I had been waiting to post on these forums for a while, but since I was away from home, I had no real goodies to share until now. This is a Northern Wei coin I recently ordered for myself, I'm generally really fascinating by the so-called conquest dynasties of China (the Yuan and Qing, but also the lesser well known ones such as the Western Xia, Northern Wei, and Liao). The Northern Wei are particularly interesting to me, because even though the dynasty was founded by arguably ethnically non-"sinic" Xianbei people, the dynasty made great contributions generally to Chinese culture (however that is defined) including the spread of Buddhism, the stress on merit rather than familial connections in imperial examinations, and as the setting for the Ballad of Mulan. Perhaps if anything, the Northern Wei reminds me of how complex history can be (compared the generalized and bright lines we typically get in a 101 class), and how much cultures stand to learn from each other through interactions. As for the coin itself, I think the patina is quite beautiful, a mix of red and green, and the back appears to have a casting error in the line on the bottom right corner.
very nice and welcome! ..i have several Chinese ancients and i don't really spend enough time with them...
Welcome! Great first post! My son and I just received a few Chinese coins and are working on identification and learning the history behind them. We are looking forward to your future posts.
Thanks! Do you guys have the Hartill, Chinese Cast Coins book? I know that it's basically a beginner book (and for more specialized coins it might be lacking), but it changed my life!
Though I only have a few Chinese coins I've always loved their varied patinas. I need to get more. Thanks for sharing.
Ha no we don't have any books. We have been learning through here and also through several websites. The coins we received came with Hartill numbers. We plan on using those as a last resort since half the fun for us is to identify them ourselves.
Great example! Mine is currently not pictured. There are a few more times where this happened: The Mongols who founded the Yuan Dynasty: The Manchurians who founded the Qing Dynasty:
Very cool! Please share more Eastern pieces, they seem to a bit underrepresented on here. I have Hartill's CCC and it really is an invaluable resource. I have his Guide to Cash Coins that briefly covers SE Asia like the Vietnamese and Indonesian outputs. It's not nearly as useful as CCC but it's still a great reference with a lot of hard-to-find details and information. I just received his Early Japanese Coins this week and haven't spent much time with it yet but it appears to be quite thorough and detailed, much like CCC just much shorter, given the relatively small numismatic history of Japan compared to China.
