New ancient Chinese guy here!

We'll, with some of the more common Chinese coins sometimes you have no choice but to buy them by the pound, as dealers will sell them in bulk rather than bother listing them individually at $.50 cents. The extra ones you sell or give away.

Every once in a while they'll dig up a new tomb in China with thousands of pounds of ancient coins in them, and although they are illegal to sell outside China, trust me when I say there's probably thousands of Chinese cash coins that enter the American market each year.

That's not to say all ancient Chinese are common, as there are plenty of rarities and uncommon coins that will command decent prices (some of the ultra rare can cost thousands of dollars), but when a coin is common, that sometimes can mean outrageously common.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Oh lol thay clears it up I thought Cheap meant like 5-25$ my bad that's neat.

Thanks,
Jacob

 

A lot of common ones can cost $5 to $25 too. Check out @Ken Dorney 's Chinese coins on sale in his Vcoins store. He has a nice variety of common and rare ones, and some nice odd shaped coins too.

https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/ke...d_desc&countitems=0&changeDisplayList=&page=1

 

Nice shop definitely gonna save that one.

Thanks,
Jacob

 

One cool thing about ancient Chinese coins is all the creative proto-money they had. It ranged from cowrie shells, to bone shells like the one I posted earlier, to iron shells, to fish money, bridge money (someone posted an example in this thread of that), and ant nose money, etc.

Here is Fish Money:



Then they did round coins with holes, like most are familiar with, but they also did spade coins (I posted an example of that in my first post), they also did knife coins, and other varieties of odd coinage.

You may definitely want to look at it and see if it's your cup of tea, though I suspect like most of us you'll be drawn to Roman and Greek coinage primarily due to the art on the coins. But nothing says you can't have a mini Chinese collection on the side.

 

I definitely like the washer style coins the square coins and hairpin style ones I don't like anything too big as I don't have much space and it doesn't interest me that much but I seem to be drawn to greek roman and Chinese (the ones listed above of course) type coins and Chinese were very experimental.

Thanks,
Jacob

 

Welkom, @AnYangMan - and while I do not collect Chinese coins, I loved your intro ... and I know where you are. Well, Vianen, that is. Have been to Utrecht a couple of times, mostly for the Dag van de Munt, and also to the Muntmanifestatie in Houten. Enjoy this place!

Christian (from NW, DE)

 

Wow! A big thank you to all the warm welcomes! Just goes to show how active the community here is. Some nice coins have certainly been posted, love that stater, especially the incredible reverse @Mikey Zee!

@Alegandron: no way, that’s awesome! What are the odds? Although that would most likely have been before I was born. I recognise the moulds from Thomas, and I too pondered over buying these from him. That double-value Anyang spade is a nice example, indeed from a reputable dealer. I own one double value and two single value spades myself, and even though they are the most common of the fangzubu, they still rank amongst my favourites. Hence my name .

@Ken Dorney, that is an incredibly sweet Yi hua Ji! I try to focus mostly on the three Jins, and I am thus a little neglecting of Yan and Qi state coinage, but I’d be more than willing to make an exception should I come across a specimen as nice as that. Congratulations!

@Sallent, Yes calling archaeology a safe career choice would be a sincere overstatement. But I figured a possibility of doing something I love for a living would be more than worth a shot. The ultimate goal would be to end up somewhere in the field of Chinese archaeology, a nice tie in to my collecting habits, but that is far from easy. But who knows, there are many possible paths, and I still have a few years before specializing. For now, I’m starting next Monday, and I for one can’t wait.

As for your ‘Chinese crusade’, I have read all of topics with great pleasure. I am afraid I have to admit I am not a huge fan of Wang Mang (*GASP*, I know, heresy), but I still own most of his common coins, and of course that first huobo spade. I absolutely love the blue accents it has on the reverse, somewhat similar to the nice example you own! That was a numismall coin, right?

My example:



A big thanks again to all those that responded! I’ll post some of my coin tomorrow.

Mika

 

Yeah, numismall

 

Looks like I'm late to the party as usual, but welcome @AnYangMan! My main interests are Parthian, Sasanian, and Roman, but I am a bit of a generalist, and so I've got a few ancient Chinese along the way. Just one spade:

My earliest round Chinese coin, Zhou period, city of Yuan in the State of Liang, c. 350-220. Hartill 6.3:

And a selection of Wang Mang coins:

 

Another late wellcome from a fellow country man, Mika. I guess there are about 10 Dutchies in total on the CT ancient department.



Nowadays I collect mainly Greek and Roman coins , sold my dutch provincial coin collection a couple of years ago. Got some ancient Chinese cash coins , this is my oldest from my small collection:


Groet uit Leiderdorp, André

 

Welcome Mika!

 

I've been checking every so often hoping you would post. Finally the day hath come!

 

Welcome. I would also say that your English is impressive. Furthermore, your interest in Chinese numismatics will add another collector to an already knowledgeable group. Have fun.

 

Is it possible to find one for 50 cents? That would probably be the easiest route to go for me. Thanks for your time.

 

I love the spade. How much do they typically cost? Also how much do the Wang Mang coins cost?

 

My Wang Mang spade, called a Huo Bu, is one of the most common ancient Chinese spade coins out there. You can get one with decent even patina for around $80, and if you have patience and don't mind waiting for the right occasion to come up, you may be able to eventually find a deal on one and get it around $60. But $80 is about right if you just want one now and can't be bothered to sit and wait for a while.

 

I have no Chinese coins, nor did I ever have any interest (before) of acquiring any...but I am captivated by the fish money @Sallent displayed! Can anyone provide a reputable dealer?

And please show your fish money, if you have any.

Welcome to Coin Talk Ancients, @AnYangMan!

 

- Coincoin.com (Scott)
- Bob Reis

 

Thanks @Alegandron!