Written by Zhao Gongwu and continued by Zhao Xibian of Song dynastyLi Anchao imprint in Yuanzhou of Southern Song dynasty in 1249, with later additions and revisions
Zhao Gongwu (circa 1105~1180), style name “Zizhi”, was native of Juye, Shandung. His family resided Shaode area of Bianjing, and he was therefore referred to as “Mr. Shaode”. His work Study Notes of Zhao Gongwu is the earliest index of a private book collection with title explanations surviving in China today. Many of the items in his collection were books not mentioned of “Song History”, and not only supplements the omissions in Song History: Art and Literature Record but also serves as a reference for various Classics and treatises written before and during Song Dynasty. In ancient times categories adopted for library indexes were created based on the kinds of books actually in the collection; the book collector would refer to the prevailing academic customs and earlier methods of indexing, in creating an indexing system that best expresses the particular characteristics of his book collection and that is most convenient to use. Study Notes of Zhao Gongwunot only shows cultural characteristics unique to those times, but also expressly or implicitly convey the personal academic views of the book collector; this is the special quality of private book collections in Song Dynasty.
reign title: CH’UNG-HSI, AD 1032-1055
S-1065. Bronze 1 cash. Obverse: “CH’UNG-HSI TUNG-PAO”. Reverse: blank Average 24 mm. These coins tend to be poorly cast.
Schjoth (page 41) records that “in the 22nd year of Ch’ung-hsi (AD 1053) a cash bureau was established at Ch’ang-ch’un in Manchuria”. We assume this is the same as saying a Mint was established there. From this time on, the coinage of Liao becomes much more abundant. We hope to one day look into the events that may have prompted them to take such a move.
Immortal in Splashed Ink
Emperor T’IEN CHAAD 1101-1125
Emperor LI TSUNG, AD 1225-1264
Not that Schjoth (top of page 40) notes that Li tsung’s government was over-burdened with the difficulties of war. This must be considered when interpreting this next series of coins. It might help explain the unusual series S-983-990. Is the stopping iron issues (from S-991 on) related to this war?
reign title: CH’IEN-T’UNG, AD 1101-1110
S-1073. Bronze 1 cash. Obverse: “CH’IEN-T’UNG Y’UNG-PAO”. Reverse: blank. Average 24 mm. These coins tend to be poorly cast.
F $95.00 VF $135.00
Emperor SHEN TSUNGAD 1212-1222
Emperor JEN TSUNGAD 1140-1193
THE SOUTHERN SUNG DYNASTY
This is a guide to the coins of the Southern Sung Dynasty, not a list of coins for sale. A list of the ancient and medieval Chinese coins we currently have available can be viewed on our : our vcoins store.
Images on this site (more coming soon) represent types,but bear no relationship to actual size.
The Northern and Southern Sung Dynasties are really two parts of one dynasty. The division between then is traditionally placed where the Capital was moved from K’ai-feng Fu to Lin-an (modern Hangchou) following the lose of the Northern territories to Mongol invaders. Kao Tsung, first Emperor of Southern Sung, actually ruled from the Northern capital of K’ai-feng Fu for his first two years and could also be considered the last Emperor of Northern Sung.
We have still in the process of researching this portion of our reference guide. We have tried several formats of presenting the information, and have settled on the style currently used for the last few reign titles, but it will take a little while to change over the entire page to that format. For the moment, we are including a number of tables, working theories and various observations in the introduction and body of the text. In many cases these will be removed after the information derived from them has been incorporated into the text. In some cases we may make them available on a separate page.
Please remember that this part of our site is still in a very rough form and is far from complete. There will undoubtedly be a number of errors that will eventually be corrected, and a complete proof reading is still to be performed.
We have decided to put a chart of the denominations, sizes and weights under each reign title. When the listing is complete the larger table of this information will be eliminated from the site. It this formate proves effective, will will incorporate the it into other parts of the site. Each of these tables has a heading for “#” at the end. This refers to the number of specimens used to determine the average weight.
The bronze denominations used during this dynasty are similar to those used during the Northern Sung dynasty with the additions that there are some non-feduciary 5 and 10 cash issues, as well as one issue of feduciary 100 cash.
