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.

Volume 5 ~ Kosen Daizen … Yuan You to Chong Ning

Kosen Daizen
Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide, Volume 5

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

Volume 5 of Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide is a re-presentation in English of the varieties of Northern Song cash from Yuan You to Chong 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 5, Kosen Daizen, Yuan You to Chong 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 5

This fifth volume completes the coverage of the Yuan You reign with the value-2 large cash and the value-3 iron cash issued in that era, thereafter continuing with Shao Sheng and Yuan Fu, the last two reign titles of emperor Zhe Zong. All the coins of this emperor were issued as ‘dui qian’ matching cash in seal script and cursive styles.

Mixed script styles on the cursive Shao Sheng Yuan Bao of emperor Zhe Zong recall a similar feature on the orthodox Huang Song Tong Bao of emperor Ren Zong (see Volume 3, page 10). Again, we will find mixed script styles on the cursive Sheng Song Yuan Bao of emperor Hui Zong. The character common to both of the later reign titles under discussion is SHENG. For some reason, this character does not appear in anything like true cursive on either type, except on variety 02 of Shao Sheng Yuan Bao. The characters YUAN and BAO assume a cursive form on all the cursive coins of both reigns, but SHAO ranges from cursive to "running" orthodox on the former, and SONG appears in standard orthodox on three or four varieties of the latter.

With Sheng Song Yuan Bao, the production of matching cash in seal and cursive style that was inaugurated by emperor Shen Zong comes to an end after about 24 years. The artist and calligrapher emperor Hui Zong introduced Chong Ning Tong Bao in a.d. 1102, which was written in one script style only, that of his personal invention, and named by him "slender gold style." This elegant script is a refined form of orthodox, and its beauty has not been surpassed even in modern times. After Chong Ning Tong Bao, this style was again used on Da Guan Tong Bao. It left its mark on subsequent coinage, especially Da Ding Tong Bao of the Jin dynasty. This Manchurian dynasty overran northern China a few years after emperor Hui Zong was himself captured by their armies and carried off into captivity. Their coinage was probably issued from the same mints as the Northern Song, and it is therefore not surprising if emperor Hui Zong’s excellent calligraphy was passed down to them.

In this fifth volume we will study the cash coinage of the late eleventh century and the first six years of the twelfth, noticing how the glory days of Northern Song were beginning to draw to a close, even amidst the beauty produced by and surrounding the last great emperor.

Volume 6 ~ Kosen Daizen … Chong Ning to Xuan He

Kosen Daizen
Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide, Volume 6

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

Volume 6 of Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide is a re-presentation in English of the varieties of Northern Song cash from Chong Ning to Xuan He 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 6, Kosen Daizen, Chong Ning to Xuan He, 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 6

As Volume 5 ended with the "slender gold style" Chong Ning Tong Bao, the current volume begins with the "clerkly orthodox" Chong Ning Zhong Bao in all sizes, before passing on to the rest of the reign titles of this emperor through the Xuan He Yuan Bao series.

With Sheng Song Yuan Bao (covered in Volume 5), the production of matching cash in seal and cursive style that was inaugurated by emperor Shen Zong comes to an end after about 24 years. The artist and calligrapher emperor Hui Zong introduced Chong Ning Tong Bao in a.d. 1102, which was written in one script style only, that of his personal invention, and named by him "slender gold style." This elegant script is a refined form of orthodox, and it was used again on Da Guan Tong Bao in a.d. 1107. Except for some iron Xuan He Tong Bao written in "slender gold," that is the last we see of it in Northern Song coinage. Later, something like it will appear on the coinage of minority peoples, such as the Da Ding Tong Bao of the Jin dynasty.

In this sixth volume we continue to study the cash coinage of the first two decades of the twelfth century, noticing how the tradition of matching cash reasserts itself after nine years of experimental large cash coinage. In the Zheng He reign, currency is again produced in matching seal script and clerkly orthodox styles. The orthodox coins, however, are not written in strictly one style, and once again, as in the Sheng Song reign, we find two or even three script styles on the same coin, which nonetheless we must call "orthodox." Matching cash then continue till the end of the reign in a.d. 1125, always being issued in seal script and clerkly orthodox writing.

