Wen │ Yin Bo
Knock on the door of the museum in the clouds.
In the face of the severe test of the epidemic, in addition to doing a good job in daily epidemic prevention work, the Bank Museum has adopted temporary closure measures, integrated the collection resources, and opened an online "cloud exhibition" to provide a financial cultural experience for the majority of audiences during the closure period.
Following the exhibition of fine banknotes and the collection of collectors, in this issue we will introduce the museum's collection of many ingenious and uniquely designed metal coins, and invite you to appreciate the national currency treasures in the history of China's Yo-Yo currency.
In Shanghai in May, we are full of expectations for the future!
JOIN US
Cloud Exhibition & Metal Currency Exhibition (Part 1)
China began with the original shell coins, to the Spring and Autumn Warring States appeared metal coinage. After qin unified the world, the Qin and semi-two unified Chinese currency were minted. Since then, the outer circle and inner square money have been used for more than 2,000 years. At the end of the nineteenth century, due to the introduction of Western monetary culture, mechanism coins began to appear. In the long development of money, metal coinage not only has a long history and huge quantity, but also has a wide variety and colorful variety, with the characteristics of typical oriental numismatic culture, and occupies an important position in the forest of world currencies.
01
Cloth coins
Cloth coin is a currency used in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. It is one of the major metal currencies of ancient mainland China. The cloth coin was born from a bronze shovel-shaped agricultural tool "tweezers", "cloth" is a homophonic loan word for "nephthalium". Cloth coins can be divided into empty first cloth and flat first cloth according to their heads; according to the different shapes of the shoulders and feet, they are divided into shrugged shoulder pointed feet, flat shoulder curved feet, oblique shoulder arc feet and so on. The hollow first part of the early cloth coin can be held, called the empty first cloth, and its shape has not yet been separated from the prototype of agricultural tools. This cloth coin belongs to the Jin Dynasty in the Spring and Autumn Period, the cloth head is long, hollow, two shoulders shrugged, two toes, the coin face has no writing, belongs to the large shrugged shoulder tip foot empty head cloth.
Although the number of empty first cloth minted is large, the current existence is limited, which may be related to the re-minting of many melted coins at that time. As a representative of early Chinese coinage, the empty first cloth contains profound historical and cultural value and has become a new favorite in the collection market.
02
Persimmon gold cake
The Western Han Dynasty gold currency system is mostly round cake shaped, and the names are divided into persimmon gold, lin toe gold, horseshoe gold and so on. Gold cakes are the currency of the scale. In the Northern Song Dynasty Shen Kuo's book "Mengxi Pen Talk", there is "the skin (horseshoe gold), made of tuan cake, no model traces on the four sides, it seems to be dripped on the flat object, and now dried persimmons, the natives call it "persimmon gold", "a piece weighs more than four or two, is the ancient one pound also." The color is purple, not comparable to other gold", which details the shape, weight, color and other information of persimmon gold. The Book of Han also records that in the second year of emperor Taishi of the Han Dynasty (95 BC), he issued an edict casting gold into the shape of a toe and a horse's hoof, "with the help of Rui Yan" and "Ban Zhi princes". It proves that the golden cake of the Han Dynasty was used by the emperor to reward his subordinates. In addition, gold cakes also have the function of large payments and wealth storage. There are very few gold cakes with inscriptions, this Western Han Dynasty gold cake is 6 cm in diameter, and it is cast with an inverted "S" shaped symbol and engraved with the word "Qi", which is very rare in gold cakes.
03
Warring States Chu Fifteen Seal Yin Ye
It is also known as "Yin Jin", "Yin Zi Jin" and so on. During the Warring States period, gold was heavily used, and the State of Chu (476-223 BC) used gold to cast flat gold plates, and most of the gold plates had small square seals on them, so the Song Dynasty called them "yinzi gold". Most of the words on it are "郢爰". "Yin Ye" is the earliest gold weighing currency with a fixed form in China, which needs to be cut and weighed when used.
04
One knife flat five thousand
Wang Mang carried out the first reform of the monetary system in the second year of Juzhi (7 AD), and in addition to the original five baht coins continuing to exercise, he issued three new currencies, namely Daquan Fifty, Qi Dao Five Hundred, and One Dao Ping Five Thousand.
