A video broadcast by Hubei TV (HBTV 湖北网台) on August 13, 2013 reports that a tomb dating from the Southern Dynasties was recently unearthed at a construction site in the city of Xiangyang (襄阳). The discovery is considered remarkable because many of the bricks used in the construction of the tomb display the design of [...]
Chinese coins
Isabella Lucy Bird was a famous English explorer, writer and photographer who traveled the world in the late 1800’s. She visited China and documented her adventures in a book entitled “Chinese Pictures: Notes on Photographs” written under her married name of Mrs. J.F. Bishop and published by Charles L. Bowman & Co. in the year [...]
The Shui people (水族) are one of the ethnic minority groups who live mainly in the Sandu Shui Autonomous County (三都水族自治县) of southwest China’s Guizhou Province (贵州省). The Shui (Sui) are descendants of the ancient Baiyue (百越) who lived in the area of southern China and northern Vietnam beginning in the first millennium BC. “Shui” [...]
The mystique and rarity surrounding the “three hole spade” (san kong bu 三孔布) is such that many Chinese coin collectors consider it to be “the king of ancient coins”. Even though catalogs of ancient Chinese coins have existed for almost 900 years, “three hole spades” from the Warring States period (475-221 BC) are so rare [...]
Coins from the Han, Tang, Song and Jin dynasties were recently unearthed at a construction site in Dingxi City according to a report published in the May 23, 2013 issue of the Lanzhou Morning News (兰州晨报). Dingxi (定西) is located about 100 km east of Lanzhou (兰州) in China’s northwest province of Gansu (甘肃省). The [...]
More than 500 pounds of ancient coins have been dug up at a construction site in east China according to news reports by Chinese print and TV media. The site is located in Guzhen County (固镇县) in Anhui Province (安徽省). Chinese archaeologists from the Guzhen County Bureau of Cultural Relics (固镇县文物局) are seen digging up [...]
Why would a Ming Dynasty tomb contain coins only from the Song Dynasty? This was the question faced by archaeologists excavating a tomb in Longshan Village (龙山村) according to an article published in the May 6, 2013 edition of the Pengcheng Daily (彭城晚报). The brick tomb was discovered near Xuzhou (徐州), Jiangsu Province (江苏省) in [...]
A villager in Pingquan County (平泉县), Hebei Province (河北省) accidentally discovered a buried clay pot containing about 600 specimens of knife money from the Warring States Period (475 BC -221 BC), according to a dispatch from the China News (中新网) dated May 3, 2013. Mr. Wang Yongtie (王永铁), the village chief of Guangxingdian Village (广兴店村), [...]
Archaeologists have unearthed more than 3,000 coins dating from the Tang Dynasty in the ancient Silk Road city of Kucha (库车县) located in China’s far western region of Xinjiang (新疆维吾尔自治区).* The China News (中新网), in an article published on April 25, 2013, reports that the Kucha Bureau of Cultural Relics (库车县文物局) was informed of the [...]
The People’s Daily (人民日报) on May 20, 2000 announced that Chinese archaeologists had unearthed a “mountain” of ancient Chinese coins in a field near the city of Cangzhou (沧州) in China’s northern province of Hebei (河北省). The initial discovery of the buried coins actually dates to 1997. The coins were made of iron and were [...]
The ancient town of Ciqikou (磁器口) is part of the municipality of Chongqing (重庆) located in Southwest China. Ciqikou actually translates as “Porcelain Port” and the town gained prominence during the Ming Dynasty as a prosperous commercial port located on the Jialing River. The Jialing River (嘉陵江) is a popular spot for the residents of [...]
Scientists have discovered a Ming Dynasty coin in Kenya that “proves China was trading with East Africa BEFORE Europeans arrived”, according to a recent newspaper article. The report, which was carried by newspapers around the world, claims that the coin provides evidence that the famous Chinese Admiral Zheng He reached East Africa years before the [...]