北宋代钱币图说 Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide 2016

April 20, 2016

Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide 2016: First & Bookshelf Editions

The NSDCVG 2016 is available in two editions.

FIRST EDITION
ISBN 5800115830814
Copyright: 2016
Published: April 6, 2016
Language: English / Chinese
Pages: 288
Binding: (Plastic) Coil
Interior: Black and white
Weight: 1.89 lbs.
Dimensions (inches): 8.5 wide x 11 tall
Price: $34.95 PPD (Media Mail) USA ONLY

TO ORDER Contact
Norman F. Gorny, email normanfgorny@juno.com

COMMENT
This edition is the original edition that lies flat when open, so that the rubbings can be used as sorting grids. Available NOW from the Author. Allow 2 weeks between order date and delivery.

BOOKSHELF EDITION
ISBN 9781365056055
Copyright: 2016
Published: April 18, 2016
Language: English / Chinese
Pages: 288
Binding: Perfect-bound
Interior: Black and white
Weight: 1.89 lbs.
Dimensions (inches): 8.5 wide x 11 tall
Price: $29.95 Shipping Extra

TO ORDER Click on a Link below
Amazon
Lulu

COMMENT
This edition is a standard bound softcover book.
It is a POD (Print on demand) book, and is available worldwide through one of the publishing networks named above. Shipping cost and delivery time will vary, depending on vendor.

UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS (Tentative)
Northern Song Dynasty Cash Rubbings
Plastic coil bound, lie-flat, includes nothing but the rubbings from the NSDCVG 2016, to make sorting and identifying easier. It will ONLY be available from the Author.
Northern Song Dynasty Visual Inventory
Plastic coil bound, lie-flat, includes reduced-size rubbings from the NSDCVG 2016, for use as a check list and inventory ledger of your collection. It will ONLY be available from the Author.

April 13, 2016

Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide 2016

Published April 6, 2016. First copy received today, April 13, 2016.

SPECIFICATIONS
Language:
English / Chinese
Pages:
288
Cover:
Glossy card stock
Binding:
Coil
Interior:
Black and white
Dimensions:
8.5" x 11" / 22 x 28 cm
Weight:
1.89 lbs / 0,857 kg
Shipping weight:
3 lbs / 1,36 kg

This is not only a new edition of my original catalogs, which were issued as 40 page stapled journals in six volumes, but a complete revision.

What has stayed the same?
— The variety numbers have not changed for any types that have been included.

What has changed?
— Clear Times New Roman (for English) and Simsun (for Chinese) fonts are used to make reading easier.
— New Type numbers replace the Schjöth based type numbers.
— The new Type numbers are an example of a Universal Numbering System for Chinese Cash (UNS) which I propose to apply to all coins of all dynasties.

— Type tabs in a special tab section at the beginning of the catalog summarize all the details about each Type. The same tabs are used throughout the catalog as sidebars to indicate when a new Type is being treated.
— Reverse rubbings have been added for many varieties that were not shown before.
— Matching Cash are shown together, rather than separately by Style.
— A few Types have been removed as being fantasy issues.
— More descriptive detail has been added for many Types.
— Variety descriptions are now given in tables, with the English variety name first, followed by Chinese and pinyin.
— The one coin of the Later Zhou dynasty, Zhou Yuan Tong Bao, has been included as the forerunner to the Northern Song series.
— The undated coins of the Southern Song series, as well as those of the Jin and Western Xia dynasties have been omitted. These will appear in a new catalog covering them in full, Southern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide 2017.

— The few iron coins that were formerly included have been omitted, but references to what iron varieties exist is given for every Type, using the catalog 两宋铁钱 Liǎng Sòng Tiě Qián (2000), the best variety guide for iron coins of both Song dynasties, and giving both LSTQ numbers and their UNS equivalents.
— Table of emperors and eras has been added.
— Table of 48 dynasty codes has been added.
— Chinese and tone-marked pinyin texts have been added throughout the catalog. These may be skipped over in reading for those uninterested, but they also provide an easy way to acquire a reading knowledge of numismatic and historical Chinese for those interested.
— Map and descriptions of 89 mints operating in the Song era, in many cases with years of opening and closing.

