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 - Xiangfu Yuanbao
| Issuer | Empire of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 1008-1016 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Bronze |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | 祥 寶 符 元 (Translation: Xiang Fu Yuan Bao Xiangfu (3rd era of Zhenzong, 1008-1016) / Original currency) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| 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 | ND (1008-1016) |
| Additional information |
Xiangfu Yuanbao was issued during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song dynasty, with the era name Xiangfu spanning 1008 to 1016. Zhenzong is better remembered for the Treaty of Shanyuan in 1005, in which the Song agreed to pay the Liao dynasty an annual tribute of silver and silk — a humiliating but pragmatic settlement that stabilized the northern frontier and allowed the commercial economy, and with it coin production, to expand considerably.
Northern Song cash output during this period was extraordinary by any premodern standard, with some estimates placing annual bronze coin production in the hundreds of millions.