Interesting coin hoard found in Maebashi, Japan that included ancient Chinese coins. I know nothing about Asian coinage, however, so I can’t add anything to the articles: So far, 334 of the coins [of possibly 100,000 coins] have been examined. At least 44 types were confirmed, ranging from those made in 175 B.C. to ones as recent as 1265. The one confirmed Ban Liang coin had a diameter of 2.3 centimeters and was 1 millimeter thick. The square hole in the middle measured 7 millimeters on each side. The characters for “Ban” and “Liang” were engraved on the surface. Because the newest coin dates to 1265, the trove is believed to have been buried during the Kamakura Period (1185-1333). But the date of burial could change after more coins are analyzed. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15048486 https://www.tokyohive.com/article/2...nearthed-during-factory-construction-in-japan
I remember, back a while, I was reading a story or someone quoted a story or something of that nature...I can't quite place it. But, the point of the reference was that 2 gentlemen were doing a bike tour of China late in the 1800s, I believe the time was, and they struggled with carrying around strings upon strings upon strings of cash coins just to pay for simple stuff like food/lodging etc. I envisioned a bike with "saddlebags" full of thousands of cash coins and 2 riders with legs the size of a body builders trying to manage.
I think this is what I was thinking about… The book is called Across Asia on a Bicycle: The Journey of Two American Students from Constantinople to Peking The 2 men had to buy as much silver as they could carry because of the inability to carry sufficient Chinese cash. There is a great picture in the book of the travelers and their Russian companion holding the cash necessary for a meal. These are 2 screen shots from Gutenberg.org, where you can read the book for free.
It happened in Europe too, in the same period. Cash coins were bronze coins of little value (see how many are needed to pay for a meal). There is no big difference between a cash coin cast in 175 BC and another one cast c. 1900 AD. All kinds of cash coins circulated as long as people accepted them and if somebody found in the ground a coin dating back to the Han dynasties, he just could put it in circulation again. Same thing in France c. 1900. In an old wallet that belonged to my great-grandfather I found small change. Copper coins of 1, 2, 5, 10 centimes minted under Napoleon III and the Republic in the late 19th - early 20th c. There was also a copper nummus of Constantine the Great minted in the early 320s. These old Roman coins had always been accepted as small change in rural areas as late as the early 1900s. A nummus of Constantine could be considered a 2 centimes coin, it was copper and had roughly the same size. Here it is: Constantine the Great, AE nummus, Rome 321. Obv.: CONSTAN-TINVS AVG, laureate head right Rev.: D N CONSTANTINI MAX AVG, VOT / XX in two lines within wreath; RP in exergue. RIC 232. Minted at Rome in 321, circulated in the western Roman Empire in the 4th c., probably lost in Gaul in the 4th c., found and recovered in the modern period (17th, 18th, 19th c. ?) and returned to circulation, still circulating in France c. 1910.
