Chinese coins in the California desert

Size 24 mm

19-Jan-98 I received request from Wayne Newton (USA) about Chinese coin that was found during excavations in the California desert. Coin is most common coin issued during Chien Lung period of the Ching Dynasty, Boo Yuwan mint. Below is interesting story of that item.

I go to the desert area of California quite a lot and the area I found the coin was near a small town, only about 300 residents, called Ocotillo Wells. The site was just off an old dirt road commonly called Kane Springs Road. The Hotel was built in the 1920's at a site called Little Borrego. The main highway, Highway 78, was built around the 1930's and it bypassed Kane Springs Road by about 3 miles, thus making the Hotel in the middle of the desert useless. The site was totally abandoned in the middle 1940's, and all that remains is the concrete foundation slab.

I was just searching for whatever I could find, using a metal detector (Garret Master Hunter 7x), and this ancient Chinese coin was one of the many artifacts I recovered. This coin was the only one though that showed any opportunity to being some sort of 'real valuable' find. I have never seen another coin like it here in California, and I was really quite excited when I determined, through the use of Mr.Ferguson's web site, that the coin was actually over 200 years old. Actually I am still excited, especially when I try to imagine how that coin actually traveled from Peking, China to a small deserted site in the California Desert. Ocotillo Wells, in the desert, can be found on a map of Southern California as being on hHighway 78, halfway between highway 86 (near the west shore of the Salton Sea and to the east), and the small mountain community of Julian (to the west). The site of Little Borrego is due south from Ocotillo Wells, about 3 miles from Highway 78. I found the coin in the road, just east of the hotel slab, about 7 inches down into the dirt and sand.

As to actually searching specifically for Ancient Chinese coins, I was not doing that. I was just looking for anything I could find with my metal detector. The actual odds of finding another similar coin in this area are probably remote, if non-existant; but you never know.

Vladimir Belyaev .
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