Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Cash - Chongzhen Tongbao, northern type, Gong
| Issuer | Ministry of Public Works Mint (工部局), Ming Dynasty |
|---|---|
| Year | 1630-1644 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Cash |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central square perforation surrounded by a raised square rim, with four Chinese characters in regular script (kaishu) arranged in cruciform fashion around the central hole, read top-to-bottom and right-to-left: 崇 (Chong, top), 禎 (Zhen, right), 通 (Tong, bottom), 寶 (Bao, left), forming the reign-title inscription 崇禎通寶. The characters are cast in raised relief within a plain, unadorned field. A raised circular rim frames the entire design, with no additional decorative elements in the outer field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain, flat inner field surrounding the central square perforation, bounded by a raised square inner rim and a raised circular outer rim. A single Chinese character 工 (Gong, Ministry of Works) appears in raised relief either below (Hartill 20.269) or above (Hartill 20.295) the square hole, serving as the mint identifier. The remainder of the reverse field is entirely blank, consistent with standard late Ming cash coinage practice. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Gong (工) mint mark on this piece indicates production at one of the Ministry of Public Works facilities, which were pressed into coin production during the Chongzhen reign as the Ming treasury collapsed under the simultaneous weight of peasant rebellions and Manchu incursions from the north. Funding the defence of Beijing consumed resources faster than the fiscal system could generate them, and the proliferation of mint marks across this series — provincial, metropolitan, and departmental — reflects increasingly desperate decentralisation of coin production in the dynasty's final decade.
Brass alloy use in late Ming cash is itself a marker of institutional deterioration; earlier standards had specified bronze.