List of coin hoards in China
The list of coin hoards in China (traditional Chinese: 中國錢幣窖藏清單; simplified Chinese: 中国钱币窖藏列表; pinyin: zhōng guó qián bì jiào cáng liè biǎo) lists significant archaeological hoards of coins, other types of coinages (e.g. sycees) or objects related to coins discovered in China (the People's Republic of China in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and the Free area of the Republic of China, e.g. Taiwan). The history of Chinese currency dates back as early as the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE), and the earliest coinages took the form of imitations of the cowrie shells that were used in ceremonial exchanges. During the Warring States period new forms of currency such as the spade money, knife money, and round copper-alloy coins were introduced (further reading: Zhou dynasty coinage and Ancient Chinese coinage). After unification of China under the Qin dynasty in 221 BC the Ban Liang (半兩) cash coin became the standard coinage, under the Han dynasty the Wu Zhu (五銖) cash coins became the main currency of China until they were replaced with the Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寳) during the Tang dynasty, after which a large number of inscriptions were used on Chinese coinages. During the late nineteenth century China started producing its own machine-struck coinages.
In Chinese culture coins are often used as burial objects and it's not uncommon for coins to be discovered in tombs and graves.
Occasionally foreign coins are also found in China, which were brought there through international trade routes such as the silk road, overseas trade with foreign countries, and colonialism. And because of trade with other countries large quantities of Chinese coins have also been found in neighbouring countries like Japan, Korea,[1] and Vietnam,[2][3] as well as far away places like Elcho Island,[4] Kenya,[5][6] and Yukon.[7]
Cleaning of coins by Chinese archaeologists
As Chinese archaeologists frequently unearth ancient Chinese cash coins and other forms of historical currency at tomb sites, these unearthed bronze coinages are often severely corroded because they have been buried for hundreds or thousands of years, this sometimes means that the inscriptions on them can't be read.[8] While archaeologists working at a site tend to do everything very slowly and do it as methodically as possible in order to avoid doing any damage to the buried cultural relics, this approach isn't taken with cash coins because they are often vital in order to date the tombs or ruins.[8] With ancient Chinese cash coins archaeologists tend to be less concerned about their preservation and clean them in order to identify them.[8]
To clean bronze cash coins Chinese archaeologists will simply put them in a mild acid like vinegar to soak for a period of 2 or 3 days, after this process is done the surface dirt and some of the corrosion will be removed.[8] The cash coins are then removed by the person doing the cleaning, and they will them scrap out any leftover corrosion in the Chinese characters by using a (common) toothpick.[8] After this process us done, a rubbing is usually made of the unearthed coins.[8]
On the contrary, it is usually said among coin collectors to not clean their coins because the cleaning process will often lessen the coin's market value or in some cases even ruin it.[8]
Because of the high frequency of the discovery of coin hoards in China uncleaned coin hoards from other countries are frequently send to China for cleaning and assessment.[9] For example, someone discovered a hoard of group of around 400 different 8 reales coins on the border between Mexico and the central American country of Guatemala.[9] These silver coins were mostly produced by the Guatemala mint with others produced by the Mexico and Lima mints, all of which contained portraits of kings Charles IV and Ferdinand VII.[9] As these coins were all to unclean to be deemed "valuable" by coin collectors they were sent to a coin dealer in the Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China.[9] Such situations are common as Chinese coin dealers have become experts in removing corrosion from coins in order to get them graded by numismatic experts and then be sold into the retail market.[9]
1950s
1950s (Mainland China)
List of 1950s coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
1950s | Xi'an, Shaanxi | Ban Liang (半兩) cash coins | During the 1950s, a number of Ban Liang (半兩) cash coins were unearthed at a site somewhere near the city of Xi'an, Shaanxi.[10][11] Among the excavated cash coins was one notable silver specimen, this cash coin notably has a diameter of 66 millimeters, a thickness of 7 millimeters, and a weight of 96.15 grams, compared to most State of Qin Ban Liang cash coins made from bronze which typically have a diameter between 32 and 34 millimeters and weigh only 8 grams.[10] | Warring States period | ||
1955-1959 | Hengyang and Changsha, Hunan | Iron Ban Liang (半兩) cash coins | Between the years 1955 and 1959 a number of iron Ban Liang cash coins were unearthed in Western Han dynasty era tombs in the Hunanese cities of Hengyang and Changsha.[12][13] These hoards point out to the possibility that China has used iron cash coins over a millennium before the Northern Song dynasty, as was traditionally thought before these discoveries.[12][13] | Western Han dynasty period |
1960s
1960s (Mainland China)
List of 1950s coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
