I have just received a coin which I believe is (a) genuine and (b) a rare variant of the N Song Chong Ning Tong Bao 10 cash coin. It looks to me like the large character version Hartill 16.401. It also has a nail-mark on the reverse which I have not seen listed anywhere. The coin is 34.7mm diameter and weighs 9.6g. The UK seller says he has had the coin for over 30 years, so if it's a fake, it's a very old one. What do you gurus think?
Judging from the rubbings in Hartill's book, the large characters go all the way to the hole. The left part of the tong character looks different too. I'd say its 16.400. The nail mark is probably just a slight dent in the mold. Nevertheless, a beautiful example of the slender gold script. I have yet to get myself one.
The characters go much closer to the rim than any other Chong Ning I have seen (I have several). The attached scan has the two types side by side for comparison. The Chong, Ning and Bao characters are definitely bigger, I think. The Chong character on both is of the "bottom of Chong like shi" type, so if the coin is not H16.401, it will be 16.399. Ardatirion, if you let me know your address, I'll mail you one of these beautiful coins - no charge.
Because of the differences already pointed out, we now know for a fact that the coin is not 16.399, 16.400 or 16.401. Hartill's book only introduces a very few representative varieties of this coin. I have a reprint of a Chinese coin catalog that was written by a famous Japanese collector in the late 1800's. While Hartill provides rubbings of 6 chong ning tong bao coins, this old Chinese catalog has rubbings for 81 different varieties. For the chong ning zhong bao coin, Hartill has rubbings for 13 varieties while the Chinese catalog documents 142. There are so many varieties of the 10 cash chong ning coins that I am not aware of any catalog in any language that comes close to documenting all of them. I actually tried to identify the variety of ls8driver's coin in the Chinese catalog but finally gave up in frustration because the differences among the varieties is so subtle. It's a beautiful coin with an interesting history and odds are that it is one of the more common varieties. On the other hand, there is always the possibility that it is a variety even rarer than Hartill's "large character" specimen. Gary
I've found what looks very like my coin in my eBook copy of Zhongguo Gu Qian Mu Lu (Catalogue of Old Chinese Coins) - see photo. Not worth much by the look of it.
I got a package today with one of these in it! Thank you so much! The calligraphy is absolutely gorgeous.
