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The Study of Chinese Coins | The China Story
Remember that the prices are just a guide, a starting point for asserting value. Some PCGS coins sell for less than the prices listed and some PCGS coins sell for more than the prices listed. COINS UNDER $ For coins valued at under $10, even when graded by PCGS, the price listed is the value of non-graded (i.e., “raw”) coins. The Study of Chinese Coins. In this article, Percy J. Smith introduces readers to the history of Chinese copper coins from the Zhou dynasty to Tang dynasty. Several illustrations of different types of coins are included. ‘Stewart Lockhart Collection of Chinese Copper Coins’, Royal . A sycee (/ ˈ s aɪ s iː, s aɪ ˈ s iː /; from Cantonese 細絲, sai-sì, lit. "fine silk") or yuanbao (Chinese: t 元寶, s 元宝, p yuánbǎo, lit. "coin pouch") was a type of gold and silver ingot currency used in imperial China from its founding under the Qin dynasty until the fall of the Qing in the 20th century.
Lockhart collection of chinese copper coins pdf download
In this article, lockhart collection of chinese copper coins pdf download, Percy J. Smith introduces readers to the history of Chinese copper coins from the Zhou dynasty to Tang dynasty. Several illustrations of different types of coins are included. The study of Chinese copper coinage is one of entrancing interest. Naturally those who go the deepest into it get the most out of it, and there is in Chinese numismatics a field for exploration big enough to engage study and attention for a lifetime.
But fortunately it also offers large attractions to those who can give to it but a comparatively limited amount of attention and, what is very important, money. But even these are worth obtaining, for, although not genuine, yet being copies, they give the form and character of the original.
On the other hand, a multitude of coins, of real historical value and interest and dating back centuries of even milleniums, are to be found on many of the strings of cash in current use among the people to-day, and, with a little pains, can easily be obtained.
Here then is a strong inducement for those who are on the look out for a hobby which makes relatively small demands upon the time or the pocket. Needless to say, the historical is one of the chief fascinations of this study, for even coins tell a story. But the writer, at any rate, has found the collection and classifying of the copper cash of the past ages a wonderful introduction to phases of Chinese history, to men and dynasties and movements, which would otherwise have been unknown to him, or only reached by the dryasdust method of the text book.
The object of the present article is to bring some illustrations to bear upon this point; and it is at once obvious that a very large field is opened up, which, if traversed ever so lightly, would take us far beyond the scope of an article of this nature.
Hence the desirability of imposing limitations; lockhart collection of chinese copper coins pdf download the writer proposes to do this by confining his remarks to a few coins taken from his own collection. Although, as this collection is far from complete, this will necessarily exclude many very interesting specimens and many interesting historical facts, yet we shall doubtless find sufficient for the present purpose. The authentic history of China may be said to commence during the Chou Dynasty B.
Before this, legend and tradition are intermixed, so that although knife and spade currency have come down to us from these ancient times, it is difficult to dogmatise upon their origin. The date of this may be placed between B. But it was an age which produced the colossal figures of Confucius, an nearly two hundred years after, his great disciple Mencius, and it needs no greater claim upon our interest and admiration than this!
At its commencement China was, politically, a mere collection of feudal states, numbering ; at its close China had become for the first time a united empire under Shih Hwang Ti. This cash, which is made of a good red copper, is still fairly common.
The seal characters are especially well formed and protruding; the coin has no rim and we are told that its weight was as its inscription, that is, lockhart collection of chinese copper coins pdf download, half an ounce. He was evidently a man of strong personality and enterprising spirit, as is shown by the histories. In his day the vast number of feudal States had gradually diminished in number, until there were left but seven, of one of which he was the ruler. He welded these States into one, and became the first Emperor of a United China.
Two facts which are always connected with his name shed a strong light on his character, lockhart collection of chinese copper coins pdf download. One was the famous burning of the Classical Books, which was his reply to the literati who criticised his overthrow of feudalism, and was followed by the burying lockhart collection of chinese copper coins pdf download of those who refused otherwise to be silenced.
The Lesser Seal style of writing, and the brush pen so well known in China are generally believed to be the invention of his reign. We now go forward more than two hundred years to the commencement of the Christian era, when a most interesting set of coins makes its appearance.
Here are some which we find under the date A. The inscriptions are all in the Seal script. Equal to 5, ; No.
This latter, an extremely small coin, is rather rare now, and is often used as a charm. Only the obverse of these coins is given, as the reverse face of each is plain. Wang Mang was evidently a gentleman with fantastic and original ideas in the way of currency.
