In the early 1970’s, Buddhist monks digging in the courtyard of the Chengtian Temple (承天寺) in Quanzhou (泉州), Fujian Province in order to bury jars of a traditional Chinese medicine known as “golden juice” (jinzhi 金汁) made a startling discovery. They uncovered clay moulds (qianfan 钱范) used to cast ancient Chinese coins. It was not [...]
Chinese coins
The largest cache of ancient coins ever discovered in China’s western Xinjiang Province has been unearthed in Kucha (库车), the ancient capital of the Qiuci Kingdom (龟兹), according to a recent article published in the Chinese press. Mr. Chen Wei (陈伟), the Vice Bureau Chief of the Kucha Prefecture Bureau of Cultural Relics, revealed that [...]
According to a televised report by China Central Television (CCTV 中国中央电视台) on August 18, 2012, what may be the smallest Chinese coin ever discovered has been unearthed in Zaozhuang (枣庄), a city in China’s eastern province of Shandong (山东省). The coin is described as being paper-thin with a rough edge and no larger than a [...]
The Yonhap News Agency is reporting that a Korean scholar believes a previously unknown inscription on a 2,500-year-old Chinese knife-shaped form of money is actually written in Korean. Dr. Lee Chan-gu is an expert on the ancient Chinese book of divination known as the “Book of Changes” (I Ching, yijing 易经). In his new book [...]
China faced a severe shortage of small denomination coins at the end of the Qing Dynasty. To help alleviate the shortage, the Guangdong mint in the year 1900 began to produce a new style coin that was radically different from the hand-cast bronze “cash” coins with the square hole that had been used for more [...]
Chinese archaeologists frequently unearth ancient coins at tomb sites. While old Chinese coins do not have actual dates on them, they do have inscriptions which can help date the site being excavated. Having been buried for hundreds or thousands of years, it is quite common for these old bronze coins to be so severely corroded [...]
The ruins of an ancient city wall dating from the Tang Dynasty were recently discovered in Fuzhou (福州), the capital city of China’s southeastern province of Fujian (福建), according to a local newspaper article. The city wall dates back 1,100 years and is unusual because some of the bricks display the design of an ancient [...]
More than 100 local villagers were seen busily overturning rocks in a small flood plain area of Sichuan Province’s “Golden Horse River” (金马河) once word spread that a large number of ancient Chinese coins had been discovered, according to a report by the Sichuan News Network (四川新闻网). Villagers of the Wenjiang District (温江区) of Chengdu [...]
The official New China News Agency (新华社) revealed in 1997 that Chinese archaeologists working in the southwestern province of Yunnan had unearthed a huge Ming Dynasty coin which was described as the largest and heaviest ancient Chinese coin ever found. The coin was cast during the reign of Emperor Shi Zong (1522-1567) to commemorate the [...]
An article in the Suqian Evening News (宿迁晚报) reported an unusual discovery. Chinese archaeologists excavating a multiple tomb site in Suqian (宿迁), a city in northern Jiangsu Province (江苏), unearthed a coffin with no corpse. The only thing inside the casket was a coin. Most of the tombs being excavated at the site date from [...]
Chinese archaeologists working at an ancient stone pagoda in Hainan Province (海南省) recently made a discovery which will help to establish the date when the pagoda was originally built. An article in the October 27, 2011 edition of the Haikou Evening News (海口晚报) describes the restoration work being done at the Rufu Stone Pagoda (儒符石塔) [...]
Lu Xun (鲁迅 1881-1936) is recognized as one of the greatest Chinese writers of the 20th Century and the founder of modern Chinese literature. Few people, however, are aware of Lu Xun’s contributions to Chinese numismatics. He was not only a collector of ancient Chinese coins but he also wrote a manuscript annotating Chinese coins [...]