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<p>[QUOTE="Curtisimo, post: 3907957, member: 83845"]Chinese coins are so outside of my knowledge base that I know very little about the numismatic minutia that goes into their study and attribution. However, I do appreciate Chinese history and have long wanted a coin date-able to the fascinating period of Chinese unification under Qin Shi Huangdi and the early Han emperors. I have some medieval Chinese cash coins and some ancient spades but this is my first ancient cash example which I recently picked up at AMCC 2.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1030016[/ATTACH] </p><p><font size="3">Ancient China</font></p><p><font size="3">Qin to Western Han</font></p><p><font size="3">AE Ban Liang, cast ca. 220-180 BC</font></p><p><font size="3">Wt.: 4.62 g</font></p><p><font size="3">Dia.: 27 mm</font></p><p><font size="3">Obv.: Ban Liang</font></p><p><font size="3">Rev.: Blank as made</font></p><p><font size="3">Ref.: Hartill 7.8</font></p><p><i><font size="3">Ex Sallent Collection, Ex AMCC 2, Lot 372 (Nov. 9, 2019)</font></i></p><p><br /></p><p>Ban Liang coins were the first unified currency in Imperial China. Ban Liang were already in use in the state of Qin before the conquests of Qin Shi Huangdi of the other Chinese states. He later made it illegal for any other coin to circulate within the empire.</p><p><br /></p><p>The 40 year window this coin is attributed to spans the period from the consolidation of power by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang" rel="nofollow">Qin Shi Huangdi</a> to the court intrigues of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_L%C3%BC" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_L%C3%BC" rel="nofollow">Empress Lü</a> during the early Han Dynasty. As such, it may have circulated during or even been used to pay for the construction of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Great_Wall_of_China" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Great_Wall_of_China" rel="nofollow">Great Wall</a>, the making of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army" rel="nofollow">terracotta army</a>, the military expeditions of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meng_Tian" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meng_Tian" rel="nofollow">Meng Tian</a>, or the rise of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty" rel="nofollow">Han Dynasty</a> among other fascinating possibilities. Pretty cool! </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipPtl8ce-WIoZZx47DoDaTISE4OP6xQ_YSIssPvP=h1440" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><font size="4"><i>Here is a section of the Great Wall built by the Qin. The early wall looked a lot different than the Ming Era wall most popular to visit today. The Qin wall used local materials and connected sections of even older walls. The best preserved sections today are well off the beaten path. This 5 mile section of wall is located in an isolated section of Inner Mongolia today (photo by Ye Liao).</i></font></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipNZ62yL6Jl-hlEYEGY0zTpyFGgjv4gq11jSxwqW=h1440" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><font size="4"><i>Here is another view of this section of the Qin era Great Wall. We know that 300,000 soldiers were pressed into service to construct parts of the wall. This would have been an especially difficult area to construct the wall in because it was well within the area that was frequented by steppe nomads. In fact, the caves in the area show examples of art and writing in an early form of Turkic. I wonder if the soldiers who helped build this section were paid with Ban Liang similar to my new example (photo by Ye Liao). </i></font> </p><p><br /></p><p><font size="5"><span style="color: #ff0000"><b>Please feel free to post;</b></span></font></p><ul> <li><font size="5"><span style="color: #ff0000"><b>your favorite Chinese coins</b></span></font></li> <li><font size="5"><span style="color: #ff0000"><b>coins that circulated during a fascinating historical period to you</b></span></font></li> <li><font size="5"><span style="color: #ff0000"><b>anything else you feel like posting</b></span></font></li> </ul><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Curtisimo, post: 3907957, member: 83845"]Chinese coins are so outside of my knowledge base that I know very little about the numismatic minutia that goes into their study and attribution. However, I do appreciate Chinese history and have long wanted a coin date-able to the fascinating period of Chinese unification under Qin Shi Huangdi and the early Han emperors. I have some medieval Chinese cash coins and some ancient spades but this is my first ancient cash example which I recently picked up at AMCC 2. [ATTACH=full]1030016[/ATTACH] [SIZE=3]Ancient China Qin to Western Han AE Ban Liang, cast ca. 220-180 BC Wt.: 4.62 g Dia.: 27 mm Obv.: Ban Liang Rev.: Blank as made Ref.: Hartill 7.8[/SIZE] [I][SIZE=3]Ex Sallent Collection, Ex AMCC 2, Lot 372 (Nov. 9, 2019)[/SIZE][/I] Ban Liang coins were the first unified currency in Imperial China. Ban Liang were already in use in the state of Qin before the conquests of Qin Shi Huangdi of the other Chinese states. He later made it illegal for any other coin to circulate within the empire. The 40 year window this coin is attributed to spans the period from the consolidation of power by [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang']Qin Shi Huangdi[/URL] to the court intrigues of [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_L%C3%BC']Empress Lü[/URL] during the early Han Dynasty. As such, it may have circulated during or even been used to pay for the construction of the [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Great_Wall_of_China']Great Wall[/URL], the making of the [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army']terracotta army[/URL], the military expeditions of [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meng_Tian']Meng Tian[/URL], or the rise of the [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty']Han Dynasty[/URL] among other fascinating possibilities. Pretty cool! [IMG]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipPtl8ce-WIoZZx47DoDaTISE4OP6xQ_YSIssPvP=h1440[/IMG] [SIZE=4][I]Here is a section of the Great Wall built by the Qin. The early wall looked a lot different than the Ming Era wall most popular to visit today. The Qin wall used local materials and connected sections of even older walls. The best preserved sections today are well off the beaten path. This 5 mile section of wall is located in an isolated section of Inner Mongolia today (photo by Ye Liao).[/I][/SIZE] [IMG]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipNZ62yL6Jl-hlEYEGY0zTpyFGgjv4gq11jSxwqW=h1440[/IMG] [SIZE=4][I]Here is another view of this section of the Qin era Great Wall. We know that 300,000 soldiers were pressed into service to construct parts of the wall. This would have been an especially difficult area to construct the wall in because it was well within the area that was frequented by steppe nomads. In fact, the caves in the area show examples of art and writing in an early form of Turkic. I wonder if the soldiers who helped build this section were paid with Ban Liang similar to my new example (photo by Ye Liao). [/I][/SIZE] [SIZE=5][COLOR=#ff0000][B]Please feel free to post;[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE] [LIST] [*][SIZE=5][COLOR=#ff0000][B]your favorite Chinese coins[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE] [*][SIZE=5][COLOR=#ff0000][B]coins that circulated during a fascinating historical period to you[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE] [*][SIZE=5][COLOR=#ff0000][B]anything else you feel like posting[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE] [/LIST][/QUOTE]
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