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!
50 Cash Taiping Tianguo / Shengbao, vertical
| Issuer | Taiping Heavenly Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Year | 1856-1862 |
| 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 | Large cast coin featuring four Chinese characters in regular script (kaishu) arranged around a central square perforation, read in the traditional vertical sequence: top, bottom, right, left — rendering the dynastic legend 太平天國 (Taiping Tianguo, 'Taiping Heavenly Kingdom'). The characters are boldly rendered in raised relief against a plain field, occupying each quadrant around the central hole. The coin displays a wide, flat rim with no additional decorative border. The casting shows characteristic texture of mid-19th century Taiping rebel mint 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 (1856-1860) - Hartill#23.9: Song caligraphy - ND (1860-1862) - Hartill#23.13: Regular caligraphy - |
| Additional information |
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was not a dynasty minting coins as a formality — it was a millenarian theocratic state at war with the Qing government for over a decade, fielding armies in the tens of millions and controlling significant stretches of the Yangtze valley. These large-denomination cash pieces were struck at Nanjing, which the Taiping held as their capital, Tianjing, from 1853 until its fall in 1864. The vertical arrangement of the reverse inscription distinguishes this variety from the horizontal reading type, a difference Hartill treats as a separate catalogued issue rather than a minor die curiosity.