gxseries Posted September 25, 2013 Report Share Posted September 25, 2013 Issued around 1660s to late 1680s, a set of coins from various provinces had mintmarks that were issued in both Chinese and Manchu scripts. A lot of coins prior to this had mintmarks that were issued in Manchu scripts only. This particular series is very interesting as well as highly collectable as they can be arranged to form a poem. I'm not too sure if this was ever a commemorative set but this is really neat. Superstition wise, appearently it is said that it repels evil forces. We'll see about that... Difficulty wise, they can be very hard to find in particular coins from Taiwan, Guangdong (Kwangtung), Hunan (Honan), Yunnan and so forth. There's interesting stories from some provinces of why they are hard to find, choice of metal, weight differences, varieties and so forth. Even in this lot itself, some coins are as small as 22mm to 26mm! Some are clearly cast in high quality copper due to the price of zinc being too expensive, some mints cutting corners in particular Henan (Honan). Weight difference - a coin from Henan (Honan) at 2.58g to the heaviest from Jiangxi (Kiangsi) at 5.06g. Henan (Honan) coins were supposedly forbidden to circulate as it was severely underweight. Most coins are around the 3.5 to 4g mark. I find the Taiwan coin to be very interesting as well as difficult to find. Leaving politics aside, this is one of the few coins that Taiwan issued under mainland China. More information can found here: http://www.sportstune.com/chinese/coins/kanghsi/kanghsipoem.html http://ykleungn.tripod.com/kanghsia.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted September 25, 2013 Report Share Posted September 25, 2013 Very interesting. I'd never heard of these coins and their poem. It's actually a very nice idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 Congrats on finishing the set! I'm still missing Nan and Tai - the two main keys. I have seen both offered, but am still waiting for a nice piece at the right price... Your Kwang and Tai pieces are great examples! :-) In my experience, the Che, Ho, and Dong pieces tended to dominate whenever I came across examples of these. Fu is probably a bit underrated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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