1960s | Jinshi City, Hunan | 6 gold coins produced by the Delhi Sultanate | During the 1960s six gold coins were discovered buried in a small white glazed pot at a farm in Jinshi City, Hunan.[14][15] These gold coins are now classified as first-level national cultural relics (国家一级文物). During the 1980s these gold coins were moved to the museum of Jinshi City.[14][15] Peng Jia (彭佳), Director of the Cultural Relics Bureau of Jinshi City noted that these gold coins were produced by the Delhi Sultanate during the time that China was under Mongol domination.[14][15] The obverse of the coins contain the name of the reigning sultan written in a "rare form" of Arabic script.[14][15][16] | Mid-Yuan dynasty period | The Museum of Jinshi City |
1970s
1970s (Mainland China)
List of unspecified 1970s coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
The early 1970s | Chengtian Temple, Quanzhou, Fujian | Yonglong Tongbao (永隆通寶) clay moulds | During the early 1970s a number of Yonglong Tongbao (永隆通寶) clay moulds (traditional Chinese: 錢陶範; simplified Chinese: 钱陶范; pinyin: Qián táo fàn) were uncovered at the Chengtian Temple in Quanzhou, Fujian.[17][18] The clay moulds date to the Kingdom of Min during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and all display the inscription Yonglong Tongbao.[17] The clay moulds were discovered by a group of Buddhist monks digging in the courtyard in, in order to bury jars of a local Quanzhou-based traditional Chinese medicine known as "golden juice" (Chinese: 金汁; pinyin: jīn zhī), the elixir is made by mixing together the excrements of young (preadolescent) boys, spring water and "red soil" (traditional Chinese: 紅土; simplified Chinese: 红土; pinyin: hóng tǔ).[17] After being prepared the solution is then stored inside a clay jar which is buried underground at a depth of approximately 3 meters.[17] The clay jars are then left underground for a period of between 30 and 40 years, after which they are dug back up.[17] "golden juice" as a form of "medicine" is taken orally and within traditional Chinese medicine it is considered to be particularly useful in the treatment of high fevers.[17] While the initial clay moulds were uncovered during the early 1970s, it wasn't until the year 2002 when archeologists would formally excavate the site looking for more coin moulds.[17] Yonglong Tongbao cash coins themselves today are very rare.[17] There are only two specimens of them known to exist in Chinese museums and perhaps only about 100 specimens of Yonglong Tongbao cash coins are known to be in the hands of private Chinese coin collectors.[17] Cash coins with this inscriptions were mostly made from iron, while an even smaller number of lead variants of them are known to exist.[17] The reason as to why Yonglong Tongbao cash coins are so scarce has to do with the short period of time they were cast, which was only 1 year and 7 months.[17] Furthermore they are even rarer because of the facts that iron suffers from oxidation and deteriorates, the limited area in which the Yonglong Tongbao cash coins had circulated, and their intricate method of production.[17] | Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period |
1972 (Mainland China)
List of 1972 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
1972 | Liao Shangjing site, Lindong, Baarin Left Banner, Inner Mongolia | A Da'an Baoqian (大安寶錢, 𘜶𗵐𘏨𘔭) cash coin | In the year 1972 a Da'an Baoqian (大安寶錢, 𘜶𗵐𘏨𘔭) cash coin with Tangut script was found at the Liao Shangjing site, Lindong, Baarin Left Banner, Inner Mongolia.[19] | Liao dynasty period | The Liao Shangjing Museum |
1974 (Mainland China)
List of 1974 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
1974 | Fugou County, Henan | 18 specimens of spade money. | In the year 1974, a farmer in Fugou County, Henan, had unearthed a bronze three-legged tripod (鼎, dǐng).[10] Stashed inside this bronze tripod were eighteen specimens of spade money.[10][11] 1 of these spades was a hollow-handled spade (空首幣), while all the remaining 17 spade money were flat-handled spades (平首幣).[10][11] All of these unearthed spades are notably made of silver and are now on display at the Henan Museum.[10][11] This also notably makes it China's first ever recorded instance of silver coinage, according to an article in "China Numismatics Volume 3 of 1983" (traditional Chinese: 中國錢幣 1983年第3期; simplified Chinese: 中国钱币 1983年第3期; pinyin: zhōng guó qián bì yì qiān jiǔ bǎi bā shí sān nián dì sān qī).[10] | Warring States period | The Henan Museum[10] |
1977 (Mainland China)
List of 1977 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
15 May 1977 | 1 kilometer west of the Liao Shangjing site, Lindong, Baarin Left Banner, Inner Mongolia | A cash coin with Khitan large script. | On 15 May 1977 a cash coin with Khitan large script was found 1 kilometer west of the Liao Shangjing site, Lindong, Baarin Left Banner, Inner Mongolia by Shi Yuilan.[20][19] The inscription of the coin, "", has been interpret as meaning Tianchao Wanshun (天朝萬順, "Heavenly Dynasty — Myriad [affairs are] Favourable").[19] | Liao dynasty period | The Liao Shangjing Museum |
1980s
1983 (Mainland China)
List of 1983 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
1983 | A tomb in a suburb of Guyuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region | Persian and Roman coins. | In 1983 a large number of silver Persian coins and golden Roman imperial coins were found alongside a gold and silver kettle depicting the Trojan War in a tomb in Guyuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The kettle is attributed to the Sassanian period in Persian history. The tomb was later attributed to Great Zhuguo General Li Xian and his wife Wu Hui of Beizhou. | Northern and Southern dynasties period |
1984 (Mainland China)
List of 1984 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