AVAILABILITY
Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide 2016 is available starting today.
It is available in two editions.

For some sample pages, see the next post.

March 17, 2016

Finished over two months ahead of schedule!

After a lot of delay caused by many factors, the revision of my catalog of Northern Song Dynasty Cash Varieties, originally published between 2000 and 2004 in the format of 40-page journals, was about 3/4 finished as of the date of this post. I finished the last page at 8 p.m. on March 31, and after redesigning the cover and adding the TOC and some other things, the catalog was published on April 6, 2016. Here are some details about the new catalog...

Covers

This edition is coil bound so that the pages can lie flat when the catalog is open and in use. Publication size: 8½ x 11"

Sample Pages

Sometime after the release of NSDCVG 2016 in hard copy, it will also be available in eBook format as well as in an interactive online form which will be available on a subscription basis. The online version will be constantly updated, and for each rubbing actual coin photographs will be made available, as the coins turn up in the collections of the author and subscribers.

May 23, 2011

Maybe 2012

Back in late 2009 I started working on a new and revised edition of my Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide (NSDCVG), originally planned to be republished as a one volume, comb or spiral bound edition, entirely revamped and edited to include new information as a result of my researches and acquisitions since the last editions.

I started work on this project and got quite a bit of it done, more than the downloadable sample pages show, but then health issues got in the way, and my poor eyesight on top of everything else made me announce that the project was indefinitely shelved. I agreed, therefore, to make the original edition available on request as needed and, in fact, have reprinted a few at a time and sold them on eBay.

Well, my health issues, though not my poor eyesight, have cleared up and so I have begun contemplating how to get the task done. I have started by redocumenting my Chinese cash collection, a vast ongoing project, making use not only of my catalog, but of new catalogs obtained from China, those which I have recommended elsewhere in my coin blogs. These are in Chinese, of course, but the ground breaking translations I provide in my catalog make using these new publications very easy.

What I have found is that the coverage of Northern Song is much better for some of the series in the new Chinese catalogs than in the old Kosen Daizen, which is the basis of my catalog. I have already started using both 北宋铜钱 Bei Song Tong Qian numbers (book cover, right) and my own catalog numbers in documenting my collection of reverse marked Songyuan. In the next edition of my catalog, the Schjöth numbers are abandoned (though still referenced) in favor of a new type number system based on the actual series themselves, combined with the original variety numbers. This can be seen in the sample pages.

I do not use the Hartill numbering at all, since it will not work very well with a full variety catalog. Hartill will work for a non-specialist in Northern Song, but will be very frustrating to one who wants to distinguish and collect all possible varieties.

My latest design concept is somewhat different, simpler and more direct than the sample pages you can look at here, but if interested, you will get a good idea of where I will be going with this. You can download PDF files of the front cover and intro pages, and of the first 15 catalog pages, covering Song Yuan, Tai Ping, and Chun Hua currencies, by clicking the links.

This sample is to provide you with an idea of what is coming, the new arrangement, layout, and type numbers. The 2012 edition will make use of the same rubbings, as well as the original variety numbers, so it can be used with existing, older collections. The new type number system is unique to NSDCVG, but provides a logical and consistent framework. Download the PDF of the cover and table of contents by clicking HERE. Download the first 15 pages of the catalog by clicking HERE.

I think that my catalog, though useful, may in the end yield to the new Chinese language catalogs. Time will tell. Previous catalogs coming out of China on this series were not, in my opinion, as good as Kosen Daizen, but the latest ones, particularly 北宋铜钱 Bei Song Tong Qian (Copper Coins of Northern Song) and 两宋铁钱 Liang Song Tie Qian (Iron Coins of Northern and Southern Song, book cover, left) are worthy of consideration and use. The latter catalog was the one I first acquired, and my entire collection of Song Dynasty iron coins is catalogued solely using its numbering and variety names. There are samples of cataloguing by LSTQ at my Northern Song Cash blog. I have also translated the map and list of furnace locations.