The shape of a knife flat five thousand is very similar to the current key, the money body is composed of two parts of the knife ring and the handle, the word on the knife ring is "one knife", the handle text is "flat five thousand" three words, of which the ring text "one knife" is embedded in gold, commonly known as "golden wrong knife", each worth five baht money five thousand pieces. The "Golden Wrong Knife" is the earliest coin used in the mainland, and it is also the only coin made of the wrong gold process. Because of its exquisite craftsmanship, peculiar shape, and rarity, it is cherished by coin collectors.
05
Cargo cloth copper fan
The Wang Mang goods cloth money fan is a double-sided mother model, with a face and a back, which is used to make noodles and backs. During the fifteen years of Wang Mang's reign, he carried out four currency reforms, minted a wide variety of coins, and left a relatively large number of mother models. Most of the copper models of this period are square, rectangular and octagonal, but the bronze "cargo cloth" mother fan is round, which is extremely rare.
All the coins minted by Wang Mang are unique in shape, exquisitely made, neatly sized, and beautifully calligraphed, with high artistic value, which is the first coinage in the past. This bronze fan is an important physical evidence for studying the minting and currency reform of coins during the Wang Mang period, and is also of great significance for studying the history of coin minting and the history of currency development in the mainland.
06
cash cow
Folk have always had the myth and legend of "money tree" or "cash cow tree", expressing people's pursuit of a better life, and future generations have been given the auspicious concept of praying for wealth and blessings. Since ancient times, you can see the "money tree" model, which is often composed of a base, a trunk, and a branch. The branches of the "money tree" have both mythical people, objects, and coins, and can be arranged and reorganized according to different preferences, and the physical objects are mostly unearthed in the Sichuan region, mostly in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
At the top of this cash cow is a phoenix that spreads its wings and flies, the canopy is divided into 6 layers, each layer of two leaves, the top two leaves are the shape of two dragons, each with a radiant sun in the mouth, the lower two layers of leaves, each with a vivid shape, fluttering phoenix at the end of the branch, and decorated with legendary mythical beasts, hanging strings of copper coins under the branches, and the last three groups of leaves, decorated with immortals and exotic flowers and plants. On the trunk of the tree are three monkeys climbing upwards, and above the base is a pair of sacred birds with coins as the main body. The whole cash cow is extremely beautifully minted, but it has been preserved quite intact over thousands of years. According to scholars' research, there are not many cash cows unearthed in China's archaeology so far, and the complete ones are even rarer in the world.
07
Open the money tree
Since the pre-Qin Dynasty, metal minting has long been minted by the mother-daughter fan casting method, using several kinds of mud, copper and stone fans. These coins have coin types, gates, and sprues for filling metal liquids with coins directly. The two-dollar fan is a box of cast copper liquid, and the coins are removed from the fan after cooling. It can be seen from some of the money paradigm systems that have been left behind that the money tree is formed by smashing the money model after minting, not taking down the coinage, and the copper liquid on the large and small runners and the coinage are still linked together. The copper left on the watering channel resembles a trunk and branches, and the coins connected by the watering are like the leaves and fruits on the tree, becoming a very image of the "money tree".
In later generations, the money tree is no longer limited to the semi-finished product of coinage, but has become a work of art, or can be called one of the "winning money", and its appearance has also changed. Sometimes it is a main body in the middle, flanked by two rows of different styles of money, with auspicious words on it; sometimes it is made into a sword; and there are also seen the money tree and the container are minted together, which means that the source of wealth is rolling.
The Qing Dynasty furnace money tree is in the shape of a sword, the handle and the sword are decorated with ruyi cloud patterns, and the sword body is connected with a total of 21 coins, which were minted during the Guangxu period. The first coin of the qianshu coin is "Guangxu Tongbao", and the lower 20 coins are minted with auspicious words such as "Emperor Grace And Vast" and "Emperor De Boundless" on one side, and Qian Wen is named after the provinces of China on the other side. These coins are "pressure win money", non-circulating currencies, used for gifts, commemorations, etc., which means to get rich and eliminate disasters in the town house. Qing Dynasty complete furnace money tree is very rare.
