New ancient Chinese guy here!

I am terribly sorry, but I am afraid the title is actually clickbait; I am not quite that ancient (with my 18 years, I probably rank somewhere amongst the younger half of this forum. Comfortably, one might even say), nor am I Chinese. Born and raised in the small Dutch town (although officially, we are a city) of Vianen, in the dead centre of the Netherlands. I don’t expect any of you to have even the faintest idea where Vianen is located, although we did issue a rare series of coins during the 16th century, so perhaps there is that one odd soul that is familiar with it. Anyway, here because of my passion for ancients, medievals and the like, but first, a little bit about myself.

As said an 18-year old here, Mika is the name, and I am pretty sure a few of you might have already seen me post in a couple of other forums. Recently graduated from the Dutch equivalent of High-school, and I am starting a bachelor in archaeology next September. I have been a lurker here for a few months now, but a recent influx of time due to holidays, has finally convinced me to start posting here. So what do I collect? Well, the title says most of it, if not all; Ancient Chinese coins. But let’s start at the beginning. I first came into contact with coin-collecting at the tender age of 13. It started with trying to find as many 2 euro Commemorative reverses, but as soon as I realised my passion for history and coins could be combined, I was hooked. At the time, I just started High-school and was studying both Latin and ancient Greek. My brother had, and to some extent still has, a small collection of Roman Republican coins, and my interest was immediately piqued. My Latin/ancient Greek teacher, a Greek himself (modern, that is), also collected coins, and I spent many of my breaks in the classroom examining some of the beauties he would bring in. My first ‘ancient’ was a Copper denier from Lusignan Cyprus, in terrible condition, naturally, and I overpaid about a twenty-fold. I guess 14 year old me didn’t know any better. Ah well, I learned at least some things soon enough. I stuck with just medieval for a while, but the generalist in me took over, and I started adding all kinds of coins to the collection. As long as they had an interesting (historical) story to tell. And then I found the area I wanted to specialize in.

As I said, the primary focus of my collection is ancient China. I try to represent each dynasty by a single coin, but around 80% of the coins I buy, are either knives, spades, or other non-typical forms of currency from the Zhou period. The beginning of this Chinese collection can be dated to around three years ago, with the purchase of a Wang Mang Huobo spade, without any prior knowledge. I was just fascinated by the fact that people used to pay with something odd like this. Now, I own a relatively sizeable collection, of mostly spades from the San Jin states, an area I specialize in. Deciphering the different inscriptions, finding hidden patterns, attributing them to different cities, then linking these to events in the historical records, are amongst the things I enjoy most. So expect a couple of topics concerning these in the next couple of months. I got in contact with Thomas, or as you know him @TypeCoin971793 about a year ago, seeing as our collecting areas were so similar. We have since had a couple of interesting discussions, helped each other to a couple of new purchases, and it was he that finally convinced me to start actively posting here. So you can blame him

While I primarily focus on Chinese coins, I still ‘suffer’ a little bit from being a generalist collector. I still actively collect Medievals, mostly English Groats/Pennies, but mainland Europe as well. And I have since continued the collection of Roman Republican coins my brother has assembled, although they are in no way close to the amazing pieces you guys seem to post, as are the handful of humble Greek coins I have been able to acquire. Besides that, I also have a small collection of coins issued during the eighty years’ war here in the Netherlands, including a couple of coins minted in my hometown, a mere 800 meters from where I am currently sitting. How cool is that?

Like many of you, it is my love for history that is the primary driving force behind my collecting. After all this time (albeit relatively short in comparison to the amount of years some of the more senior members here have been collecting) I still find holding a more than two thousand year old coin an incredible feeling, and picturing what it has seen in its lifetime before it ended up in my hands even more so. But also the broader history of a coin. Where it was minted, who minted it, what mark this left on history, etc.

Also a quick thank you to all of you for making such an interesting and lively forum, on which I have already spend countless hours reading a mere fraction of all the amazing topics! And for those admirably collections you have shown, often inspiring me to purchase a similar coin. Thank you!

Besides coins, another hobby of mine is also quite common here. For I highly doubt I am the only one with a passion for Lego….

That about concludes this introduction, I believe. Feel free to post anything you like. Spades, knives, medievals, your first ancient, anything. We have got to keep it coin related, after all. Also, I know that there is a separate forum for new member introductions, but I figured that, because I’ll be spending most of my time over here anyway, I might as well post it in the ancient section right away. Should any moderator be opposed, feel free to move this topic to the correct category.

