A couple beautiful Ancient Chinese coins from the Northern Zhou Dynasty

These are both new purchases. There are three coins in the set, but I have only bought two of them. I am eying an example of the third, but monies are a limiter.

Now some background info.

The Northern Wei Dynasty split is 535 AD into the Eastern and Western Wei Dynasties.



The Eastern Wei became the Northern Qi. Yuwen Tai was a high-ranking general of the Western Wei dynasty. After his death in 556, his nephew, Yuwen Hu, forced Emperor Gong of the Western Wei to abdicate the throne to Yuwen Tai's son, Yuwan Jue. This event established the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Yuwen Hu dominated the rule of the Northern Zhou under three puppet emperors, who were Yuwen Tai's sons: Emperor Xiaomin (Yuwen Jue), Emperor Ming, and Emperor Wu. Yuwen Hu maintained his dominance until he was killed in an ambush by Emperor Wu in 572, and he assumed total control over the Northern Zhou.



Emperor Wu was an effective ruler, which allowed him to conquer the Northern Qi in 577. Wu died a year later in 578, which allowed his son Emperor Xuan, to take the throne. He was a violent and arbitrary ruler, which brought the Northern Zhou to its demise. He died two years later in 580, and his son, Emperor Jing, assumed the throne. Xuan's father-in-law, Yang Jian, seized the throne in 581 and established the Sui dynasty. The entirety of the Yuwen family was then slaughtered.

The coin I do not have is the most common one (go figure!). It was a Bu Quan, a denomination revived from Wang Mang's failed coinage. It's inscription literally translates to "Spade Money," but it had no relationship to any spades. It was to circulate concurrecntly with Wu Zhus at a valu of 5 Wu Zhus, or 25 Zhu. This was issued in 561 by Emperor Wu, and it was withdrawn in 576 due to counterfeiting and unpopularity (which was a common fate of these fudiciary issues).

The next coin is a Wu Xing Da Bu (top, bottom, right, left), which translates to "Currency of the Five Elements" [metal, wood, water, fire, and earth]. This was issued by Emperor Wu in 574 at a value of ten Bu Quans, or 50 Wu Zhu, or 250 Zhu. Immense counterfeiting took place, and these coins were very unpopular. Despite stringent anti-counterfeiting laws, the government gave up and withdrew these coins as well in 576.



Lastly is, in my opinion, the most beautiful coin ever cast for circulation by China. This is a Yong Tong Wan Guo (top, bottom, right, left), which translates to "The Everlasting Currency of the Empire." These were issued in 580 by Emperor Xuan at a value of 10 Wu Cing Da Bu coins, or 500 Wu Zhu, or 2500 Zhu. The nominal weight of these coins is only 12 zhu, so they were quite inflated. These were cast until the fall of the Northern Zhou in 581. Such a short duration makes them rather scarce.



It is worth noting that these coins are very rarely found with any substantial wear, meaning that they did not circulate much, just like Wng Mang's coins. Both of these coins were purchased from Scott Semans.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Is this seal script? I've always found seal script intriguing and lovely because it still has a hint of pictograms.

 

Wow! I am collecting Chinese, but do not have any from this Dynasty. Nice scores! I have to credit the Chinese... They figured out FIAT CURRENCY early! It is not the metal value, rather the stated denomination. 2500 zhu in one coin... Kinda like what we print on paper currency!

 

Hartill notes the calligraphy is in the Jade Chopstick (Yu Zhu) style. It is close enough to seal script for me to call it as such.

 

Read Robert Tye's essay on Wang Mang's coins.

Wang Mang tried to implement a bronze fiat currency system that would be equivalent to paper money today, but he destroyed China' economy in the process. (Spoiler Alert!)

 

Ouch! Thanks for the essay. I have a few Wang Mangs, and read how they failed.

 

Well, really all currency is fiat currency, gold and silver isn't worth anything if nobody believes in its worth.

 

More than agreed!

 

Although I have a policy of silver only, I'm probably going to make an exception for Chinese cash, as it's the only way I'll be able to collect ancient Chinese coins. It's a real shame they didn't do silver, but they are too intriguing to just ignore

That was an excellent OP write up and very pretty coins.

 

It is a fun area of collecting. I have been all over China (and other parts of Asia) many times, and they have a long, rich history. Been to several historical places there. It is fun to pull it together with coins and memories of those visits.

 

There are some silver Chinese cast coins, but they are rather valuable. You can try for a silver Kai Yuan Tong Bao (Scott Semans had one last time I checked), or a silver Da Chao Tong Bao from the Yuan Dynasty. Anything else is being held in the Chinese national collection.

 

they also minted a few gold coins used in burials of which I would like further information on

thank-you

 

Gold coins were pretty much never used for burials. If an emperor or noble wanted to be buried with gold, he would be buried with ingots or jewelry, but the norm was bronze and even lead as to not remove anything of substantial value from circulation permanently. There were some gold cash coins made (only the Kai Yuans come to mind), but they were used as ceremonial gifts or palace cash and not general circulation. But they are EXCEEDINGLY rare and VERY expensive. I have never seen one.

 

I have a couple of the Wu Xing's. The only reason I have two examples is that I could never decide if certain differences qualify as a separate type or variety. In y case, a small difference in the "Wu":

 

sevaral years ago, a few gold cash coins were offered for sale from the tang and ming dynaties. these were described as burial pieces.
I have also seen han dynasty "gold" burial pieces as well. however, these are clay... which leads me to ask, why do people use gold to describe them??????

 

Your questions made me do some research. I pulled some old Baldwin's auction records from 2008 (oh, how I wish I was collecting these back then ) that seem to offer what you are referencing. I seem to have been proven wrong... I learned something new today!

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=China gold&category=1-2&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&currency=usd&order=0&company=20&auction=701&lot=

http://www.baldwin.co.uk/media/cms/auction-archive/auction-hkca43/Far Eastern Coins Part 1.pdf

More info on burial coins:

http://primaltrek.com/blog/2015/03/20/chinese-burial-money/

Tha Tang did cast gold and silver cash for purposes other than burial:

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/focus/currency2.htm

 

I got the coins today. Surprisingly, the Yong Tong weighs less than the Wu Xing, even though it was supposed to be worth more.

 

Are you sure it hasn't been carved? I have a wu zhu that displays the same phenomenon, but it has been carved.

 

Just bought a Bu Quan. This one of the more attractive patinas I have seen on this type.

I bought this in a lot of other Wang Mang coins, even though this coin is not from the Wang Mang period. I paid for this coin and got the rest for free.

 

The trifecta.