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Hartill (GCC, page 148-9) assigns these coins to his category ‘Small Copper, Distinct calligraphy, Group 5 (“Broad Bao type”)’. However despite this assignment, he reports that the composition of some of the coins determined by XRF is ‘almost pure zinc’. He notes that the coins must have been issued before 1735, as all nine coins in this category were already listed as the 永利手 or Vĩnh Lợi Group in the undated Rekidai Kosenko by Nakatani Kozan who died in 1735. He considers that the series may have been playthings or gaming counters rather than circulating coins. Hartill’s information comes largely from a discussion thread started by Craig Greenbaum on the Zeno Oriental Coins Database website at https://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=152279. Geographical attribution is still unclear. Vietnam has been proposed mainly because of its unique experience in producing zinc coins from 1663 during the restored Le dynasty era and for the next 200 years.
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Illustrates the two examples from the British Museum, which he assigns to the 永利手 or Vĩnh Lợi Group
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Two specimens in British Museum. Helen Wang informed Craig Greenbaum (isee ref. above) that the uncleaned surfaces of the coins were analysed using non-destructive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry.
# 897 Coin (1884,0511.164) was determined to be 98% zinc with small amounts of lead, copper and iron.
# 896 Coin (1884,0511.165) was also 98% zinc but with lead and iron only.