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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TypeCoin971793, post: 2726775, member: 78244&quot;]That&#039;s right. Today is my birthday. I am turning the big two-zero. And to celebrate, I want to read all about the coins in your collection that have an interesting backstory. </p><p><br /></p><p>You can post as many different coins as you like, but you must write a little (or a lot) about the cool history of your coin. If I like the story enough, I may just have to scout out an example for myself as a birthday treat.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ll start:</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin was cast by Wang Mang between 7-9 AD. He had socialist ideals, so he wanted to nationalize all of the wealth and land in China and redistribute it evenly. He hated the lavish spending of the elite when the poor farmers were not even making enough to eat well. So, when Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, he casy fusiciary coins, the most drastic of which were knife (or &quot;key&quot;) coins. Mang mandated that all gold was to be turned in for these knives, and the likely punishment for resistence was execution (much of the aristocracy was executed at this time, though it was likely because they were political rivals of the Confucian Party). However, his coercion was effective, and most of the gold was was confiscated by the government (many tons of gold were found to still be residing in the imperial vault at his death, showing how he accudentally forgot the &quot;redistributing the wealth&quot; part). </p><p><br /></p><p>These coins did not circulate because they had a large denomination, but little intrinsic value. One was worth 5000 Wu Zhu (25000 Zhu, or 1/2 cattie (60g) of gold), and the other, which I have, was worth 500 Wu Zhu (2500 Zhu). They frankly were not trusted, so the people resorted to counterfeiting and using the Wu Zhus as well as other archaic forms of money (cowrie shells, etc.). All of these quickly became capital offenses, and people literally sat weeping in the streets since there was not trustworthy and legal money that could be used to buy necessities like food. Then in 9 AD, Wang Mang demonetized these coins, destroying the wealth of China overnight and forever marking his coins as untrustworthy. All of his economic reforms were failures, though he would be regarded as a genius today, and the economic turmoil he created caused a third of China&#039;s population to die of starvation.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Qi Dao Wu Bai (Qi Knife Worth 500)</p><p>Cast under Wang Mang 7-9 AD</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]619068[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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