1984 | Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region | A cache of Chinese cash coins. | In the year 1984 when a cache of cash coins was unearthed in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.[21][22] This discovery is notably for including a Western Xia cash coin with the Guangding Yuanbao (光定元寶) that was written in seal script.[21] Up until this point no Tangut Western Xia dynasty cash coins with seal script inscriptions were known to exist.[21] The seal script Guangding Yuanbao cash coin has a diameter of 25.3 millimeters, a thickness of 1.4 millimeters, and weighs 4.3 grams.[21] | Western Xia dynasty period |
1990s
1990s (Mainland China)
List of unspecified 1990s coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
1970s | Hexigten Banner, Inner Mongolia | A golden Tianchao Wanshun cash coin. | During the 1990s a small gold Tianchao Wanshun (天朝萬順) cash coin was discovered at Hexigten Banner, Inner Mongolia.[23] The inscription of the cash coin is read counterclockwise.[23] In the year 2017 it had an estimated market value of between ¥460,000 and ¥600,000.[23] | Liao dynasty period |
1990 (Mainland China)
List of 1990 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
1990 | Near Xi'an, Shaanxi | A Northern Zhou period coin tree. | A coin tree produced between the years 557 and 581 was discovered near the city of Xi'an, Shaanxi.[24] This find indicated that the sand casting method for the production of cash coins was applied much earlier than previously thought.[24] As many scholars up until that point believed that the manufacturing method was likely created during the Sui dynasty period.[24] | Northern Zhou period |
1992 (Mainland China)
List of 1992 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
1992 | Meitan County, Guizhou | 4,600 catties of Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese cash coins, silver Yuan Shikai "fat man dollars", a 50 cm long sword, and a copy of the Classic of Poetry. | In the year 1992 a man named Wang Pinli (王品礼) in a very remote and relatively poor mountainous area of Meitan County, Guizhou suffered from a rat infestation in his house, when he decided to fill the holes in the area between the kitchen and the ox pen, while digging he had uncovered what he described as "a money pit" that is 1.5 meters in diameter and 2 meters in depth, the hoard includes cash coins from the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties as well as Japanese cash coins (倭錢), Vietnamese cash coins, and silver Republican era dollars.[25] There was more than 4,600 catties of coins inside of the "money pit", which is equivalent to about 3 tons.[25] Wang Pinli was able to sell the coins from the "coin pit" for 3–5 yuan per catty, which would be 13,800–23,000 yuan ($2,166–$3,610) for the whole "money pit", and used the money he made selling the coins to take care of the elder members of his family and to send his children to school.[25] Wang Pinli managed to keep a number of the coins he uncovered, which were later used as toys by his children and were often found scattered across the house.[25] Among the coins Wang Pinli kept are Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶) cash coins from the Tang dynasty, Jingde Yuanbao (景德元寶), Yuanyou Tongbao (元祐通寶), and Zhenghe Tongbao (政和通寶) cash coins from the Song dynasty, Hongwu Tongbao (洪武通寶) and Wanli Tongbao (萬曆通寶) cash coins from the Ming dynasty, Honghua Tongbao (洪化通寶) cash coins issued by Wu Shifan, Kangxi Tongbao (康熙通寶) and Qianlong Tongbao (乾隆通寶) cash coins from the Manchu Qing dynasty, as well as non-Chinese cash coins such as the Vietnamese Cảnh Nguyên Thông Bảo (景元通寶, or "Jingyuan Tongbao") cash coin produced in 1377, and the Japanese Kan'ei Tsūhō (寛永通寳).[25] Furthermore, the hoard includes a number of silver Yuan Shikai "fat man dollars" (袁大頭, yuán dà tóu), and a number of non-coin objects such as a 50 cm long sword and a copy of the Classic of Poetry.[25] |
1996 (Mainland China)
List of 1996 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
1996 | The tomb of the Xianbei Northern Zhou dynasty prime minister Tian Hong | Five gold Eastern Roman coins. | In the year 1996 an excavation was conducted on the then recently discovered tomb of the Xianbei Northern Zhou dynasty prime minister Tian Hong, who died and was buried in the year 575 in Yuanzhou.[26] The archaeological excavations of the area were started in the year 1995 and were partially funded as a joint project by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Grant – in Aid for International Scientific Research.[26] During the excavation of Tian Hong's tomb it was evident that the tomb had been broken into by grave robbers on a large scale prior, the burial mound of the tomb is round in shape, and measures about 35 meters across.[26] Furthermore, the tomb contains a cave – chamber tomb, which measures about 12 meters deep from the top of the tomb mound.[26] Three coffins laid inside of the tomb, the ones belonging to Tian Hong and his wife were still intact but the third coffin had been scattered by grave robbers.[26] Five gold Eastern Roman coins were found inside of the tomb.[26] One coin was issued under Leo I the Thracian, one under Justin I, two under Justinian I as co-emperor, and one under Justinian I as "the great".[26] Other than the Eastern Roman coins other objects like Jade ornaments, wall paintings about 13 ministers, coloured in red, white, and black, numerous gold leafed glass beads, mica foils with papercutted gold, and painted pottery figures of some equestrians that was located in the eastern side chamber, one cook and two dogs in the fifth shaft of a tomb gallery were also recovered from Tian Hong's tomb.[26] | 575 |
1997 (Mainland China)
List of 1997 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