Mika

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Welcome to CoinTalk, Mika!

 

Too funny: 20 years ago when I was in the Crafting industry, I met with and commissioned a Craft Designer in her hometown, which was Vianen. So, yeah, I may be one of the few who know the town. It is right outside of Utrecht, and was on the way back to Amsterdam.

Welcome Mika!

I got these from @TypeCoin971793

China Wu Zhu coin clay mold unearthed in SanMenXia City in HeNan Province full obverse impression partial second impression probly H-8.6 110-90 BCE


China Zhou -Chou- 1000-200 BCE Dynasty Bronze cowrie - VF - Rare

And this from a well known/trusted Seller:

CHINA - ZHOU Dynasty, 1122-255 BC square foot spade 350-250 BC AN YANG - 3 lines rev bronze 31x52mm 7.45g H3.184 S13+


China Shang Dyn 1766-1154 BC Ant Nose Ge Liu Zhu 2-6g 19-5x11 very scarce H 1.10

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome @AnYangMan

 

Best introduction I've ever read what about you guys? Welcome to the forum Mika!

 

Welcome Mika! Now that we have yet another fan of Eastern coinage, by all means please post some photos of your coins!

Here is one of mine:


Zhou Dynasty, State of Yan, 300 - 220 BC
Lead 18mm, 1.9 grams
Obverse: Yi Hua.
Reverse: Ji.
References:
Hartill 6.20
FD 384

 

Welcome @AnYangMan

Please do post your coins here. I look forward to seeing your collection.

 

Welcome @AnYangMan!

I have a few very common Chinese coins, like this one...



Getting some representative of the spade or knife money is currently on my "list".

 

Getting an ancient Chinese coin is on my list!

 

Yes you are. It's in the mail heading your way next to one of Constantine. Oops, surprise!

 

I don't even know what to say I'm speechless. I don't know how to thank you but, thank you so much! Your so kind and generous thank you so much Sallent, you are truly kind and generous you truly have amazing things coming your way thank you so much again!

Thanks,
Jacob

 

We'll, Mika...first of all welcome to the forum, and congratulations on graduating from school. Studying archaeology was always a dream of mine, but I ended up going down a more practical career route for me, though nowhere as interesting as being an archaeologist. Anyway, I wish you the best with those studies and hopefully you'll be able to land a good post with a university or museum when you graduate from that.

I no longer collect medievals, but I do collect ancient Greek, Roman, Parthian/Persian, and some ancient Chinese


Here is my favorite emperor for Chinese coinage, the eccentric Wang Mang!

 

Welcome Mika!

I am sure you will find it interesting here.

John

 

I almost forgot, here is my Western Han Dynasty Wu Zhu



And a deer bone cowrie shell, which was a form of proto-money from the Western Zhou dynasty period, or around the 11th century BCE through 8th century BCE.



I am currently focussed on acquiring some key 3rd Century Roman coins for my collection, but after that I plan to revisit coinage from Emperor Wang Mang's reign and also coinage from the Warring States Period.

 

Welcome. You will find we all differ here in our specialties but a few have a bit of interest in things other members collect with a passion so we sometimes find subjects of mutual interest. I am a general collector with almost no interest in Chinese which means I only have a couple hundred of the more common ones but no intention of learning the fine points of calligraphy needed to appreciate the subject fully.

My wife collects bells. The bell below is a replica of one from the time of the coin shown with it. It takes all kinds of reasons to make us seek out a coin.

 

Welcome, Mika! I think with your arrival we've reached the critical mass needed to kick me in the butt and get my Chinese stuff photographed!

Here's one of my few photos, "bridge money" from Ba and Shu states (306-221 BC):

 

*only a couple hundred* that's more Than my entire collection of every single type of coin I have xD.

 

Without a doubt the best I've ever come across..

Welcome!!! I'm looking forward to your future posts!!

I'm a 'generalist' loosely focusing on Greco/Roman but I find all aspects of numismatics interesting ...and so very often utterly fascinating!

My absolute favorite of this year:


CILICIA, Tarsos. Mazaios. Satrap of Cilicia, 361/0-334 BC. AR Stater (24mm, 10.93 g, 6h). Baaltars seated left, holding eagle, grain ear, grapes, and scepter; TR (in Aramaic) to lower left, M (in Aramaic) below throne / Lion attacking bull left; monogram below. Casabonne Series 2, Group C; SNG BN –; SNG Levante 106. EF, toned.

 

Welcome. You speak my native language better than I!