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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ValiantKnight, post: 2175347, member: 44210&quot;]Don&#039;t expect this to be a regular thing guys (I don&#039;t really collect eastern coins aside from early Islamic), but I decided to get way out of my collecting comfort zone by buying a (cheap) coin from the medieval Far East, of Tang Dynasty China (7th-10th century AD). I&#039;ve recently been reading a little on Chinese and Korean history just for fun, and Anoob&#039;s recent thread about his Korean coin helped inspire me to search out a cheap but decent Far Eastern coin. I realize this thread will only interest three or four people on here, but I wanted to share my new coin nonetheless. I&#039;m tempted to clean it but can&#039;t decide on how exactly to do it.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Tang Dynasty, Imperial China</b></p><p>AE 1 Cash coin</p><p><b>Obv</b>: <font size="4">開 元 通 寶 , Kai Yuan Tong Bao (&quot;The Currency of the K&#039;ai-yuan Period&quot; or &quot;The Inaugural Currency&quot;) , top-beneath-right-left of central hole</font></p><p><font size="4"><b>Rev</b>: Square central hole</font></p><p><font size="4"><b>Mint</b>: (don&#039;t know; struck 718-732, the &quot;middle period&quot;)</font></p><p><font size="4"><b>Ref</b>: Hartill 14.3</font></p><p><font size="4"><b>Size</b>: 24 mm wide, 3.30 gr</font></p><p><font size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font size="4"><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa429/LurkingNinja/P1070645_zpsiy8d8buj.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </font></p><p><font size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font size="4">Some history on this coin:</font></p><p><font size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font size="4">The Kai Yuan Tong Bao type and the coinage system it is part of was started in 621 AD by Emperor Gaozu. This new system had each coin weighing a tenth of a Chinese pound and a tenth of a Chinese foot in diameter. During this period the central government was in charge of minting and acquiring copper. For the first time the coinage alloy was standarized: 83% copper, 15% lead, and 2% tin (but in practice the coins were often made with lower proportions of copper). The percentages used before seem to have been on an ad hoc basis.</font></p><p><font size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font size="4">There are some examples of the Kai Yuan Tong Bao type with a crescent-shaped mark on the field of the reverse. According to the most famous account, Empress Wende, when shown the wax model of the coin, accidentally stuck a fingernail into the reverse. This mark was kept on the model and coins were made from it. But it is more likely that the crescent-shaped marks are just control marks.</font></p><p><font size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font size="4">Initial mints were located in Chengdu, Guilin, Peking, Bingzhou, and Luoyang, and some coins were also made by princes and imperial officials who were granted minting rights. By 739 the number of recorded mints reached ten. By the 660s AD, the quality of the Kai Yuan Tong Bao coins had deteriorated due to the abundance of forgeries, but by 718 the production of fakes had been surpressed.</font></p><p><font size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font size="4">Tang dynasty China in 700 AD:</font></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa429/LurkingNinja/TangDynasty700_zpsgsm92har.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Emperor Gaozu:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa429/LurkingNinja/Gaozu_zpspmnxtdb6.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>(map and Gaozu picture from Wikipedia)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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