1997 | Dongchuan, Sichuan | The largest Chinese "Mint opening commemorative coin" ever found. | It was reported in 1997 that at an unspecified date that the largest Chinese cash coin ever had been uncovered.[27][28] The large cash coun in question was a Kai Lu Qian (traditional Chinese: 開爐錢; simplified Chinese: 开炉钱; pinyin: kāi lú qián), or "commemorative cash coins", were a special type of cash coin produced to commemorate the opening of a mint or a new furnace.[27] The largest ever recorded of these cash coins, and also the largest and heaviest ancient Chinese coin ever found, was a giant Jiajing Tongbao (嘉靖通寶) cash coin produced for the opening of a mint in Dongchuan, Sichuan.[29][27] This Kai Lu cash coin has a diameter of 57.8 centimeters (or 22.8 inches), a thickness of 3.7 centimeters (or 1.5 inches), and it has a weight of 41.5 kilograms (or 91.5 pounds).[27][28] On June 27, 1990, the Quality Inspection Section of the Huize County Lead and Zinc Mine Archives (traditional Chinese: 會澤縣的鉛鋅礦檔案館; simplified Chinese: 会泽县的铅锌矿档案馆; pinyin: huì zé xiàn de qiān xīn kuàng dàng àn guǎn),[30] where the cash coin is on display, conducted a sampling and analysis of the coin,[27] conducted an assay and concluded that the coin had a composition of 90. 81% copper, 0. 584% aluminum, 0. 532% zinc, and 3% iron.[30][28] In the year 2002 it was added to the Guinness World Records as the largest coin.[30] | Ming Jiajing period | Huize County Lead and Zinc Mine Archives | |
July 1997 | Cangzhou, Hebei | A large amount of iron cash coins dating to the Song dynasty. | In July 1997 a large chunk of iron cash coins dating to the Song dynasty, described as a "mountain" of ancient Chinese cash coins, were unearthed in a field near the city of Cangzhou, Hebei.[31][32] The discovered cash coins were made of iron and they tended to be stuck together in very large and often heavy pieces.[31] The iron cash coins from the hoard are now displayed at the Tieqian Ku (铁钱库, "iron cash coins treasury") located in the city of Cangzhou.[31] | Song dynasty period | The Tieqian Ku |
1999 (Mainland China)
List of 1999 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
1999 | A Tangut script Zhengde Baoqian (正德寶錢, 𗣼𘇚𘏨𘔭) cash coin | In the year 1999 a Tangut script Zhengde Baoqian (正德寶錢, 𗣼𘇚𘏨𘔭) cash coin from the Western Xia dynasty was discovered.[33][34] This coin is notably the only Zhengde Baoqian cash coin ever found.[33] Its market value was estimated at 200,000 yuan in 2005.[34] | Western Xia dynasty period |
2000s
2000 (Mainland China)
List of 2000 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
20 May 2000 | Cangzhou, Hebei | 48 tonnes of iron cash coins. | In a report by the People's Daily dated May 20, 2000 another hoard of iron cash coins was found in a field near Cangzhou, Hebei, at the same location as in 1997.[35][31] The iron cash coins dated to the Northern Song dynasty period. The discovery was made by a local tourism department of Cangzhou city.[35] The archeologists had initially dug up about 48 tonnes of iron cash coins,[35] with the largest single chunk them weighing about 7 tonnes.[31] The hoard was a breakthrough because never before were any iron cash coins discovered in northern China.[35] Before this hoard, historians believed that iron cash coins were only used in regions where commerce flourished south of the Yangtze River.[35] The archaeologists also found out that the Northern Song iron cash coins at the site had not simply rusted together but displayed clear signs that they had been melted together.[31] Furthermore, at the site the archeologists also found some coin moulds and stoves that may suggest that a mint may have been located there in the past.[35] However, some experts refuted this hypothesis because this area was part of a frontier region during the Song dynasty period and the Song government would in all likelihood not have built a coin mint in a remote border area like this.[31] Contemporary experts noted that this coin hoard would re-write China's history of coin production.[35] Why such a large quantity of Song dynasty period iron cash coins were buried in the area near Cangzhou and why these iron coins had apparently been melted together in such large chunks remains a mystery.[31] According to Ms. Wang Yufang (王玉芳), the Director of the Cangzhou City Bureau of Cultural Relics (沧州市文物局), there are no historical documents dating to the Song dynasty that mention the existence of this iron cash coin cache.[31] The most plausible hypothesis as to why these iron cash coins were located in such large quantities and why they were (partially) melted together claims that iron cash coins were sent to the area by the government of the Song dynasty in order to pay for military expenses contending for control of the Sixteen Prefectures against the Jurchens.[31][32] The Song army was eventually defeated during this campaign.[31][32] As they were forced to withdraw from the region, the Song army was faced with the prospect of having to transport such an enormous quantity of iron cash coins during their retreat.[31][32] Since the transport of the iron cash coins would have been difficult to achieve, and given the fact that it was necessary them to make a hasty retreat, it is hypothesised that a decision was made by the Song army to abandon the huge amounts of money in the area, and that they were partially melted down to prevent the iron cash coinage from falling into the hands of the advancing enemy soldiers.[31][32] The iron cash coins from the hoard are now displayed at the Tieqian Ku (铁钱库, "iron cash coins treasury") located in the city of Cangzhou.[31] | Song dynasty period | The Tieqian Ku |
2000 (Hong Kong)
List of 2000 coin hoards in Hong Kong | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
2000 | So Kwun Wat, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong | Over 60 Han dynasty period cash coins. | In the year 2000 at the archeological site of So Kwun Wat, Tuen Mun in the special administrative region of Hong Kong over sixty Han dynasty era bronze cash coins were unearthed which included both Ban Liang (半兩) and Wu Zhu (五銖) cash coins, among the hoard were also pieces of linen and bamboo mats.[36] | Han dynasty period |
