Posted 10/27/2007 05:14 am
To elaborate on echizento's post: it is indeed from mediaeval China, not quite a thousand years old. Emperor Shen Zong used two reign-titles; "yuan feng" was his second one, used from 1078 to 1085 AD.
The Song Dynasty was known for it's excellent numismatic calligraphy, and several different "fonts" or scripts were used, often simultaneously. Your coin is done in "seal script".
Cash coins were made from whatever copper-based alloy was readily to hand. Normally bronze or brass, sometimes pure copper. They're normally described by the colour they've turned into eg. "red copper" or "yellow copper". I'd call yours yellow.
Obviously, we can't give you a Krause number, because the Krause catalogues don't go back that far. Echizento has given you a Ding number; "Fisher's Ding", a catalogue originally written in Chinese by Ding Fubao and translated into English by George Fisher, is the main English-language reference work for Chinese coins. Unfortunately, it's old, and hard to obtain.
Krause Publications has attempted to produce a catalogue for this series: "Chinese Cash" by David Jen. Many experts in Chinese cash coins consider this work seriously flawed, but I'm no expert, and Jen is the only book on cash coins I have. It's listed in that book as J# 251, CV $1 in VF.
The Song Dynasty was known for it's excellent numismatic calligraphy, and several different "fonts" or scripts were used, often simultaneously. Your coin is done in "seal script".
Cash coins were made from whatever copper-based alloy was readily to hand. Normally bronze or brass, sometimes pure copper. They're normally described by the colour they've turned into eg. "red copper" or "yellow copper". I'd call yours yellow.
Obviously, we can't give you a Krause number, because the Krause catalogues don't go back that far. Echizento has given you a Ding number; "Fisher's Ding", a catalogue originally written in Chinese by Ding Fubao and translated into English by George Fisher, is the main English-language reference work for Chinese coins. Unfortunately, it's old, and hard to obtain.
Krause Publications has attempted to produce a catalogue for this series: "Chinese Cash" by David Jen. Many experts in Chinese cash coins consider this work seriously flawed, but I'm no expert, and Jen is the only book on cash coins I have. It's listed in that book as J# 251, CV $1 in VF.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
