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Message:: [QUOTE="AnYangMan, post: 2976358, member: 87271"]Yep, it’s from that one collection you are thinking of. You know the one <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />. I have also had a fair bit of contact with ‘the Belgian’ and I showed him some of the coins I had bought from this collection right about when we first had contact. He asked if something else, this knife, was for sale and I put him in contact with that collector. Sorry Thomas! But don’t worry, you’ll get your chance. This Saturday, in fact <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />. The one thing I base this statement off, is the fact that to me they seem to have been cast with the intent to circulate within the Yan, Ming-knife-based, economy. Some early types in particular have the characteristic 'broad/curved' shape some Ming knives also have (see: <a href="https://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=41857" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=41857" rel="nofollow">this</a> one). I don’t think they would have circulated within Qi itself, but instead were used by Qi soldiers or traders within Yan-territory. But this is nothing but pure speculation. A partial parallel would be the straight knives of Zhao. While these definitely also had a circulatory-purpose within their own state, it is far more common to find them amongst Ming knives than amongst Zhao-state spades; they have thus been interpreted as evidence for interstate trade between Zhao and Yan. But then again, Straight knives are far more common than Boshan-knives. The theory proposed by Loong Siew is also definitely a possibility, which would account for most things: Qi-state currency, used for circulation in an area used to Ming-knives and within a limited time span. It would also account for the Boshan hoard: this area is right in the middle of what would have been the Qi-Yan border in the late Warring States. Not satisfied with just guessing, I decided to do some digging (not literally, although that would have been cool). In Chinese numismatics, there is often a disconnect between the published numismatic works (especially the works published in the Western languages) and the archaeological record. One amazing thing I came across was a excavation publication from 1994: [ATTACH=full]731378[/ATTACH] Wait a minute, those are moulds for ….. Boshan knives! In April 1978 these were discovered while excavating in Juxian; 64 partial and 12 complete moulds were found, all belonging to the different categories of Boshan knives. About a year later, in 1979, some local farmers from the same area found a couple of additional moulds while preparing their fields: One of the fragments is particularly exciting: [ATTACH=full]731371[/ATTACH] This mould would have been used to cast a specific type of Boshan knife: those naming the city of Ju on their reverse – Loong Siew’s coin! Or at least the same series. While some of the complete moulds were neatly stacked, thus allowing for the identification of the two different halves of the complete mould, these fragments were simply littered throughout the site. So we won’t be sure whether these would have had the Boshan/Angular-style Ming on the obverse, or whether they would have had a plain obverse, like on the coin here. Anyway, this is quite the find. Particularly because of their location: Juxian is a modern day prefecture, which gets its name from an ancient city located within its territory. You’ve guessed it: Ju! That’s right, these moulds were found within the outskirts of the ancient city of Ju mentioned in the histories. The same city whose name we thought might be listed on the reverse. In addition to just moulds, a large amount of copper/bronze casting debris was found, as well as smelting pots and kilns for terracotta (presumably the moulds), proving the presence of a mint producing Boshan knives. In my opinion, a few new things have become clear from this find: 1.  We can semi-confirm the reading of Lu. Deciphering archaic Chinese characters sure isn’t easy, let alone those on the reverse of these Boshan knives, which were exceptionally weak/in low relief. The reading of Ju had been proposed way back, before these moulds were found, but remained nothing more than a speculation. Finding these moulds has strengthened this reading by a whole lot in my opinion. 2.  Since these (and only these, no other moulds were found) were found at a single mint, I believe the entire series of Boshan-knives should indeed be regarded as one series, most likely issued in emergency. Some have speculated that the type with just an angular variety of Ming were cast some place else, when compared to the Ju-types. This excavated mint has both types however, proving they were cast somewhat contemporary in the same mint and should thus be regarded as a single series. 3.  Definitive proof that they were issued by Qi-kingdom. While this was already largely accepted on the basis of the reverse inscription of some Boshan knives, those explicitly mentioning the Qi-state, it can now be said with a relative degree of certainty. Ju was in the Qi-heartlands, and was only conquered later by the well-known Qin Shi Huangdi. Yan never got this far into Qi territory: it thus has to be a Qi-cast. 4.  Since we now have an exact location of the mint, I think we can say that these would most likely not have had the purpose of circulating within Yan-territory under Qi-occupation. As far as we know, this mint was specifically instated for minting these knives in or around Ju. If these were minted for local circulation around the border-area conquered by Qi, would these not have been locally cast, instead of a newly set-up mint a few hundred miles away from this border? 5.  Ju, while it certainly wasn’t a small city, was only a minor city of Qi, falling well within the shadow of Linzi and Jimo. I would argue that it isn’t fairly likely that these were cast while both mints were still making coins for Qi. Combine this with the fact that the historical sources state that Ju was one of the two cities not conquered by Yan, and I am starting to lean towards them indeed being issued somewhere within the 284-279 BC invasion. I would now say I find the theory proposed by Wang Qing to be the most likely. He states that these were cast in Ju during this period, with the intent to facilitate the buying of goods from Yan or Yan-occupied-Qi (the occupied area was also forced to pay with Ming knives, according to him). After all, Qi only possessed two cities in this period and would not have been able to produce all goods necessary. There is however one big question left to answer: was this the only mint responsible for minting Boshan-knives? With many of the spade types we can sort of confirm that they were: the coins themselves often show the name of the mint itself, and you would assume that each city would have used only their own name on coins. But with these, the Boshan knives with no or only ‘generic’ reverses, this remains debatable. If we could only answer this question… It has been said a few times already, but I’ll say it again: congratulations on this amazing and rare knife; truly something to treasure and the highlight of any archaic Chinese collection! Kind regards, Mika PS. Sorry for the long post guys, it's just a really neat type <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]

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