Was tidying up my collection and this is one set that I got a few years back. I did show it once before but wanted to do a formal digital coin album set. A brief summary of the Chinese poem coins is that the coins were cast around 1660 - 1680s by 20 different mints in different provinces. The coins were rearranged to form poetry. As far as I understand, there does not seem to be any meaning to it but may be rearranged by phonetic. The way I have designed is that I wanted to include both the pinyin and English pronunciation as well as traditional and simplified Chinese characters. It kinda looks cluttered but to put so much information in - it was not straight forward. As of why I wanted to do so, I honestly struggled to read different references with different annotations. Therefore this has to be done. Enough said and enjoy the view! http://gxseries.com/ct/poem1_small.jpg http://gxseries.com/ct/poem2_small.jpg Please feel free to post your pictures as well.
Never knew these existed. A seller I have been dealing with for years had a Zhe / Che & Dong / Tung up for an auction that ended last night. I will post when they are delivered.
Yes, it was "gxseries" who initially called my attention on the Poem Coins. I am now so far in collecting them, I am awaiting the last four coins to complete the collection of twenty. At my usual numismatic forum there is little (or none) interest in Poem Coins, but I am rather fond of them. The twenty pieces are just filling an album page and arranged in the traditional Chinese "zongpai", right to left vertical script, one can respect the lines of the "poem". Collecting them, I learned: the genuine NAN, GUANG and YUN are more reddish (by a higher copper percentage). The NAN, GUANG and TAI fit in a 25mm coin holder. The rest of the coins have brass colour and need a coin holder of 27,5mm. By the end of the month, I hope to have my collection of Poem Coins completed.
So, I've never really even looked at these until recently. I am currently cataloging my Kang Xi tong bao, so naturally these came onto the radar, so to speak. I have a few questions. How many of the twenty coins match normal production coins? How do you distinguish between normal coins and poem coins (seems color and size, perhaps)? For instance, how is the OP's poem coin different from Hartill 22.125?
Flamandets - thanks for your kind comments. I'm glad I can be of some sort of aspiration. mrbreeze - There are large number varieties available. To make this very difficult as there were literally millions cast, it can be literally to the extent where no two coins are alike. I believe I have Kwangtung coins in both copper and brass like color somewhere... I've yet to do a proper study but the variance in this small lot was quite large. For instance the smallest diameter coin is from Taiwan Province at 23.5mm and the largest from Fujian Province at 28mm. The lightest coin is from Honan at 2.58g (!) up to one from Jiangxi Province at 5.06g which is almost double. Of course, coins from Taiwan and Honan Province are known to be smaller and underweight.
I love these coins. So far, I have managed to acquire 11. What fun, and a tough series to put together out of circulation.
@mrbreeze To my conviction, Poem Coins ARE normal production coins, as it is only the people's superstition that made them poem coins. The only conditions they should respond to are: 1- they have to be "Kang Xi" coins and 2 - they have to be minted in one of the mints mentioned on gxseries' nice presentation. So, Poem Coins can never have the common Manchu "Boo" on them. Pay attention, even in Kang Xi's later years of reign, they already were "counterfeited" especially for collectors, as they still are today. On the www. you get the complete series offered for 200 USD., only they are all of the same colour and size and have all the same plane traces! Seeing that, you should know what you have in front of you! @ NormW and mbreeze Very valuable information on Poem Coins, you can find at: Chinese Numismatics in Research - K'ang Hsi T'ung Pao Cash. http://ykleungn.tripod.com/kanghsia.htm They 'll tell you there: a Tai, good looking and of the same size as the other Poem Coins was made later, especially for collectors. Further with this information about Chinese coins, there is always the confusing question of the transscription. Personally I have chosen to stay by the "Hanyu Pinyin" of Zhou Youguang, who changed Peking into Beijing. This transscription gives the Poem as: TONG FU LIN DONG JIANG XUAN YUAN SU JI CHANG NAN HE NING GUANG ZHE TAI GUI SHAN YUN ZHANG
Ok, so I am trying to get my thoughts together on this. Essentially, this is a collection of coins made for circulation that have been arranged to form a poem. Using Hartill, it would look like this (copying @gxseries format) H22.125 H22.98(9) H22.124 H22.123 H22.121(2) H22.141 H22.126(7) H22.120 H22.140 H22.110(1-4) H22.115(6) H22.107(8-9) H22.119 H22.102(3-4) H22.137(A) H22.130 H22.105(6) H22.128(9) H22.131(2-6) H22.100 @Flamandets The TAI coin only exists as a smaller coin as "officially" made. The other two coins exist in a larger format, but they are much more rare than the smaller version, especially the GUANG. P.S. When I typed the message, the Hartill numbers were in nice columns. I don't know how to keep them from jumbling together.
@mrbreeze I am not in possession of a Hartill catalogue. Is Hartill also the source of your information about the sizes of the NAN and GUANG?
@Flamandets has asked me to attached these photos from his collection. Looks quite neat. https://www.cointalk.com/attachment...4/?temp_hash=6f8eb2e382dbfd6571615a17a5b58512[/url] https://www.cointalk.com/attachment...5/?temp_hash=6f8eb2e382dbfd6571615a17a5b58512 https://www.cointalk.com/attachment...3/?temp_hash=6f8eb2e382dbfd6571615a17a5b58512
Thank you very much "gxseries"! I hope before the end of this month I may send you the picture of the filled page with the complete collection, as the last four coins are now on their way to me. I took the freedom to show your great presentation of Poem Coins at our Belgian numismatic forum, where I started a topic on these coins. I hope it may be an inspiration for many, just as it was for me. I am really glad I found it !
@ Black Friar Which are the 9 Poem Coins you are still looking for? If you can show a picture of those you have, that would be interesting to !
A very kind offer, I need: "T'ung Scjoth 1423 Fu, Fukien mint S 1424 Chiang, Chian-ning (Nanking) S 1427 Nan, Hunan MintS 1435 Ho, Honan Mint S 1434 Ning, Ningpo in Chekiang S 1433 T'ai,Taiwan in Formosa S 1438Shan Shensi S 1440 Yun :Yunnan S 1441 last but not least Chang, Chang-chou in Fukien S 1442 I guess that's ten. I got these out of a lot of around 500 cash coins. An interesting experiance and I learned a lot, no pun intended. I guess a pun would work out fine as we are talking about "poem" coins. I would like to put together an exhibit with them. Cheers!
Scott Semans sometimes has the Hartill book Cast Chinese Coins. I think I saw it on Amazon as well. If you collect cash coins you should look into getting it. Makes life more fun. Hartill also wrote Cast Korean Coins and Charms. Another well done book. Enjoy.