2002 (Mainland China)
List of 2002 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
2002 | Shaanxi | A seal script Guangding Yuanbao (光定元寶) cash coin issued by the Tangut Western Xia Empire. | In 2002 a second specimen of the Western Xia seal script Guangding Yuanbao (光定元寶) cash coins was unearthed in Shaanxi, later a third specimen would be unearthed in Inner Mongolia.[21] | Western Xia dynasty period | ||
April 2002 | Chengtian Temple, Quanzhou, Fujian | Yonglong Tongbao (永隆通寶) clay moulds | In April 2002 archeologists had begun a formal excavation at the Chengtian Temple in Quanzhou, Fujian, where three decades earlier a number of Kingdom of Min period Yonglong Tongbao (永隆通寶) clay moulds had been uncovered.[17] At a depth of about 3 meters the archeologists had discovered over a thousand clay mould fragments at the location.[17] While it known that the Min Kingdom had a mint, its exact location was unknown, but due to the discovery of such a large number of clay mould fragments discovered at the Chengtian Temple confirms that the mint was located somewhere in present-day Quanzhou, making it only known mint location from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period at the time.[17] The archaeologists considered this hoard to be particularly fortunate, as it is rare for such cultural objects made from clay to survive in climates that receive over 1200 millimeters of rain annually such as Quanzhou.[17] This fact is cited to be one of the important reasons as to why no other sites which cast cash coins using clay moulds have been discovered in the modern period this far into southern China.[17] Iron was used to cast cash coins by the Min Kingdom in the area because the region where Quanzhou is situated had ample supplies of iron and coal but lacked any copper reserves.[17] As to why such a large quantity of clay moulds were discovered at the Chengtian Temple us because the casting method that was employed by the Min Kingdom at the time required a two-piece clay mould was made with a small hole in which the molten iron, with a temperature of at least 1535°C, could be poured into them.[17] Once the iron had hardened, forming the cash coin, the clay mould had to be broken apart in order to take the cash coin out.[17] Each clay mould could was only capable to produce a single cash coin.[17] Furthermore, the archaeologists noted that while the casting technique for manufacturing cash coins had remained the same as it had in ancient times, the casting technology itself had evolved to the point where the Chinese character inscriptions displayed on the coinage could now be clearly cast.[17] | Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period |
2005 (Mainland China)
List of 2005 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
2005 | Hangzhou, Zhejiang | 10 Mexican silver coins | In the year 2005 ten silver Mexican 8 reales coins were unearthed at an archeological site in the city of Hangzhou, Zhejiang. The front side of these silver coins depict an eagle devouring a snake, perched on a prickly pear cactus. Its reverse side features a liberty cap and the word "Libertad". These silver coins were a part of a bride's dowry. | 19th century | Long Museum, West Bund, [[Shanghai|Shanghai]] |
2006 (Mainland China)
List of 2006 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
January 2006 | Xi'an, Shaanxi | 150 different coins issued by different dynasties in Chinese history | In January 2006 archaeologists had discovered a tomb in Xi'an, Shaanxi that was possibly the resting place of a coin collector who died 600 years prior to its discovery.[37] A total of 150 different coins issued by different dynasties in Chinese history were found inside of the tomb which led the archaeologists to believe that the man was interested in ancient coins.[37] | 15th century | ||
January 2006 | Pingli County, Shaanxi | 259 Wu Zhu cash coins | In January 2006 during the construction of a plaza in Pingli County, Shaanxi a Han dynasty era tomb was uncovered, during its excavation archeologists found 259 Wu Zhu cash coins, 1 tripod made from iron, a pottery kitchen range as well as 3 pottery urns.[38] | |||
Sunday 7 May 2006 | Pucheng County, Shaanxi | A tonne of Northern Song dynasty period cash coins. | It was reported on Friday 16 May 2006 by the Xinhua News Agency that on Sunday 7 May 2006 a tonne of ancient Chinese cash coins were unearthed at a construction site in Pucheng County, Shaanxi.[37] The coin hoard was uncovered about 6 to 7 meters underground inside of a brick cellar when an excavator was stumbled across it.[37] According to a witness at the site the brick cellar was full of cash coins that were scattered around and other coins were bunched together with rotten leather strips.[37] After the local authorities on cultural relics had put the uncovered cash coins under their protection they identified that some were produced during the Northern Song dynasty period, while other cash coins could not be identified because of erosion.[37] | Northern Song dynasty period | ||
11 July 2006 | Shijiazhuang, Hebei | A cache of Qing dynasty period cash coins. | It was reported on 11 July 2006 by the Xinhua News Agency that construction workers had stumbled across a coin hoard in Shijiazhuang, Hebei.[39] Archeologists suspect that the Qing dynasty period cash coins were buried underground there by a local bank in an effort to prevent robbery.[39] | Qing dynasty period | ||