08
Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming fifty-two silver ingots
The history of the mainland's use of silver-minted currencies dates back to the mid-Spring and Autumn period. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the two pieces of silver were called "silver cakes" or "silver collars". In the Song and Jin dynasties, people still called silver currency silver collar, which was used more frequently in the government's fiscal revenue and expenditure, and was more popular in private life and business. During the Yuan Dynasty, silver collar was renamed silver ingots, which became synonymous with silver currency at that time and later. The fifty-two silver ingots minted in the Yuan Dynasty were chiseled with the word "Yuanbao" on the back, so the silver ingots were also called "Yuanbao". At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, due to the need to implement the paper money system, the government repeatedly banned the use of private silver; on the other hand, the imperial court used a large amount of silver. Until the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, silver was used in circulation along with copper money. Many silver ingots are inscribed with inscriptions, mainly recording the time, place, use, weight, and name of the craftsman of the silver ingot minting, as well as the position and name of the official who supervised the sale, inspection, and release of the silver ingot.
The fifty-two silver ingots of the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties are now rare and very precious.
09
JingZheng records Shanghai silver cake one or two
In the sixth year of Qing Xianfeng (1856), in order to supplement the shortage of silver dollars in circulation, Shanghai Dao designated Wang Yongsheng, Yu Sensheng and Jing Zhengji as three sand merchants responsible for self-minting silver coins, commonly known as "Shanghai Silver Cake". Silver coins are divided into two kinds, Cao Ping Yi and Wu Qian, and both the front and back sides are text. This piece of Jingzheng is one or two silver coins, the obverse text is "Xianfeng Six Years Shanghai County Number Shangjing Zhengji Foot Pattern Silver Cake", and the back text is "Zhu Yuanyu Supervisor Pouring Cao Pingshi Heavy One Two Silversmith Feng Nian Made". Due to the rudimentary production of this silver coin, the minting was stopped shortly after its issuance due to the appearance of counterfeits on the market, which affected the credit. Shanghai Xianfeng Silver Cake is the earliest Silver Coin in China with "two" units that have been handed down in kind, have historical records, and have been approved by local governments. Because it is completely Chinese style, its writing is beautiful and straight, coupled with a short minting period and a small number, it has become one of the fine works that numismatic collectors are struggling to find.
10
Yunnan month arch ingot set
The arch ingots are named after the archway buildings, weighing about 180 grams and containing an average of about 96% silver. It is also called "public valuation silver" because it is supervised by the valuation system. The shape of the arch has evolved from the three-slot square ingot that has been popular in Yunnan for a long time, but compared with the three-slot square ingot, the expression of the archway ingot is more exaggerated, the gap between the depth of the stamp is widened, and the outer edge curve is obvious. The front of the archway ingot is stamped with three identical stamps. There are two wide convex edges between the three stamps, usually stamped with one or two stamps, and there are many types of stamps, ranging from "public consultation", "public valuation", "public valuation" and "official valuation".
This group of interesting moon arch ingots is a very important one of the various arches. The ingots of the Moon Keeper are stamped with silver with the first moon pattern, the silver of the February pattern, the silver of the March pattern until the winter moon pattern silver and the wax moon pattern silver on the ingot surface, covering the entire anniversary, so it is called the moon arch ingot.
The main feature of the Moon Arch Ingot is the logo of "Silver of a Certain Moon Pattern", which shows that the means of payment it represents is based on the month. After research, the moon arch ingots mainly play the role of discounting bills of exchange. Since the original flat color standard of the bill of exchange is often different from the arch ingot of Yunnan General, when the ticket number is delivered to the pawn shop according to the payment term of the bill of exchange, the shop needs to cast the arch ingot according to the color specified in the bill of exchange, and then deliver it to the customer. Although there is often an agreement between the combined shop and the customer to postpone the payment date, resulting in the actual payment date of the combined shop being different from the due date of the bill of exchange, the ticket number still requires the concurrent shop to be stamped with the month of payment of the bill of exchange in order to indicate the fact that the bill of exchange has been paid. This should be the origin of the arch ingot face to remember the moon, which explains why the moon arch ingot and other arch ingots have maintained independent and parallel development for a long time. In the early years of the Republic of China, the once-flourishing Yunnan Arch Ingots gradually disappeared. Nowadays, it is not easy to collect the moon arch ingots for the entire anniversary, so it is particularly rare.
The official public number of "Shanghai Bank Museum".