This is the latest news, and let's be optimistic and shoot for 2012.

September 4, 2009

How to clean cash coins

Should these coins be cleaned?

I have foolishly decided to start yet another blog. This one is called Oriental Cash, and I will be posting there on subjects having to do with all the cash series that I collect and study, not just my specialty, Northern Song Dynasty. My initial post on Oriental Cash is called Care For Your Cash, and is all about cleaning cash coins. I have recently had several inquiries about this topic, and so I've decided to republish an article I wrote back in 1991 on this subject. Click on the hyperlinks above to visit my newest blog and read about how (and when) to clean cash coins. Thanks for visiting!

April 28, 2009

宋代铁钱监、夹锡钱监一览表 (List of Song Dynasty Mints for Iron & Tin Alloy Cash)

I have started a new blog, Northern Song Cash, where I am posting new research and translations that I am doing in preparation for a new edition of Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide. I want you to have as much of this new information as soon as possible.

Because it was the least covered in my original catalog, I am starting with the iron coins of Northern Song, utilizing the excellent variety catalog Liang Song Tie Qian.

Please GO to my new blog and see what you may find helpful in your own collecting and research. My first post in the new blog is a list of Northern and Southern Song Dynasty mints for iron coins. There is also a keyed map of the 89 known mints that can be downloaded to your computer and printed. There will be posted images of Northern Song iron coins from my reference collection, together with the rubbings and commentary from the Liang Song Tie Qian translated into English, as well as the physical specifications of each variety.

Please take a look, and do not hesitate to comment on whatever you see there. My new variety guide is a public "work in progress," and perhaps some of you can help me as much as I can help you.

February 11, 2007

Volume 1 ~ Fugo Senshi

Fugo Senshi
Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide, Volume 1
Translated into English, with parallel Chinese (Pinyin Romanisation), sequentially rearranged, and provided with a variety numbering system.
by Norman F. Gorny

This is both a primer on identifying the varieties as well as a catalog based on Fugo Senshi, an original classic Japanese work on "dui qian" or "matching cash" of this dynasty. Please read the intro page for an idea of scope and format, and take a look at the sample pages. The catalog is published in 8-1/2 x 11" format in a comb binding with card stock front and back covers, with 115 pages of rubbings and text.

Volume 1 Fugo Senshi is CURRENTLY Out-of-Print!
DO NOT ORDER!
If interested in obtaining a copy, please email me!
Volumes 2 through 7 Kosen Daizen are still AVAILABLE.
See pricing and shipping information under each volume.

Introduction to Volume 1

Collecting Northern Song dynasty cash by varieties is a very rewarding study in itself. There are two classic guides to this series:

FUGO SENSHI by Yamada Kosho (2 volumes, 1827-1829). This work classifies only value-1 "dui qian" (matching cash) of Northern Song. It is invaluable, however, because it offers the collector a place to begin learning how to distinguish the subtle differences in module and style that characterize this series.

KOSEN DAIZEN by Imai Teikichi (1888). Volume 3 of this monumental work classifies all Northern Song cash, building upon the foundations established by FUGO SENSHI.

I have divided my Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide into seven volumes.
Volume 1 is essentially a numeric classification of FUGO SENSHI with variety names transliterated into Chinese with approximate English equivalents. I am not a speaker or translator of Chinese, but I have studied the coins themselves with reference to the variety names and developed what I hope is a workable terminology.

This volume is laid out with full size rubbings and in a spacious format, as it is expected to be used as a work book to be written in. The varieties have check boxes, so that the collector or student can log examples as they are acquired.

Volumes 2 through 7 of this series treats the relevant material in KOSEN DAIZEN in generally the same way, but due to the much greater scope, it is presented more compactly. It is expected that the collector will have become familiar with the series and its requirements from studying this first volume, and so the material is not formatted as a work book.

Volume 1 was originally issued as a paste-up of FUGO SENSHI in a back-to-front format related to the original Japanese publication. The present edition has been rearranged and the rubbings cleaned up and sequenced front-to-back for western users. I hope that this work will succeed in its purpose — to make variety collecting of Northern Song cash accessible to everyone, not only to readers of oriental languages.