21 July 2006 | Xinzhen Village Dongying, Shandong | 3 tonnes of iron cash coins. | It was reported on 21 July 2006 by China News that a Northern Song dynasty period site filled with cultural relics had been discovered during the construction of a building in Xinzhen Village Dongying, Shandong.[40] Experts from Dongying Cultural Relics Bureau excavated the site and found 3 tonnes of iron cash coins as well as some copper-alloy coins.[40] Further, the hoard included pottery head portraits of minority ethnic people, chinaware, and parts of ancient architecture.[40] | Northern Song dynasty period |
2007 (Mainland China)
List of 2007 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
2007 | Longgang Town, Yancheng, Jiangsu | An undisclosed number of cash coins. | Village elders from Longgang Town, Yancheng, Jiangsu noted in a 2015 media report that that old coins were discovered in a river in the year 2007, where later in 2015 more cash coins would be found.[41][42] In the distant past, a temple was situated on the site at the river.[41][42] The temple was later destroyed at an undisclosed time but the cash coins unearthed at the site may be linked to the ancient temple that once stood there.[41][42] | Song dynasty period | ||
23 August 2007 | Qianwanhu Village, Changzi County, Shanxi | 1.5 tonnes of Chinese cash coins dating from the Han to the Northern Song dynasty. | On August 23, 2007 a villager digging a channel in order to place pipes for tap water had found "money cellar" 1.5 meters containing 1.5 tonnes of ancient coins below the ground in Qianwanhu Village, Changzi County, Shanxi.[43] According to Li Lin, an official of the Changzi Center of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, the "money cellar" contains around 10,000 coins and that they were piled orderly into a cuboid of 1.3 meter in length, 0.65 meter in width, and 1 meter in height.[43] After they had been found, the cash coins were sent to the local authorities in charge of cultural relics.[43] The reason as to why the cash coins were located there isn't known, but the archaeologists had made 3 hypotheses.[43] The first hypothesis assumes that the cash coins were the private wealth of a landlord, the second hypothesis assumes that the cash coins from the "money cellar" were owned by ancient Chinese private banks who buried them during a war, while the third hypothesis assumes that the cash coins had belonged to rich people in the same scenario as the second hypothesis.[43] The cash coins that were found are mostly from the Northern Song dynasty period, with some Han and Tang dynasty specimens being among them.[43] Many of the unearthed cash coins are in good condition with readable characters, while others had been severely corroded.[43] Li Lin noted that the largest cash coin found in the hoard is 3 centimeters in diameter and that the smallest is only 1 centimeter in diameter.[43] | Northern Song dynasty period |
2008 (Mainland China)
List of 2008 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
2008 | Guangzhou, Guangdong | A minting site from the early Tang dynasty period. | During excavations conducted in the city of Guangzhou, Guangdong a minting site dated to the early Tang dynasty period was uncovered.[24] As no contemporary government records mention a mint in the area the site likely belonged to a counterfeit ring.[24] The site notably contains signs that the mint used the sand casting method of cash coin production, which at the time wasn't the standard yet.[24] | Tang dynasty period |
2009 (Mainland China)
List of 2009 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
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Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
11:30 AM on Tuesday June 9, 2009 | A primary school located in Liquan County, Shaanxi | A cache of cash coins. | It was reported on June 12, 2009 by China Daily that about two tons of ancient Chinese cash coins were accidentally discovered on the grounds of a primary school located in Liquan County, Shaanxi.[44] Zhao Aiguo, director of the Liquan County heritage and tourism bureau, stated that the coin hoard was accidentally discovered during the construction of the school's playground.[44] The construction workers stumbled upon the coin hoard at around 11:30 AM on Tuesday June 9, 2009.[44] The construction crew then proceeded to report the discovery of the cache to both the local heritage authority and the local police, after which the construction was halted to allow for the excavation.[44] Following the arrival of local archaeologists and technicians the construction crew helped to collect the unearthed cash coins which were then placed in 170 bags, the bags were so numerous that they completely filled a lorry.[44] The pit was constructed using blue bricks and the cash coins were kept in a 1.5 square meter pit which was about a meter high.[44] The archaeologists noted that the site was a part of the now destroyed Xiangjici Temple constructed during the reign of the Western Han dynasty period Emperor Wen as a memorial for his late mother.[44] Zhao Aiguo noted that there still is an extant tower, initially constructed in the year 834 during the Tang dynasty period, is located next to the primary school.[44] Zhao Aiguo speculated that the cash coins were likely donated by people who visited the Xiangjici Temple and that the uncovered hole was an underground storage area for keeping the money.[44] According to Zhao Aiguo the inscriptions on the cash coins date to the Tang, Song, and Mongol Yuan dynasties.[44] | Yuan dynasty period |
2010s
2010 (Mainland China)
List of 2010 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
