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 Zhouyuan Tongbao, with crescent
| Issuer | Empire of China |
|---|---|
| Year | 955-959 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Cast bronze cash coin featuring four Chinese clerical-script characters arranged in cruciform reading order around a central square perforation: 周 (Zhou) at top, 元 (Yuan) at right, 通 (Tong) at bottom, and 寶 (Bao) at left, forming the inscription Zhou Yuan Tong Bao. The characters are rendered in a bold, archaic clerical style within a raised inner rim bordering the square hole. A plain outer rim frames the coin's field, which shows typical casting texture consistent with Five Dynasties period production. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| 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 (955-959) - Hartill#15.13: Crescent above - ND (955-959) - Hartill#15.14: Crescent to the top right - ND (955-959) - Hartill#15.15: Crescent to the right - ND (955-959) - Hartill#15.16: Crescent to the bottom right - ND (955-959) - Hartill#15.17: Crescent below - ND (955-959) - Hartill#15.18: Crescent to the bottom left - ND (955-959) - Hartill#15.19: Crescent to the left - ND (955-959) - Hartill#15.20: Crescent to the top left - |
| Additional information |
The Zhouyuan Tongbao was issued under Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou, one of the five short-lived dynasties that fractured China between the fall of the Tang and the consolidation of the Song. Shizong's 956 currency reform was aggressive: he ordered the destruction of Buddhist temple bells and bronze statuary to supply raw metal for the new coinage, a direct assault on institutional Buddhism driven as much by fiscal desperation as by reformist ideology.
The crescent mark on this piece indicates a specific mint or casting batch designation — a detail that the Hartill and Schjoth references document but whose exact administrative meaning remains debated among specialists.