As this catalog aims to be a faithful rendition in English of the original KOSEN DAIZEN, the inclusion of charms based on Chong Ning and Da Guan reign titles was necessary. However, the rubbings for these are not shown actual size, to save space.

Volume 7 ~ Kosen Daizen … Xuan He to Jing Kang … Also: Early Southern Song, Western Xia and Jin Dynasties

Kosen Daizen
Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide, Volume 7

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

Volume 7 of Northern Song Dynasty Cash Variety Guide is a re-presentation in English of the varieties of Northern Song cash from Xuan He to Jing Kang 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 7, Kosen Daizen, Xuan He to Jing Kang, 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 7

As Volume 6 ended with the scarce Yuan Bao currency of Xuan He, the current volume begins with the common Tong Bao currency of the same reign, both the value-1 and the multiple cash values. Unfortunately, Kosen Daizen is rather weak in its coverage of iron coinage generally, and for the Xuan He reign, only the common S666 value-1 with reverse mintmark is listed.

With the Jing Kang coinage we come to the end of the varieties of Northern Song dynasty cash. This rare reign title is sometimes available in the value-2 cash size, but the small value-1 are seldom encountered. Kosen Daizen illustrates and lists all three coin types for this last series: Tong Bao, Yuan Bao, and a sole example of Zhong Bao.

Successors of the Northern Song Dynasty
When the Northern Song dynasty was extinguished by the Jin dynasty of the Nuzhen people in 1127, the court fled to the south and established what is now called the Southern Song dynasty (1127 - 1279). Volume 3 of Kosen Daizen, in addition to covering the currency of this southern dynasty, includes the coinage of the Western Xia and Jin dynasties, as well as other regimes of China’s minority nationalities which arose at that period.

Coins of the first two reigns of the Southern Song dynasty are usually found mixed into bulk lots of Northern Song large cash. Coins of the Western Xia and Jin dynasties are also found in strings of Northern Song cash. For this reason, the final volume of this catalog includes Kosen Daizen’s coverage of the Southern Song dynasty up until the 7th year of the Chun Xi reign (the first year-dated issue), and the value-1 cash of the Western Xia and Jin dynasties.

For Further Study

Iron Coins
Liang Song Tie Qian

The iron coins of the Northern Song dynasty are given only cursory attention in Kosen Daizen. For this reason I recommend to users of my catalogs this catalog, Liang Song Tie Qian, The Iron Coinage of the Two Song [Dynasties]. This is the catalog I use to reference my collection of iron coins. The arrangement and quality of the rubbings is excellent, and the same tradition of variety names is followed as in Fugo Senshi and Kosen Daizen. The book is hardbound with a dust jacket as shown in the image. It is available from some Chinese vendors on eBay. Cost runs about $50 including shipping from suppliers in China.

Kai Yuan Tong Bao Tu Shuo
Kai Yuan Tong Bao Varieties
Liu Zheng, Zhang Jianzhong, Editors

For those who use my catalogs, I also highly recommend this variety catalog of Tang dynasty Kai Yuan Tong Bao, which lists and has rubbings for about 2000 varieties! The authors follow the same tradition of variety names and his work, though not exhaustive (I have many varieties unlisted in this catalog) is the best I have seen. I got my copy from an eBay vendor, Asia-Coins-Center. The book is nicely printed, softbound, 207 pages. Published November, 2003. Cost was only about $12~$15 USD.


Other Northern Song Variety Catalogs
Bei Song Qian Bi
Coins of Northern Song

This two volume softbound catalog is handsomely produced, but like Ding Fu Bao and most other catalogs produced in China, there is no numbering system (admittedly a Western expectation), the coverage seems not as thorough as Kosen Daizen, and the criteria for establishing varieties seem inconsistent. The variety names seem to follow a different tradition.
Although it's interesting to have these books, they are not systematic enough to use in referencing a serious collection. I have found one or two true varieties in these books that were not in Kosen Daizen, but I think that some of the varieties in these catalogs may be imaginary. The first volume sets out the ground rules and overviews the types. The second volume attempts to record the different varieties. Nicely produced, fun to look at, but not serious enough, for me.