27 November 2010 | Jiangyan, Jiangsu | 432 Chinese cash coins. | On November 27, 2010 it was reported by the People's Daily Online a number of cash coins dating the Tang and Song dynasties including a rare silver coin with a hexagonal hole, were discovered at a construction site located in Jiangyan, Jiangsu.[45] The site was immediately visited by archaeologist Chen Wei and Dou Yaping, the director of the Cultural Heritage Division of the Jiangyan Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Press and Publication.[45] On November 29 the team had found a total of 432 cash coins of which most were still in good condition, there were 56 different variants with a total of 25 different era names (or reign titles).[45] The diameters of the unearthed coins range from 2.2 zm to 2.5 cm, and their thickness is between 0.5 mm and 1 mm. Most of them tend to have square holes with a side length of around 5 mm in the centre.[45] Of these cash coins, 21 were from the Tang dynasty period with the inscription Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶, 621–846), while 411 were from the Song dynasty period with inscriptions such as Xiangfu Yuanbao (祥符元寶, 1008–1016) and Xining Yuanbao (熙寧元寶, 1068–1077).[45] Furthermore, among these coins is a silver coin that has been slightly damaged with an illegible inscription and another cash coin with a hexagonal centre hole, Dou Yaping stated that cash coins with hexagonal centre holes are known as "Guijia Chuan", which is one subtype of the "Huachuan Kong" cash coins.[45] The discovery of the silver coin is notable, as it was the first time that a silver coin from the Song dynasty period was found in Jiangyan.[45] | Song dynasty period | _ | |
10 December 2010 | Qianjiang, Zhejiang | 500,000 to 600,000 ancient Chinese cash coins. | On 10 December 2010 a coin hoard consisting of between 500,000 and 600,000 ancient Chinese cash coins were discovered in a huge box underground at a construction site in the city of Qianjiang, Zhejiang according to a report by the People's Daily Online.[46] The box containing the cash coins was discovered when a mechanical digger dug its claw into the earth and the box rose up from the ground.[46] The coins that were found were attributed to different periods in Chinese history with earliest cash coin being cast in the year 175 B.C., while the most recent coin was cast in the year 1368 A.D.[46] The cash coins were attributed to the Western Han dynasty period, the Tang dynasty period, the Five dynasties and Ten kingdoms period, the Song dynasty period, the Jurchen Jin dynasty period, the Mongol Yuan dynasty period, the Ming dynasty period, and a number of other dynasties.[46] | Around 1368 AD | ||
Friday 18 December 2010 | Ningqiang County, Shaanxi | A cash of Qing dynasty period cash coins. | It was reported on 21 December 2010 by the Xinhua News Agency that on Friday 18 December 2010 a large hoard of Manchu Qing dynasty period cash coins had been discovered in Ningqiang County, Shaanxi.[47] The cash coins were found inside of a wooden case, that was 160 centimeters in length, 80 centimeters in width, and 30 centimeters in height.[47] The cash coins were all orderly ranked inside of the case in seven layers.[47] According to the Cultural Relics and Tourism Department of Ningqiang County the cash coins together weighed 600 kilograms.[47] | Qing dynasty period | _ | |
Monday, 20 December 2010 | Huaxian, Shaanxi | 4 tonnes of Song dynasty period cash coins. | It was reported on Wednesday, 22 December 2010 that 4 tonnes of ancient Chinese cash coins dating to the Song dynasty had been discovered at a construction site in Hua County, Shaanxi.[48] The construction crew discovered the cache on Monday, 20 December 20.[48] The local authorities noted that all the cash coins were likely produced during the Song dynasty period and that the inscriptions on the cash coins indicated that they were cast between the years 1102 to 1106.[48] | Song dynasty period |
2011 (Mainland China)
List of 2011 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
4 June 2011 | Suzhou, Jiangsu | 200,000 Northern Song dynasty period cash coins. | On June 4, 2011 it was reported by the Xinhua News Agency that a large coin hoard had been uncovered in Suzhou, Jiangsu.[49][50] The coin hoard consisted of approximately 200,000 Northern Song dynasty period cash coins.[49][50] The cash coins were discovered by a construction crew building a road on Wednesday June 1, 2011, while opening up an old well.[49] The construction workers quickly stopped there work quickly after they had realised that what they had stumbled across was different from what they would more usually encounter during their work.[49] The opening to the well wasn't round but eight-sided and it was located approximately 4 to 5 meters below the surface.[49] After the construction crew dug a bit deeper they found a large quantity of ancient Chinese cash coins located inside the well.[49] The construction company immediately notified the Suzhou Archaeology Research Bureau, who sent a team of 8 archeologists to excavate the cash coin hoard.[49] It took a full day of digging by the archaeologists to dig up all the coins.[50] The dispatched team had been able to recover over eighty bags of cash coins, each weighing around 50 kg, weighing around 4 tonnes together. Mr. Zhang Tiejun (张铁军), the assistant to the president of the Suzhou Archaeology Research Bureau noted that the coin hoard was divided into two layers, where the top was organised while the bottom layer wasn't as much.[49] Furthermore common jugs were found at the bottom of the well which indicated that it was a normal water well.[49] The inscriptions of the cash coins located in the top layer were mostly Chongning Zhongbao (崇寧重寶) and were largely bigger coins, while the bottom layer consisted mostly of Yuanfeng Tongbao (元豐通寶) and Shaosheng Yuanbao (紹聖元寶) cash coins. Among the hoard was also a silver Shaosheng Yuanbao cash coin.[49] Zhang Tiejun speculated that the cash coins were likely hidden in the well by a business man who was afraid of losing his wealth during a war.[49] Because the hoard mostly consisted of bronze cash coins, Zhang Tiejun believed that the cash coins weren't hidden by a "rich and influential family", as they would usually own silver and gold reserves. Zhang Tiejun speculated that the cash coins were buried in a hurry for safekeeping during a Jurchen invasion of Suzhou when the city had turned into a war zone, as the coins were haphazardly placed together and the fact that the well served as an actual well before.[49] | Jin–Song Wars | ||
