Oxford Numismatic Society

Junk box find.

I bought this coin on Saturday for 50 pence. It is about the size of an old sixpence. I thought it was Korean at first because it was sat next to a Korean coin in the box. (No, not really scientific reasoning but you never know. 

It took quite a long time to track it down. It looks Oriental but I could not place it. 

It is in fact a 10 fen coin from the Reformed Government of China issued year 29 (1940)
by the Japanese controlled Hua Hsing Bank, Shanghai

The Reformed Government of the Republic of China was a Chinese puppet state created by Japan that existed from 1938 to 1940 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The regime had little authority or popular support, nor did it receive international recognition even from Japan itself, lasting only two years before it was merged with the Provisional Government into the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China under Wang Jingwei. Due to the extensive powers of the Japanese advisors within the government and its own limited powers, the Reformed Government was not much more than an arm of the Japanese military administration.

The coin is neither rare nor expensive according to the catalogue but I have never seen one before. It comes from an interesting yet tragic period in history. I wonder why they are not scarcer. Not many people would have wanted to keep them and I expect they were rejected by Chinese and Japanese authorities. Perhaps it was kept by a foreigner in a handful of coins that he or she did not recognise. Not bad for 50 p!