Journey into the unknown: Xin Dynasty 50 Zhu (Circa 7-23 CE)

Look at what arrived today, weekend reading material.



Here are a few random pages from both:

 

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I've never heard of either title to be honest. Where did you get them? I dont need another catalog, but if there is good reading in there I will get copies.

 

Just jokes ... yah, I know (*whatev*) ... I couldn't help myself

Sallent => congrats on the cool new read (you rock)

 

Got them through Amazon. Not too expensive either. Are they worth it? Well, they are predominantly catalogs, but they do have excellent write-ups and history sprinkled in between, with great photos and comments on the latest scholarly research on different issues.

But let's see a real world application to see if this book is worth it for you. Remember this coin you sold me?



@Ken Dorney Well, if you had "The Numismatic Legacy of Wang Mang" you'd have the latest scholarly research on the alleged Da Quan Wu Shi that you sold me.

The picture of the coin under C.3.73(h), page 61 in the catalog, weighing 19.6mm/0.9g, is a perfect match in dimensions, weight, and look to the one you sold me. Did you know it was a private issue cast around the year 14 CE? Furthermore, I'm afraid there is good evidence to suggest it was probably used as a funerary coin. In other words, "hell money."

And if you have the book, you'd know how to identify other funerary issues from official issues (by size, weight, and subtle style differences of the characters) and even date them. And you would discover that the coin is in fact quite scarce...much more so that some of the official issues.

Is it worth knowing how to identify the funerary issues from the official issues? Considering most are extremely rare or scarce, I'd say yes. You could probably price them accordingly and make them more appealing to collectors/potential buyers by being able to provide them the interesting history behind their coin.

 

Those books look really interesting.

 

Well, I'm sold. I see from the Wu Zhu book there is a catalog of various control/mint marks. I've always been fascinated by those but the literature (until now) has been rather slim. I'm going to order them in a moment.

Thanks for the critique.

 

I'm enjoying them a lot so far. I'm going to order Hartill next. How does that catalog book compare to these?

PS: An interesting thing I found out is that there are probably people with Wang Mang coins in their collections that are really Han private issues (designed to mimick Wang Mang coins) made for funerary purposes many decades after the death of Wang Mang.

So you have to ask, if people hated his coins so much, why cast funerary versions of them to burry with their ancestors?

I'd imagine the answer has to be that if Han officials came through your door and found you casting Han coins for "funeral purposes" you were liable to get your head cut off for forgery if they didn't believe your story. But if they found you had casting molds of old discontinued coins from a previous emperor, it wasn't a big deal as they were no longer legal tender, and your excuse of "funerary coins" is more believable and you are liable to keep your head attached to your shoulders.

 

It's a fairly comprehensive catalog, but short on the early coinage (spades and knives). As for really early types, just a short list of ant noses & cowries. Most major varieties are listed, but there is little background information other than some notations within the catalog and general information at the beginning of each section. Still, its the best and single most comprehensive catalog in any language other than Chinese. It goes up to Qing, but he has a separate comprehensive book for those.

As an inexpensive book, the binding is not great, so if you use it a lot like I do, you may have issues with separation. I took my copy to Kinko's and had them hole punch it and insert aluminum clasps. No issues now.