A minor difference occurs in the bronze 1 cash in that, while the Northern Sung bronze 1 cash are generally about 24 mm throughout the dynasty, the Southern Sung issues vary between 22 and 25 mm, although there is usually a consistent size within any one reign title and thought, no matter what size, the average weights seem to have remained fairly consistent with an intended weight standard somewhere just over 3 grams.
The iron denominations are very different than those used during the Northern Sung. They are still all feduciary issues, but there seems to have been more acceptance of them as a regular part of the currency although we still have some questions about this. Iron was only issued prolifically during the middle years of the dynasty with no iron issues during the last few reign titles, and there were regular issues of 1 and 2 cash, as well as fairly regular issues of 3 and 5 cash. As many of these issues have survived in fairly large numbers, we have to assume that they were not recalled and melted for scrap metal as the Northern sung issues above 1 cash seem to have been (and are thus much rarer).
Many Southern Sung coins, and in particular the iron coins, have actual mint marks on them. We are just beginning to build this section, and will be adding additional mints as images of the mint marks become available.
Refers to the T’ung-an district in Fuken.
Many Southern Sung coins, have regional date marks indicating how many years into the particular reign title the coin was minted. From these we can calculate the exact year of issue, of any coin with such a mark. The date marks we have so far imaged are below, and we will be adding more as become available.
For many type we have not provided a valuation. This does not mean that the type is rare or overly valuable. It simply means we have not found what we feel is an acceptable valuation for the type. In other cases, where a valuation is given for a description which included several year variation, the valuation is for the commonest year that we have handled. If we determine that another year is especially rare or valuable, we will make not of it.
Average 4.5/5 out of 2 total votes.
Reign title: SHAO-HSING, AD 1131-1162
S-679. Bronze 1 cash. Obverse: “SHAO-HSING YUAN-PAO”
in orthodox script. Reverse: blank. 24 mm. Schjoth’s specimen weight 2.81 grams.
S-680. Bronze 1 cash. Obverse: “SHAO-HSING YUAN-PAO” in orthodox script. Reverse: crescent. 24 mm. Schjoth’s specimen weight 3.07 grams.
S-681-689. Bronze 2 cash. Obverse: “SHAO-HSING YUAN-PAO” in seal script. Reverse: blank or with a variety of crescents and dots. 28-29 mm. Schjoth’s specimen weight 5.50 grams but include a number of relatively light weight specimens that may be contemporary counterfeits. It appears that the intended standard may have been somewhat over 6 grams.
This chart shows in interesting trend in that, with the exception of one rather oddly positioned crescent, there appears to be parallel development in the crescents and dots in both script styles. The exact meaning of this is not yet clear, and more types may exist, but we currently speculate that the crescents and dots are mint marks.
S-690, 691. Bronze 2 cash. Obverse: “SHAO-HSING T’UNG-PAO” in seal and orthodox scripts. Reverse: blank. 29 mm. Schjoth had two specimens averaging 6.87 grams.
S-692. Iron 2 cash. Obverse: “SHAO-HSING T’UNG-PAO” in orthodox script. Reverse: blank. 27 mm. Schjoth had one specimen of 6.82 grams.
S-693. Iron 2 (or 1) cash. Obverse: “SHAO-HSING T’UNG-PAO” in orthodox script. Reverse: “LI”. 26 mm. Schjoth had one specimen of 5.82 grams.
On this type, Schjoth (page 34) has recognized that the reverse mark “LI” is not a city name, but rather the name of a governmental area made up of parts of Szechuan and Shensi. This suggest that rather than a mint mark, it is a governing authority in charge of possibly several mints. It is possible this is also the case for the other Southern Sung “Mint Marks” that occur later in the series.
S-694. Iron 1 cash. Obverse: “SHAO-HSING T’UNG-PAO” in orthodox script. Reverse: blank. 23 mm. Schjoth had one specimen of 3.84 grams.
S-695. Iron 1 cash. Obverse: “SHAO-HSING T’UNG-PAO” in orthodox script. Reverse: “LI”. 23 mm. Schjoth had one specimen of 3.52 grams.
S-696. Iron 1 (?) cash. Obverse: “SHAO-HSING T’UNG-PAO” in orthodox script. Reverse: blank. 18 mm. Schjoth had one specimen of 3.20 grams.
These small (under 22 mm) iron cash is something new to the Sung series. We cannot dismiss them as a counterfeit as similar coins were cast during the following reign titles. Further analysis is needed on these.
