Bukhara. Circa 7th century. Sino-Sogdian AE unit Featuring the Bukharan Tamgha and Sogdian scripts. One with the Chinese characters 元 and 十。Extremely rare. These coins featured a very interesting design. Whilst the Bukharan Tamgha is very evident, they had a mix of Sogdian and Chinese characters particularly on one of them. This is uncharacteristic of other Sogdian or turgesh coins bearing only Sogdian legends. Whilst the 十 can be regarded as 10 in Chinese, some believed that they could also be the Christian cross. Due to the massive cross cultural mix of the silk Road, Christianity especially of the Nestorian sect was proselytized and there were some kings professing to the Christian faith before the Muslim conquest and destruction.
Nice coin. The Cash type coins without the sogdian calligraphy are definitely scarcer than the ones with the long calligraphy. Here is a paikend piece somewhat similar, (sorry for this horrid sellers pic, I am the worlds worst numismatic photographer).
very nice LS, i'd like to get one of these as well....or at least one more common types. i've been on them a couple of times and have always been shot down.
Thanks guys. Medoraman yours is a pretty well taken picture. Can see the tamgha and Sogdian script very well.
The multilingual ones are much scarcer to find and pops up once after long time and very briefly too. The long Sogdian scripted pieces are more common but interesting nevertheless.
Like most non-classical empires and medieval coins, it's just not my thing. Maybe next year I'll go nuts over them . When I see these square-holed coins all I can think about it how nice they'd looks as a necklace... probably because there are so many of them made into pendants. Hopefully most are copies or fantasy coins.
To atone for my lack of a "like", here's a nice article about the importance of the Silk Road http://www.sunflower.ch/pdf/yesterday/02_Accross_the_Times/Bedeutung Seidenstrasse en.pdf
No issue TIF. Everyone has coins that speak to them, and coins that don't. That is what is great about this hobby, we all don't have the same desires, so therefor there is a collector for every coin and vice versa. Most cash coins you see are real. Making a pendant out of them is no big deal, though, since the majority were cast in the tens of millions or more. I would say Chinese cash coins are more numerous than Roman bronze if it give you an idea of how many survive. The rarities are things like we posted here, Central Asian cash derivatives that some examples survive in the dozens not millions. I doubt you would ever see one of these in a pendant.
Considering Song dynasty coins are worth about a quarter a piece, and this is by far NOT the largest cache ever found, not really. Imagine if the Greeks and Romans never struck gold or silver coins. They only coins, even for huge transactions, were strings of copper coins. That will show you how many of these were made. They are literally in the billions of pieces surviving.
Yup.. Also the Chinese had to make do with other expedient materials at times as well such as iron, lead and even paper.. Surprisingly, they were the first to discover and print paper money since the Song Dynasty.. Unfortunately the earliest that survived today were from the Ming.
The other interesting statistic I saw in the piece was that 'more than' 20 kinds of coins were included. If they were evenly divided (I'm sure they were not) that would average ~ 300 pounds of each so you might expect to find more than your weight in duplicates of any coin selected at random. Most of us will not become specialists in cash. The question will remain for each of us whether we want to learn enough about these to make it reasonable to buy coins of any scarcity/value or if our needs in the field can be satisfied by what medoraman refers to as "quarter a piece" coins. I am hardly ready to value minor variations or even clear differences based of a language I do not read. I know enough to find 95% of the coins I have (maybe 500?) in Hartill and have yet to find one with a rarity under 10 (10-16 are levels of common). Most of mine came from Frank Robinson group lots. This thread discusses coins that are not like these super commons but were issued by authorities as far from the mainstream as you can get. Sogdian coins are interesting simply from the fact that they exist at all. Sogdian rarities are another matter altogether. I'm not prepared to put in the study needed to appreciate/separate the rare ones but I am glad to have the ~500-2000 year old "quarter a piece" things (even though I won't require more than my weight in any of them). Below is one I bought separately (more than a quarter but not much). I especially wanted it because my wife collects bells and the same characters appear on both. I don't have a good photo of the bell (not actually as old as its inscription). I have no idea if the coin is official or a private copy. Xuan De (Ming) 1426-1435 AD, H.20.123 Until I feel comfortable with the under $5 coins, I have no place buying the $500 ones.
Cool thread but I have to cash out here... Russian Turkestan Semirech'e, Sogd Turgesh Kaganate AE Fen 25 mm x 5.26 gram Cast AD 750-800 Obverse: Sogdian legend "Fen of King of Turgesh Kagan" around square hole Reverse: Tamgha of Turgesh in the shape of a runic letter "P" in the left field. Ref: Kamyshev's #24 in "Early Medieval Monetary Complex of Semirechie"
Thanks all..Dougsmit, excellent write up. I started with much cheaper coins due to lack of knowledge and fear of fakes. Later I progressed to procuring some excellent pieces from a respectable Numismatist Dr Alex Fishman of Ancient Coins Canada and Numismall. Later I found a highly reputable dealer from China Steve Zhou who provided a good inventory of excellent pieces. The lower hartill ones I will only get from reputable auction houses for assurance purposes. Your Xuande looks legitimate to me. Firstly the patination looks natural to me. Whilst patination can be faked, encrustations particularly prominent at the reverse are exceptionally hard to imitate. I do not have Hartill's book in front of me at the moment but given the vast quantities of Song coins available, it does not make economic sense to deliberately forge and fake common coins.. Lastly, Hartill's book is great as a reference on expected calligraphy styles of the like coins. You should firstly compare the script with the ones he listed as a base. Chinese numismatics look more at the "feel" and "spirit" of the script rather than the usual western approach of scientific comparatives. Official coins of certain times are determine based on the vigor of the strokes as well as the quality of the characters (particularly Song and some Ming coins).
Ancientnoob. . I will be extremely surprised if you DIDN'T have at least one of these interesting pieces. Beautiful semirec'he specimen you have there. I always have a soft spot for jade green patina. The other is cobalt blue...
