A Chinese newspaper reported today that several tons of iron coins dating from the Song Dynasty were recently discovered in a field near the city of Cangzhou (沧州), Hebei Province in northeast China. Although the coins protruding through the soil have rusted together, they can still be seen just the way they were arranged in [...]
Chinese coins
The official opening of the Xian Numismatic Museum (西安钱币博物馆) was announced today in a Chinese newspaper article. The new money museum is located in the ancient city of Xian (西安), the capital of Shaanxi Province (陕西). Xian, formerly known as Changan (长安), has a history of more than 3,100 years and was the eastern terminus [...]
The first Chinese machine-made cash coins were minted during the reign (1875-1908) of Emperor De Zong of the Qing Dynasty. As seen at the left, these brass coins had the inscription guang xu tong bao (光緒通寶). Many of these coins were struck at the mint in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province during the years 1889-1908. Another coin [...]
According to an article published in today’s Liaoning Daily (辽宁日报), the local police have arrested a gang of thieves who unearthed more than 2,200 rare coins dating from the Later Jin (后金) Dynasty (1616-1636 AD). According to the report, the Bureau of Public Security of Liaoyang City (辽阳市) has arrested three men suspected of the [...]
With only two specimens known to exist, the Yunnan Spring Dollar is considered among the very rarest of Chinese coins. One coin sold for $1,035,000 at a Hong Kong auction in August 2010. The only other known specimen is scheduled to be auctioned in September 2011. As you might expect, there is a great deal [...]
A recent Chinese newspaper article published pictures of a very rare Chinese silver coin which is believed to have been minted to commemorate the birthday of one of imperial China’s last rulers. The coin is owned by a Mr. He who lives in Anqing City in Anhui Province. The Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后 1835-1908) was [...]
A recent article in a Chinese newspaper described how a Chinese coin collector hid his coins during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) to save them from the Red Guards who were intent on “destroying the old”. The collector is now donating the coins to the Zhuhai Museum. Among the coins being donated is a very rare [...]
Fake Chinese coins continue to flood the market and are a major headache to both collectors and investors. An article published on the “China Gold Coin Net” (中国金币网) reports the success of a joint operation by the Hebei and Zhejiang police in breaking up a counterfeiting ring that specialized in producing fake “Panda” gold and [...]
According to a report in the June 8, 2011 edition of the Korea Joongang Daily, a Korean underwater excavation company has recovered 3.3 tons of foreign coins from a Japanese freighter that was sunk by an American warplane off the west coast of Korea during World War II. The coins number about one million with [...]
One of the most easily recognized silver coins from the early days of the Republic of China displays the profile of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the first president, with the English inscription “Memento Birth of Republic of China” on the reverse side. An earlier version of the coin had been struck in 1912 to commemorate the [...]
During the excavation of a recently discovered Eastern Han Dynasty grave, the Guangzhou Cultural Relics Archaeological Research Institute has discovered a pile of more than 1,000 bronze coins. The coins have the inscription “da quan wu shi” (大泉五十) which means “large coin fifty”. These large coins were worth the equivalent of 50 cash coins. They [...]
Approximately 200,000 ancient coins dating from the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD) were recently unearthed from an old well in eastern China. The Xinhua News Agency reported on June 4, 2011 that a construction crew building a road in the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province uncovered the old well on June 1st. The opening [...]