eBay offerings are just loaded with fakes and fantasies of Chinese coins as usual I would have to say. Most all rarities including common types of Chinese Imperial through Republican era crowns and minors up through 1949 dates can be had.
Of course copies of our first issue of USA dollars have always been very popular with the tourist shops in Hong Kong for decades. Once while I was in Hong Kong, I looked at an early USA dollar and Ms. Liberty had a hairdo that looked more like spaghetti or a cotton mop head.
Recently I noticed a rather unusual eBay lot of encapsulated crowns, and I ended up being th
e "lucky" bidder. The metal appears to be silver, but I'm sure it isn't. The construction appears to be two-piece, but only a hacksaw would prove whether they are or not.
The first example has a dateless Morgan Dollar with Ms. Liberty's head surrounded by a ring of 21 stars. The English legend on the outer ring is a bit humerous having a few errors in it, but should read: "COIN SILVER SAMPLE" - "CIRCULATION NO". Remember, the older Chinese is read from right to left. This is replaced by Chinese characters on the reverse.
The second example has an encapsulated Seated Liberty Dollar dated 1845. Note the irregular alignment of the numerals with the "5" a bit larger than the "184".
Measuring 50 mm in diameter and having nicely reeded edges, I think if nothing else a few large stacks of these certainly would make excellent poker chips, even though they do not have a "ring" like silver coins do.
