Can anything be identified from this?

[JeffS]

Long shot. This very worn coin is nailed to end of a dha I bought in Cambodia. Can anyone make out any of the characters on it? Any thoughts on the general type and period of the coin?

[kahnjar1]

Only character I can see looks to be Chinese, but if you would post complete pics of the item then perhaps further info could be forthcoming.
Stu

[JeffS]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

Only character I can see looks to be Chinese, but if you would post complete pics of the item then perhaps further info could be forthcoming.
Stu

Good point! This is one I posted before: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=25080

[kahnjar1]

The coin pics is clearer in your original post and look chinese to me. The coin itself may or may not have any bearing on the origin of the Dha itself, though I think the comments in the original post point to Laos/Cambodia (Khmer). Bear in mind that actual borders are generally an invention of the colonial powers and probably mean nothing to the native peoples who live(d) in the region.
Stu

[Ren Ren]

Originally Posted by JeffS

Can anyone make out any of the characters on it?

一百之金
These four Chinese characters appear to be depicted. Can be translated as "one hundred of gold / one hundred of money". That's all I can say.

[SanibelSwassa]

As stated earlier, the coin appears to have Chinese characters, but with the deterioration it’s hard to tell. Chinese is not my area of expertise, but Cambodian is a language I read and speak. It is not character based but rather has an alphabetic form. The same for Laotian and original Vietnamese before it was formally romanized. I know that doesn’t help with the coin directly, but knowing what it isn’t may help narrow the search.

Best of luck!!

[JeffS]

Originally Posted by Ren Ren

一百之金
These four Chinese characters appear to be depicted. Can be translated as "one hundred of gold / one hundred of money". That's all I can say.

Thank you that was enough to get me going. Amazing you could decipher the characters. In general I've learned that these bronze disks can be a cash, charm, or token. The characters should be read top, bottom, right, left. The orientation of the clearest character (100) puts it at top, 百金之一 . If cash money it should have a dynasty symbol at the top which this doesn't seem to have. Charms would have a saying to imbue good fortune on the owner, many of these wish for a bunch of gold, so the one hundred of gold interpretation may fit. That would make dating the charm nearly impossible as these were made for over 2000 years. Also, most of the charms, if asking for wealth, we're looking for at least a thousand, not a paltry sum of 100 (even if we are talking gold). However, if the interpretation is "100 money" instead of "100 gold" then this may be meant to indicate a sum of money. This is what tokens were, and they were issued by rebel administrations during the late Qing Dynasty which, if this is a token, puts it solidly into the second half of the 19th century. If the Taiping Rebellion, which occurred in southern China (wild speculation but closer to Cambodia and much larger in scale than other rebellions) then it would most likely be from between 1850 and 1864.

[kahnjar1]

I go back to my reply (#4 above) in which IMHO the "coin" may have no bearing on the origin of the Dha itself. What I should perhaps have added is the the Chinese Province of Yunnan borders Burma, Laos, Cambodia to the north, and indeed Dha also originate from there. The dha you have, do not however show typical Yunnan traites such as a typical chinese style hand guard and typical scabbard decoration. (Pic attached) The coin though could well have come from that region.
Stu

[JeffS]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

I go back to my reply (#4 above) in which IMHO the "coin" may have no bearing on the origin of the Dha itself. What I should perhaps have added is the the Chinese Province of Yunnan borders Burma, Laos, Cambodia to the north, and indeed Dha also originate from there. The dha you have, do not however show typical Yunnan traites such as a typical chinese style hand guard and typical scabbard decoration. (Pic attached) The coin though could well have come from that region.
Stu

Understood, I didn't think you were suggesting Chinese origin to the sword. I actually just found the correct coin, which sadly is not as interesting as a rebellion token, but certainly makes more sense for the location of the dha. 1 Centime - French Indochina - 1896 -1939.

[Ian]

Hi Jeff,
Just catching up with your new post. The French Indo-China coin is entirely consistent with a Cambodian sword made at the end of the 19th C. As noted, this one centime coin dates as far back as 1886, and I’d say likely contemporaneous with the sword.
It is really hard to find old Cambodian darv in such good shape.

[Ren Ren]

Originally Posted by JeffS

Understood, I didn't think you were suggesting Chinese origin to the sword. I actually just found the correct coin, which sadly is not as interesting as a rebellion token, but certainly makes more sense for the location of the dha. 1 Centime - French Indochina - 1896 -1939.

Yesss!! You found that coin! Congratulations!
And I was wrong about one character 分.
一分之百 Probably right is "one part in a hundred".