Hi Ray
I think this is actually a forgery of a
Japanese coin, called 'mameita gin' ('
bean silver'), see coins 99-101 on this page
http://www.sna-sg.com/WorldCoins-1.htm for the
type of thing.
The issue is that of the Tempo period 1837-1858, and the 'characters' on your piece are repeated crude representations of the character 'po' of the era-name (I've outlined what the character should look like on the image below).
Whether this is a
contemporary or
modern forgery I don't know, but the mameita gin of this period should be 26% silver, and yours looks (as you said) to be copper.
Best wishes
Alan