VARIETY names are descriptions of characteristics of the coin.
When the variety name includes one of the characters on the coin, that character is in upper case. For example, Chang TONG, "elongated TONG." Sometimes a description takes a character apart and defines a part of it, for example, Mu SONG, "SONG written like MU." When that happens, the character part is in upper case only in the English translation. This rule is followed throughout.

Understand that the descriptive terms are not to be taken as absolutes, but relatives.

For example, when a coin is described as having a "high BAO," the character BAO may not look very high, but compared to the same character in the preceding coin, it can be seen to be slightly higher.

The differences in position, in weight of writing, in rim width, and so on, are VERY subtle. Often, it is possible to see the progression of the design through gradual change and/or antithesis.

For example, two varieties will be listed with opposite characteristics. By studying them together, especially with the coins in hand, one can learn EXACTLY what the variety names are getting at.

In this guide, I have made no attempt to distinguish, for example, several Chinese terms translated as "tilted." It is by studying the rubbings or the coins themselves that you will acquire a sense of what the variety names mean. Put simply, the terms are very often untranslatable because they are so symbolic. You may prefer to translate some of the terms differently and write them in your copy.

After using this guide, you may find, as I have, that once you know what is meant by the Chinese name, you prefer thinking of the variety by that name instead of the English "sub-title."
I recommend getting a pronunciation guide from the public library or download one from the internet. Pinyin romanization is used exclusively in this volume. It is phonetic and easy to pronounce.

As FUGO SENSHI is actually a Japanese work, the Chinese names are sometimes accompanied by Japanese katakana to assist the Japanese reader to whom some of the kanji might be obscure.

The rarity numbers are arranged to the upper right of each rubbing in Chinese, and at each variety description. Rarity 1 is extremely rare (RRR), rarity 10, expressed as RX, is very common.

Keep in mind that the rarity guide provided by FUGO SENSHI is that of Japan in the 1820’s. It is important to remember that one collector sometimes has several examples of a variety which to another has remained unobtainable.

Volume 2 ~ Kosen Daizen … Song Yuan to Jing You

Kosen Daizen
Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide, Volume 2

Translated into English, with parallel Chinese (Pinyin Romanisation), and provided with a variety numbering system.
by Norman F. Gorny

Volume 2 of Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide is a re-presentation in English of the varieties of Northern Song cash from Song Yuan to Jing You found in volume 3 of KOSEN DAIZEN by Imai Teikichi (1888). This monumental work on Chinese cash by a formidable Japanese scholar builds upon numismatic research done two generations earlier by Yamada Kosho and published in FUGO SENSHI (two volumes, 1827-1829).

Volume 1 of the present catalog is a numeric classification of Fugo Senshi and a primer on the Chinese variety names used by both Japanese works. Fugo Senshi deals only with the dui qian (matching coin) value-1 cash of Northern Song.

Kosen Daizen incorporates the classification found in Fugo Senshi (though not necessarily in the same order) and uses the same principles to examine and classify all cash coins of this dynasty. Thus, Volume 1 Fugo Senshi is the beginners guide, and Volume 2 and subsequent volumes Kosen Daizen are the advanced collector’s guides to the Northern Song series. If you happen to have skipped Volume 1, you may find this volume a bit difficult to comprehend at first; and, if you have started with Volume 1, you will see that your experience will enable you to find your way around the present volume quickly and easily.

CURRENTLY Out-of-Print! DO NOT ORDER!
Volume 2, Kosen Daizen, Song Yuan to Jing You, published in large easy-to-read 8-1/2 x 11" (21 x 28cm) format, 40 pages, stapled binding.
Price (USD): $8 each, plus postage (USA, $1.50 media; Canada, $2.00 air mail; Other Countries, $4.50 air mail).
SPECIAL
Volumes 2-7 complete Kosen Daizen, price $48 postpaid (media) U.S.A.
Canada and other countries, email me for a quote.
Payment can be made by personal check or money order in USD
drawn on a U.S. bank, to:
Norman F. Gorny, 6007 S.E. Taylor Court,
Portland, Oregon 97215, U.S.A., or
through PAYPAL to: romanos51@comcast.net.

