Hui Zong (1068-1086) Da An Bao Qian 大安寶錢。 Thah Ray Lee Ndzen in Tangut script. Hartill 18.91. Rarity 5. Very rare. The Western Xia 西夏 Dynasty was a Tangut dynasty which formed one of the tripartite powers of China during the Song Dynasty after the fall of the Tang. Although they regarded themselves as a separate ethnic group, the influence of the Tang dominated all aspects of their language, government and culture to a significant degree. In order to firm up a distinct national identity, the dynasty attempted to reform their language and script into a unique and complex Tangut script bearing close correlation with the structure of Chinese Han characters but with distinct particles and strokes. This writing system was experimented on some official documents, tablets and coinage but were largely unsuccessful. Thus at least on coinage, such Tangut scripted coins were short lived, reverted predominantly back to Han Chinese characters and thus very rare. Unfortunately for the Tanguts, their empire was decimated by the armies of Genghis Khan who died while personally leading the campaign against them. Thus few relics remain and their language as well as script became extinct except for modern attempts at scholastic deciphering by modern Chinese linguists.
Loong Siew (again, *welcome*) => I am looking forward to seeing your stuff ... nobody has convinced me that these coins are cool enough to collect (I'm hoping that you can rock it and convince me that I should buy one of these cash-coin examples) ... ummm, do you have any with animals on 'em?
Thanks stevex6. As a matter of fact I do have 1 with a pretty interesting story.. Will post it up next
I'm happy to see more eastern coins on here - while I love the western coins, there is plenty of history to be had from China and other closer areas.
