Another Warring States Square Foot Spade Coin

As the end of the first semester draws nearer, so do my final exams unfortunately, which means less time spent on coins, and more on maths. Anyway, I thought I should show one more square-foot spade from my, rather limited, collection:



Another small square foot spade of the Warring States period, this time issued by arguably my favourite state within this period, the State of Zhao. This kingdom has perhaps one of the most interesting monetary systems in the Warring Sates period, issuing anything from round coinage to straight knives and pointed spades. The Zhao state came into being after the Jin state, one of the major players during the preceding Spring and Autumn period and famous for being the most likely issuers of the hollow-head spades, fell apart in the 5th century BC. The coin reads "Xiang-Yuan", a city, now a county, within Shanxi province, located approximately 150 Km west Handan, the later capital of the Zhao state. Xiang Yuan was located on an important junction in the Zhang (He) river, on the southern border of the Zhao state. Because this river often formed part of the border between the Han/Wei state and the state of Zhao, the different towns and cities along the Zhang He were often fortified and well protected. Xiang-Yuan was such a walled city, as suggested by its name (the "Yuan" character literally translating into something like "a low/city wall").

This time, unfortunately, no interesting discussion on the reading of the spade; Both characters (Xiang-Yuan) are well documented, the latter even appearing on an early round coin issued by the state of Wei. There is however a neat little detail to the characters on my spade. Normally, the top-left component of the character on the right (remember to read from right to left, so "Xiang") is very triangular. My spade on the other hand, shows a variety where it is shaped more like a pentagon, having five distinct corners an edges. Note that this is not that rare; everything between a semi-circle and a triangle could and has been used for this component. Hartill only lists a single calligraphic variety (nr.3.403), as well as one with an inversed inscription; Coole lists many, but only one or two that come close to my variety. This spade is one of the more common ones within this series, Hartill giving it a rarity rating of 11 out of 16, comparable to the An-Yang spades (10/11). My coin measures 46 by 28 mm, and has a weight of 5.38 gram, quite average for this type.

Again, I presume this to be a genuine coin (sharp edges, correct thinness, good "patina", whatever is left of it), and it has been looked at by the experts on Zeno.ru. Nevertheless, should you find anything wrong with it, please tell me! Unfortunately, however, it has been harshly cleaned, especially to make the characters on the obverse stand out. But even on the reverse the previous owner removed some of the patina/corrosion, mainly on the shoulders. Yet, on the reverse, he left the rest of the patina intact. This is presumably because this series, specifically these Xiang-Yuan and several Late Yan-state spades, often shows characters/mintmarks on the reverse shoulders as well. Having such mintmarks often increases the value of the coin, the previous owner must have been disappointed when he destroyed this possibly beautiful patina, only to find the shoulders empty!

All comments are welcome!

Kind regards,

Mika