Excerpted from the
Introduction to Volume 2

The catalog you are now holding in hand is the key to studying, understanding, and collecting Northern Song dynasty Chinese cash. It will enable you to reference and build your collection intelligently. It can lead you to new discoveries. It will encourage you to buy bulk quantities of inexpensive cash from this dynasty and sort through them. That is the way to build a comprehensive collection. Start with an "unsearched" string of at least 100 cash. If you can get about five strings of 100, you will be able to find them all in the volumes of this series and own a very impressive attributed collection.

The Northern Song dynasty was possibly the most prolific issuer of cash coins in the history of China. While the rest of the world, numismatically speaking, was still in the grips of the middle ages, China during the Northern Song period was mass producing coins of identical appearance, shape, size, and weight, using methods developed and refined over the course of a thousand years. The coins were produced not by the hundreds or thousands, but by the millions. Unlike the ancient and medieval coins of the European and Islamic worlds which exhibit innumerable variations due to their primitive production methods, Chinese cash can be collected and classified by meaningful varieties. The variations in calligraphy style, position of the writing relative to the rims, dimensions and styles of the inner and outer rims, and the size of the center holes, all these methods were used to denote mint location, workshop or furnace, and casting period (more than one per year). Why the Northern Song officials took so much trouble to track these details in such an obscure way, we do not know. Nor is it known today, except in a few cases, at which mint or in what year a coin was cast. Similar concepts were still in place in China during the Qing dynasty, and from existing documents and records some researchers have elicited the kind of information that we westerners like to know — primarily mint location and year of issue. Nevertheless, knowing in general when a coin was cast and learning to distinguish the known varieties (and perhaps discovering as yet unpublished varieties) makes the study and collecting of Northern Song dynasty cash a very rewarding pursuit.

For those who have begun to classify their collections by Fugo Senshi, the variety names are usually the same, but the numbering system is necessarily different. Fugo Senshi numbers are given alongside the Kosen Daizen numbers whenever they occur. (We must remember, as westerners, that the variety number is not important, the variety name is.)

All this being said, we proceed to more practical matters.

The Basics
Manufacture and Design

Cash coins are cast in sand moulds and made of bronze or brass alloys, or iron. Occasionally lead, zinc, or odd materials are encountered. Northern Song cash are bronze, brass, or iron. The coins are kept uniform in appearance by using a ‘mother cash’ to cast "seed cash" which are then used to create the mould impressions for the circulation coins. The style of writing, the diameter, and the rims and holes, are uniform aspects derived from the seed cash. Only one aspect is subject to unintentional variation: the weight/thickness of a cash coin. Though same varieties with different weights/thicknesses are collected, they normally do not merit their own variety number.

Cash coins do not have pictures on them. Except for symbolic images, the design is confined to inscriptions only. Beginning in the Tang dynasty, the face of the cash coin invariably has 4 characters arranged above, below, left and right of a central square hole. "Round as the heavens, square as the earth," is the Chinese saying to illustrate metaphorically the design of the coins. On the practical side, it was very early discovered that a square hole fit a square shaft, which enabled a quantity of coins to be turned on a lathe to remove casting irregularities.

Obverse Characteristics
The face of a cash coin has the "nian hao" or reign title.
Normal reading direction is 1-Top, 2-Bottom, 3-Right, 4-Left. In the Northern Song dynasty, the circular reading pattern 1-Top, 2-Right, 3-Bottom, 4-Left is frequently encountered. Other reading directions are found in other dynasties on coins issued by minority nationalities.

Calligraphy styles in this dynasty can be classified into three broad groups: Orthodox, Seal, and Cursive.

Orthodox script can be broken down further into "regular" and "clerkly". A third form of Orthodox script is the elegant "Slender Gold" style, invented by Emperor Hui Zong.

