 years old. The Theory of it being lost was that it may have been worn as a ‘lucky’ charm around the miners neck & got broken & hence lost to the miner. My friend couldn’t find the other half.
JW 
Hi Matt, Are you in Wanaka now?
JW
Thanks for info, super happy to know it is probably over 300 hundred years old, have been hunting hut sites and camps for years and hoping to detect a Chinese coin but this is a first, it gave a solid 62 on my AT gold which is an unusual signal and was on the surface just under a spear grass.
Here is another coin detected at an early gold mining camp near Q-town
Yes over the hill now John, Q-town seemed to have out grown itself, much more relaxed pace of life here.
All the best
Matt
3 Likes
Yes I know what you mean about QT. It has settled down a bit without all the foreign tourists due to covid but that comes at a price as QT relies on the tourist dollar of course.
You still chasing the gold?
All the best to you too. Cheers
JW 
bugger got all excited didnt have my glasses on and thought topic read dating chinese .com , awesome find all the same
This has got me thinking. Not a mean feat. 
Did the Chinese trade & do business among themselves using their own currency when they were here chasing gold. I always thought they would have but maybe they just used gold to purchase stuff. I thought they may have sold gold to a Chinese merchant in exchange for their Chinese coinage to use among themselves. If not that might explain why I have never found a Chinese coin. I really thought I would have by now. That or I have been beaten to them. I have found a few British coins but no sovereigns unfortunately. Have also found heaps of the old timers metal jeans buttons. Copper I believe, as they are always non ferrous. Just found another one in the weekend. It was a bit corroded so can’t make out the manufacturers name. I remember one that I found had the makers name on it & on googling it, it was a jeans manufacturer in Ballarat Australia which were last made in the early 1860’s. That was pretty cool. 
JW
1 Like