He issued many others not recorded here, which are characterised by the greatest variety of style and inscription, some of them bearing images of such things as stars, swords, snakes and tortoises. In the illustrations given above how varied were his attempts. The round variety had not long been lockhart collection of chinese copper coins pdf download, and perhaps some of the ancient shaped coins were concurrently used. Wang Mang in the coin illustrated in No, lockhart collection of chinese copper coins pdf download.
Now, when we come to look into the records of Wang Mang, we find that the tendency so splendidly illustrated in this coin, was in fact the guiding principle of his life and government policy. We are told that he promulgated many ridiculous currency laws, and, if these are to be interpreted by the variety of his styles of coinage, we may well believe it. It is however extremely interesting to find the coinage of this period so illustrative of the facts we find recorded of it in the histories.
In passing, a sufficient study in contrasts is afforded if we remember that Wang Mang was issuing his anomalous coinage and engaged in his reactionary policy, at the very time when Jesus Christ as a young man walked in Galilee pondering his great reconstructive policy for mankind.
For the rest, Wang Mang seems to have been an unprincipled ruffian. He made his way to the throne by intrigue and murder. By his actions and reactions he roused rebellions to one of which he succumbed, and was eventually beheaded in A. It is almost impossible to assign to each coin now extant its period of issue, for the Wu Shu coins were issued under different dynasties from B.
As there were further issue under succeeding dynasties, the total output must have been enormous, and there is little wonder that so many have been handed down to the present day.
The period of history covered by this coin is, or course, far too great to be discussed here. This standard for weighing coins has ben invariably used by the Chinese numismatists, and it is easy to see how in primitive times, when standards were unfixed, this practice was adopted. Strange to say, lockhart collection of chinese copper coins pdf download, the Five Shu coins are not recorded as invariably weighing five Shu. One cast in A. We are told that this cash was minted in the 4 th year of the Emperor Wu Ti A.
It was an age of poetry, lockhart collection of chinese copper coins pdf download, of literary culture, of military skill and of vast Imperial expansion. We are told it was the largest Empire ever under sway of a purely Chinese dynasty; and according to Wells Williams, during the years they held the throne, Chin was probably the most civilised country on earth. Of our Emperor who founded the dynasty we know a good deal, which cannot be enlarged upon here.
But one curious story shall be recorded of him, which connects us up with the coin portrayed above. On the reverse will be seen a small crescent, and concerning its origin we are told that when the wax model of the proposed new coin was sent in to Emperor Wu Ti for approval, his Empress also examined it, and unconsciously left a slight impression on it with her fingernail, which doubtless according to custom was very long.
Hence all the minted coins bore the mark. By how small a thing has her fame been handed down to posterity! He banished his own father; and his maladministration resulted in disorders in which his Empress and her two sons perished. Let us take leave of him, however, with pity, and pass on to No.
With various characters on the reverse, e. The Emperor Wu Tsung issued this coin during A. Others again have characters lockhart collection of chinese copper coins pdf download indicate the provinces of Anhui, Chekiang, and Kiangsi, and many other districts as the place of origin. Here, too, we have what is surely an unparalleled situation, wherein a double change was effected, the coins in the earlier times being converted into images of Buddha, and in the later age the Buddhist images and bells being converted into cash!
Of Wu Tsang little more need be said. An historian records that he belonged to a class of rulers, who, with few exceptions, were mere palace debauchees, or puppets in the hands of their eunuchs. We are informed that he was lenient and humane, liberal minded and humble, kind, reverent, peaceful, frugal, and loving towards his people. All truly estimable characteristics; but very different from those rugged and forceful qualities which had in his ancestors extended the Empire and consolidated its position against all comers.
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My Chinese Cash Coin Collection
, time: 11:55Lockhart collection of chinese copper coins pdf download
A sycee (/ ˈ s aɪ s iː, s aɪ ˈ s iː /; from Cantonese 細絲, sai-sì, lit. "fine silk") or yuanbao (Chinese: t 元寶, s 元宝, p yuánbǎo, lit. "coin pouch") was a type of gold and silver ingot currency used in imperial China from its founding under the Qin dynasty until the fall of the Qing in the 20th century. An introduction and identification guide to Chinese Qing-dynasty coins by Qin Cao This guide has been developed to provide a quick and easy way of identifying Chinese cash coins of the Qing dynasty (), the last imperial dynasty of China. They are the most common Chinese coins seen in the UK. Reprint, with new forward, price guide, and commentary, of the ed., published by Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai, under title: The Stewart Lockhart collection Chinese copper coins; and issued as Extra volume no. 1 of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, North China Branch.
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