Seal script is recognized by the noticeably rounded outlines of the characters.

Cursive can be broken down into ordinary "running" hand and "grass" writing.
Finally, it is not unusual for more than one style to be used in writing the characters on a cash coin.

Volume 3 ~ Kosen Daizen … Huang Song to Xi Ning

Kosen Daizen
Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide, Volume 3

Translated into English, with parallel Chinese (Pinyin Romanisation), and provided with a variety numbering system.
by Norman F. Gorny

Volume 3 of Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide is a re-presentation in English of the varieties of Northern Song cash from Huang Song to Xi Ning found in volume 3 of KOSEN DAIZEN by Imai Teikichi (1888). This monumental work on Chinese cash by a formidable Japanese scholar builds upon numismatic research done two generations earlier by Yamada Kosho and published in FUGO SENSHI (two volumes, 1827-1829).

CURRENTLY Out-of-Print! DO NOT ORDER!
Volume 3, Kosen Daizen, Huang Song to Xi Ning, published in large easy-to-read 8-1/2 x 11" (21 x 28cm) format, 40 pages, stapled binding.
Price (USD): $8 each, plus postage (USA, $1.50 media; Canada, $2.00 air mail; Other Countries, $4.50 air mail).
SPECIAL
Volumes 2-7 complete Kosen Daizen, price $48 postpaid (media) U.S.A.
Canada and other countries, email me for a quote.
Payment can be made by personal check or money order in USD
drawn on a U.S. bank, to:
Norman F. Gorny, 6007 S.E. Taylor Court,
Portland, Oregon 97215, U.S.A., or
through PAYPAL to: romanos51@comcast.net.

Excerpted from the
Introduction to Volume 3

In this third volume of Northern Song Cash Variety Guide we encounter for the first time "multiple" cash, that is, cash coins which have an intended value of two or more standard cash. Although multiple cash are recorded for reign titles previous to the Qing Li period, all these are quite rare or have not been found. Many coins purporting to be multiple cash of earlier reigns are cleverly made fakes. Based on Kosen Daizen, we have described in Volume 2 multiple cash for the following reigns: Song Yuan, Jing De, Xiang Fu, Tian Xi, Tian Sheng, and Jing You. None of these have rarity indicators, which means that the average collector will probably never find them. On the other hand, beginning with Qing Li and continuing through the rest of the Northern Song dynasty, multiple cash will be obtainable and in many cases in very plentiful amounts, thereby permitting the formation of a very presentable variety collection for at least some reigns.

The Basics
Reverse Characteristics

The back of a cash coin is normally blank, with a recessed field and raised inner and outer rim. A variety of pictographic marks can also appear there, as well as characters for mint name (though rarely encountered in Northern Song). Three types of standard marks appear: crescent/moon, dot/star, and bar. These occur singly or in combinations with each other, especially crescent and dot. Their presence signifies a variety. A carry-over from Tang dynasty times is the "rain cloud" mark, also of varietal significance.

Another mark, though it is often called a crescent, is the nail mark. This looks like the mark of an actual finger nail. Nail marks are probably a type of control mark, but their appearance is sporadic and inconsistent and does NOT have varietal significance. Do not confuse the nail mark with the crescent.

The position of a reverse mark or a nail mark is described relative to the center hole (above, below, left, right) or by compass location (NW, NE, SW, SE). Crescents and nailmarks are also described by orientation (Up Above, Down Below, Out Left, Out Right; Down Above, Up Below, In Left, In Right; Out or In NW, NE, etc.). Randomly placed nail marks and dots are also described relative to the center hole and the rims by 12 hour clock (e.g., Dot near outer rim, 7:00).

A slipped mould is an accident caused by careless mating of the obverse and reverse moulds, resulting (commonly on the reverse, but occasionally on the obverse) in a cash coin with a correctly punched hole and misaligned inner and outer rims. The outlines of the inner and outer rims will be visible in the field of the coin. Some examples show the outlines of both misaligned and correctly positioned moulds, demonstrating that an effort was made to correct the problem. Slipped moulds are not uncommon, but the greater the slippage, the more interesting and, hence, the scarcer the piece.

