here's my last cash coin from my bunch of northern song cash coins i was cleaning up. nothing spectacular, but it was fun IDing these coins. i'll probably pick up some other chinese coins, but i think i'm done with northern songs for now. tian sheng yuan bao, seal script emperor ren zong 1022-1063 hartill 16.73 (i think) 4.7g 26mm
I really enjoyed sorting through and identifying the 100 cash I bought as a group but the experiment proved to me that I was not interested in being a rare cash specialist and would not be paying extra for a small difference in one of the four characters. The other problem I saw was that the bulk lots were mostly Song rather like Roman bulk coins tend to be Constantinian.
Like most collecting, it depends. I have bought groups that were well mixed, but then again I searched them out. I go in and out of Cash, prefering it seems cash-like coins of the periphery of the empire to the main cash coins themselves. I still buy odds and ends, like nice looking iron and lead coins when I find them, or things like scarcer ten kingdoms or scarcer dynasty coins, but like you Doug cannot really get into tiny little differences in calligraphy.
yeah, i'm with you guys on this one. i'll also buy some odds and ends of chinese coinage..would like to get a small "greatest hits of the cash coins" collection...but don't want to dive deep into the topic.
To me, Greatest Hits of Chinese would be a set of coins issued by rulers that were in some way more interesting or significant in history. For example, this is a coin (Hartill 20.121) of the Yong Le emperor who built the Forbidden City. Many collectors like rare coins of rulers who barely appear in history but if we are to have but a few, they may as well be from people we have some idea who they were.
Regarding the historical significance of this emperor and this coin, you may find my article entitled "Admiral Zheng He and the Yongle Tongbao Coin" of interest. Gary
I always went the other way with it, using my coins to teach me the history. My favorite of course is the usurper wang mang. Ilove that article Robert Tye did about him.
got several quing chinese coins from my good coin buddy ENG! in addition to a couple of milled late quing coins (these are from 1906-1910), like this one.. and this one.. i also got these two interesting coins...which i think are cast and not milled? both are from the qianlong emperor (chien lung), who ruled from 1736-1795. as i underdand it, the reverse characters show the coins mint. (2nd pic) left is a "boo yuwan" which is "Board of Works mint in Bejing"...i'm not sure what that means? the right is a boo chiowan, whic is "Board of Revenue mint in Bejing".? the coin on the left is a "qian long tong bao", i don't know what the coin on the right is..any ideas? i guess the coin on the right is a "shan lung" type...wich was minted after the emperor abdicated (for his son to take power)in 1795, but before his death in 1799. all the above info came from wikipedia, and these two places... gary's AWESOME site.. http://primaltrek.com/ and here.. http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/reference.htm
Nice pickups, chrsmat71 (hey, I thought you were a wagon-brother as well?) => congrats, squirming free and scoring these cool washers from Eng!!
ENG gave them to me, so they don't count as me falling off the wagon! i'm getting off the wagon next weekend!!!
ok, here's one i can't figure out. i picked this up at a coin show in the dollar bin....so wasn't real worried about what it was. appears to be a cash coin, but doesn't match up with a northern song...however most the the characters look familiar. but it just doesn't seem right, the characters seem very "delicate", thin, compared to most of the coins i have. it does appear to be cast. is it some type of fake? a token or charm? it's 24 mm and 2.7g...seems lighter than it should be also, reverse is blank.
When I do these they are always guesses since I am unable to tell Chinese from copies made by neighboring lands. This seems to be Kuan Ei tsu ho Japanese 1626-1859 which Hartill (page 434) says comes in hundreds of variations.
Yes, its Japanese. If you study the coin closely versus Chinese coins, you will notice the Japanese one is much higher quality. The Japanese were making copies, but making them superior to the originals, (reminds me of the Japanese and US auto industry lol).
well, it's been a long time since i picked up a chinese coin. purchased this at a coin show several weeks ago, was labeled as a "china wu cha cash". was only 5 bucks, so what the heck. china, western han dynasty 113-90 bc emperor han wudi wu zhu hatril 8.8 25mm 3.4g the "hour glass" symbol is the wu...the symbol on the left is the "zhu". this means, "5 grans", a grain being the weight of 100 grains of millet. note bar above hole on the obverse, this means this coin is a "shang lin san guan" wu zhu, produced by the "three offices of shang lin park" ...the offices were coinage, sorting copper, and price equalization. wudi is a posthumous name, (liu chi was his birth name) which means "military leader" or something like that. refers to his military expansion. here's some info on the type in general from my go to spot for all Chinese coin stuff.. http://primaltrek.com/charmcoins.html#jun_guo wudi at wikipedia.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Wu_of_Han
Very nice cash coins, chrsmat71. I have a few to post as well. Northern Song - Emperor Shenzong - Yuan Feng Tong Bao 元豊通寳 - 1078 - 1085 AD Emperor Shenzong Cash Coin AE 24 OBV: 元豊通寳 Yuan Feng Tong Bao - Thick outer rim, four Chinese characters surrounding square hole with thin rim. REV: No legend. Thick outer rim, square hole in center with a thin rim. REF: S.556
Xin Dynasty - Wang Mang - Huo Quan 貨泉 AE cast coin 7-22 AD OBV: Huo Quan 貨泉, Thin outer rim, two Chinese characters around square hole with thin rim. REV: No legend, blank. Thin outer rim. Square hole in center with thin rim. REF: Schjoth 149 Huo Quan which means wealth/money coin is the base denomination of 1 Wu Shu.
Tang Dynasty AE Cash Coin - 開元通寶 Kai Yuan Tong Bao (The Inaugural Currency). 718 - 732 AD. OBV: 開元通寶 REV: Blank REF: Hartill 14.3 Kai Yuan Tong Bao or "The Inaugural Currency" was a standard in the Tang Dynasty for around 300 years. Another generic coin, but has a much more modern style that carries on to the end of the cash coin. These cast coins were well made, as well as having regulations where citizens were no longer allowed to mint coins as they once were. The penalty for minting coins was death. The alloy composition also had a standard regulation of 83% copper, 15% lead, and 2% tin. Although, testing seemed to produce different results for a lot of coins.
