This spade marks the most expensive coin I have ever purchased. Its price was equivalent to a nice F/VF owl tetradrachm, though this spade shows up at most five times a year (if you are lucky), while owls show up five times per auction. I got it about a month ago, but I have not had the chance to make a proper writeup until now. First, a little discussion of these spades. The Chinese had been casting tools and decorations from bronze for hundreds, if not thousands, of years prior to the inception of standardized coinage. Some of these tools were spades, which were called "Bo" ("Po"). They had hollow sockets that extended down about a third (or more) of the blade, a tapered blade so that the bottom edge was sharper and thinner, and often had a reinforcing ridge in the center to help strengthen the tool. An example is shown here, which resides in the American Numismatic Society collection: Some examples have surfaced in the past couple centuries that do not have the strengthening design elements, or at least have them to a lesser degree. These could be inferior products as they would not have the same functionality as normal spades. Some Chinese numismatists refer to them as "prototype" spade coins, meaning that they were spade-shaped pseudo-money that were not used for farming. These are considered the earliest "coins" (I don't think they are "coins," but it is possible they were used as money). Now we have spades that have no reinforcing design elements, and are far too thin to be useful for any kind of agricultural work. These are considered to definitely be coins (and some even fall under @TIF's definition of coins as they were issued by a governing authority [State of Jin and Zhou] and are inscribed as such). However, the design of the coins is heavily influenced by the original tools: The handle is hollow, emulating the socket where a wooden handle would be placed. There are three lines on both sides, of which the outer two represent the edges of the socket that used to encroach on the handle, and the the middle line representing the center reinforcing ridge. Sometimes, there is a hole in the handle that emulates where a pin would be placed to secure a spade on a handle. You can see the features on my square-shouldered hollow-handle spade here: The above coin is attributed to being cast by the State of Zhou. I have not yet deciphered the character yet, but it might be the name of the city in which it was minted. There are two other varieties of hollow-handled spades. One was a variant of the square-shouldered spade that has the shoulders slope downward. Exactly why the change occurred is not known (maybe to make them more compact in size?), but they almost certainly date later to the above coins. Almost all of these have an inscription, and most have the name of a city. Since the weight/size/shape of this coin type was standard throughout the state, it would be hard to say these did not constitute an official coinage. This type is also attributed to the state of Zhou. Here is my example, though its authenticity is questionable. Another variety was cast by the state of Jin that was contemporary to or cast very soon after the square-shoulder spades. It was very large, had pointed shoulders and feet, and a long hollow handle. Its scarcity relative to the other spades suggests a smaller/shorter production run. A hint can be taken from the design. The very stylized points and handle made the spade very fragile, and as such, intact specimens are highly prized today. This design flaw likely caused the abandonment of this type in favor of the flat-handled spades, which I will talk about in a later thread. These often did not have inscriptions, but they have been found in hoards with similar spades with inscriptions, so it is likely that they were officially made, just not marked as such. So, in this regard, I believe them to be coins. This coin came from the George Fisher collection, and is the one I refer to at the beginning of the thread. Those of you familiar with Chinese coins may have heard of Fisher through his work in translating Ding's Fu Bao. I am honored to have such an important coin in my collection. One of the most interesting aspects of this coin is its size. It is HUGE! I have my hand next to it for comparison. Dating these coins is very difficult, and it is full of conjecture, mostly as a result of the disputed meaning of "Bu" ("Pu"). "Bu" became being used for spade coins instead of "Bo" in order to create a term to differentiate a coin from a tool. The character for "Bo" has a structure that is indicative of a later origin, so these spades cannot be from an extremely early time frame. As @Sallent had pointed out in his thread, one of the meanings is "cloth," while the other is "spade coin" (not the tool). How do we know "Bu" was a name for the spade coins? Well, some spades specifically have the word "Bu" in their inscription. All 11 of Wang Mang's spades have this, and one from 300-200 BC has the inscription "Fen Bu." So "Bu" was established as meaning "spade coin" when applied to a monetary sense by at least 300 BC. This is where conjecture comes in. Early Chinese record-keeping did not usually refer to coinage and monetary units of exchange; instead transactions worthy of being recorded were often expressed in terms of gold, livestock, slaves, etc. this created a problem in trying to figure out how money was used during the Zhou Dynasty. There are poems, stories, songs, and vessel inscriptions dating back to 500 BC and prior that mention "Bu" in relation to some kind of transaction, but it can be argued that can mean either "cloth" or "spades." However, if you look into the context in which "Bu" is used, you may see that assuming the meaning to be "cloth" is rather ridiculous. If you want examples, I can give you a couple at a later time. Since "Bu" as a form of money was securely in place at this time, it seems likely that its inception would have occured at some earlier time.
Nice write up. I actually had a chance to buy 2 of the square shouldered hollow handled types that you refer to as State of Zhou, but I turned down the offer because I thought I would end up breaking them. Just holding them made me nervous.
I used the wrong picture of the tools. Here are a couple that are actually from the ANS which have the reinforcing ridge.
spades and knives were something that had a practical purpose and one can see that these would of course have been of great value to everyone. i imagine the 1st ones used as money were also able to be used as implements also.
As far as barter is concerned, yes. But those considered to be strictly used as money had their functional aspect stripped, so they could not be used as implements. The "prototype" spade coins kinda blurred the line between functional and money.
Amazing spade!! The condition is excellent.. these tend to get chipped and damaged easily but not so in your case..
Nice example with great patina. I've sold several over the years but never kept any spades or knives for my own collection (due to space constraints).