Hole and Inner Rim Variants
A roseate hole is a common and interesting feature found in two variations:
(1) The hole appears to have been punched at a 45° angle relative to the inner rim. This is noticeably perfect and appears intentional.
(2) The hole seems to be sloppily punched, just enough to produce an indistinct shape. These can be regarded as accidental.
Reverse inner and outer rims exist with many variations.

Volume 4 ~ Kosen Daizen … Yuan Feng to Yuan You

Kosen Daizen
Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide, Volume 4

Translated into English, with parallel Chinese (Pinyin Romanisation), and provided with a variety numbering system.
by Norman F. Gorny

Volume 4 of Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide is a re-presentation in English of the varieties of Northern Song cash from Yuan Feng to Yuan You found in volume 3 of KOSEN DAIZEN by Imai Teikichi (1888). This monumental work on Chinese cash by a formidable Japanese scholar builds upon numismatic research done two generations earlier by Yamada Kosho and published in FUGO SENSHI (two volumes, 1827-1829).

CURRENTLY Out-of-Print! DO NOT ORDER!
Volume 4, Kosen Daizen, Yuan Feng to Yuan You, published in large easy-to-read 8-1/2 x 11" (21 x 28cm) format, 40 pages, stapled binding.
Price (USD): $8 each, plus postage (USA, $1.50 media; Canada, $2.00 air mail; Other Countries, $4.50 air mail).
SPECIAL
Volumes 2-7 complete Kosen Daizen, price $48 postpaid (media) U.S.A.
Canada and other countries, email me for a quote.
Payment can be made by personal check or money order in USD
drawn on a U.S. bank, to:
Norman F. Gorny, 6007 S.E. Taylor Court,
Portland, Oregon 97215, U.S.A., or
through PAYPAL to: romanos51@comcast.net.

Excerpted from the
Introduction to Volume 4

This fourth volume introduces the student and collector to a new pattern of "dui qian," matched cash. We have seen that matched cash in two calligraphy styles as originated by emperor Li Yu of Southern Tang consisted of coins in seal script and orthodox writing.

Subsequently Tai Zong, the second Northern Song emperor, issued matched cash in sets of three styles, orthodox, cursive, and grass script, for a period of about nine years. The next emperor, Zhen Zong, abandoned the production of matched cash for 24 years. When "dui qian" were revived by emperor Ren Zong during several of his reign periods, they reverted back to the original two styles, seal script and orthodox, although the orthodox coins sometimes mix styles. His successors, Ying Zong and Shen Zong, continued the tradition of seal and orthodox matched cash. However, in the Yuan Feng period of emperor Shen Zong a new pattern emerged, seal script and cursive writing. This innovation was to last about 24 years, through the Yuan Feng period, and during the three reign periods of Zhe Zong the next emperor, finally ending in the Sheng Song period of emperor Hui Zong.

In this fourth volume we will study the most abundant coin of the dynasty, Yuan Feng Tong Bao. According to Schjöth, "the emperor Shen Zong issued the coins in increasing numbers, there being no less than twenty-six mints in operation, yielding five and a half million strings of cash annually." As a string is interpreted to be a string of 1000 cash, that puts annual production at 5.5 billion (thousand million, milliard) coins! If coins were cast at all 26 mints for every year of production, and if production began in the first year of Yuan Feng (as stated by Ding Fu Bao) and lasted eight years, we would expect to find 208 varieties, at least of the value-1 coins. The actual number of varieties shown in Kosen Daizen is 242 for value-1, and 74 for value-2 coins. It is probable that each mint in operation had two casting periods per year, a spring and an autumn period. It cannot be assumed that all 26 mints operated continuously either, so nothing definite can be deduced from the meagre evidences we have at our disposal. Suffice it to say that Schjöth’s report is credible, based on the prolific number of varieties of Yuan Feng in both sizes, whatever his sources.

Yuan Feng value-1 coins have four variety groups each based on a shared characteristic seen in the seal or the cursive script coins.