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Does anyone collect Southern Sung coinage?
sumnom
Posts: 5,963 ✭✭✭
I just got nine Southern Sung coins in the mail and went to work attributing them. These are great fun (for me at least). What I found the most interesting is that many of them are dated, not just by reign period but by year. I am accustomed to thinking of most Chinese "cash" coins in terms of reign periods rather than by year of mintage but in the case of these coins they are actually dated.
So, in this little lot I found coins from 1188, 1192, 1200, 1205, 1237, 1256, 1259, and 1260. There was one with the date so corroded that I couldn't read it but I could narrow it down to the 1225-1227 period.
The 1188 coin would have to be my earliest coin dated to a specific year. This particular series runs from 1180-1189.
The people here who collect Chinese coins probably already know this but it's all new to me. I told my wife about it but she fell asleep before I could say, "Hey you what's really interesting about Southern Sung coins?" That means that I have come here and tell you all instead.
I sat down with the coins, a copy of Ding Fubao, and Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary. The dictionary has a list in the back of Chinese reign periods. Using these two references, I was able to learn of the dating system and date each of the coins. Fun, fun, fun. The obverse has the reign period and the reverse has has the year in that particular period in which the coin was minted. It's not complex but it was great fun to go from having no idea what the numbers meant to figuring it out. Then again, I could have misunderstood but I think I got it.
Anyway, I had a ball and am looking forward to trying to complete some date sets of Southern Sung coins. I have no idea if this is easy or diffcult but I will give it a try and see how it goes.
So, in this little lot I found coins from 1188, 1192, 1200, 1205, 1237, 1256, 1259, and 1260. There was one with the date so corroded that I couldn't read it but I could narrow it down to the 1225-1227 period.
The 1188 coin would have to be my earliest coin dated to a specific year. This particular series runs from 1180-1189.
The people here who collect Chinese coins probably already know this but it's all new to me. I told my wife about it but she fell asleep before I could say, "Hey you what's really interesting about Southern Sung coins?" That means that I have come here and tell you all instead.
I sat down with the coins, a copy of Ding Fubao, and Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary. The dictionary has a list in the back of Chinese reign periods. Using these two references, I was able to learn of the dating system and date each of the coins. Fun, fun, fun. The obverse has the reign period and the reverse has has the year in that particular period in which the coin was minted. It's not complex but it was great fun to go from having no idea what the numbers meant to figuring it out. Then again, I could have misunderstood but I think I got it.
Anyway, I had a ball and am looking forward to trying to complete some date sets of Southern Sung coins. I have no idea if this is easy or diffcult but I will give it a try and see how it goes.
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Shep
Please post pictures sometimes.
World Coin & PM Collector
My Coin Info Pages <> My All Experts Profile
I have some Northern Sung coins but I haven't really focused on them. I just won another lot of two Southern Sung pieces so he collection grows to 11, hee hee.
How is the Northern Sung collection going?