15 June 2011 | Guangzhou, Guangdong | Over a thousand Xin dynasty period cash coins with the inscription Daquan Wushi (大泉五十). | On June 15, 2011 it was reported that the Guangzhou Cultural Relics Archaeological Research Institute had unearthed a pile of one thousand cash coins while excavating an Eastern Han dynasty period grave in Guangzhou, Guangdong.[51][52] The discovered cash coins are all Xin dynasty period cash coins with the inscription Daquan Wushi (大泉五十).[51] The Eastern Han dynasty grave is 8.2 meters in length and 5.02 meters in width.[51] Other than the cash coins, the archeologists had also discovered nearly a hundred other objects inside of the grave including a bronze mirror, pottery, coloured tile, as well as different types of ornaments and jewelry made of jade and agate.[51] | Eastern Han dynasty period | ||
6 July 2011 | Longhai Village, Fujian | A large number of Spanish dollars. | According to a report published on July 6, 2011, a large number of chop marked silver Spanish dollars were discovered buried inside of a dirt pile in Longhai Village, Fujian.[53][54] The dirt pile came from the digging of a foundation for a new house by a Mr. Huang (黃), who had been dumped the dirt on the vacant lot four days prior to the discovery of the Spanish dollars by an unnamed villager, who noticed a shiny object.[53] News of the discovery then proceeded to spread quickly, which set off a "digging frenzy" resulting in around a hundred villagers appearing at the site with hoes, shovels, and basins to look for more Spanish dollars in two piles of dirt, measuring about 20 square meters.[53] Reportedly, several hundred silver Spanish dollars were unearthed, and when the police finally arrived most of the villagers had run the scene.[53] According to a villager the oldest Spanish dollar found that morning was dated 1775 while the most recent coin being found was minted in 1802.[53] It was noted by two experts with the Zhangzhou City Collections Society that the Spanish silver dollars came into the area because of foreign trade that had occurred there during the middle of the Qing dynasty period.[53] Spanish silver dollars are frequently found in Longhai Village and residents gave them the nickname "funny face coins".[53] | Mid-Qing dynasty period | ||
4 August 2011 | Cang County, Hebei | A string of iron cash coins. | It was reported on 4 August 2011 by the Xinhua News Agency that a string of iron cash coins dating to the Song dynasty had been found in Cang County, Hebei.[55] The unearthed site in Cangxian was later found to have sat on the relics of what was likely a local government administration, because of this the archaeologists believe that the iron can coins were once stored by the government as a form of reserve money.[55] According to Wang Minzhi, a local researcher, if the assumptions were proven to be true, this excavation and its findings would challenge the common consensus that the iron cash coins were exclusively produced and used in southern China at that time. [55] | Song dynasty period | ||
24 August 2011 | Inner Mongolia | 200 Tang and Song dynasty era cash coins. | It was reported on 24 August 2011 by the Xinhua News Agency that over 200 cash coins were unearthed in Inner Mongolia.[56] The cash coins have inscriptions that were used during the Tang dynasty and Song dynasty periods and were covered with verdigris, with the majority of them being produced during the Northern Song dynasty.[56] The coin hoard dated from a time when the area belonged to the Tangut Western Xia Empire.[56] According to Zhang Zhenzhou of the Araxan Museum noted that the cash coins were probably buried there by desperate people during a war who wanted to hide their wealth from enemy soldiers.[56] | Northern Song dynasty period | The Araxan Museum | |
Spring of 2010 (initial discovery) September 2011 (excavation) | Liaoyang, Liaoning | 2,200 Later Jin dynasty period cash coins | It was reported on 14 September, 2011 by Liaoning Daily (辽宁日报) that the police had arrested a gang of three men who were allegedly thieves that had unearthed around 2,200 cash coins from the Jurchen (or Manchu) Later Jin dynasty period in Liaoyang, Liaoning.[57] The Bureau of Public Security of Liaoyang City stated that the gang was under the leadership of a name referred to as Mr. Wu, a 32-year-old who was a former taxi driver, was informed that some ancient Chinese cash coins had been discovered at a construction site during spring of 2010.[57] For a year he would go to the construction site with a shovel and managed to unearth approximately 300 cash coins.[57] In May 2011 Mr. Wu had purchased a metal detector and he rented a large excavator in order to find more cash coins.[57] Afterwards Mr. Wu had recruited a "treasure digging team", together they had been able to discover over 2,200 Later Jin dynasty period cash coins weighing 17 kilograms (37.4 pounds).[57] After the find, Mr. Wu sold the coins for $101,700 (or 650,000 yuan).[57] Later the person who had purchased these cash coins was arrested and told the police from whom he had acquired the coins.[57] All of the Later Jin cash coins found at the site had inscriptions that were written in Manchu script.[57] According to some local cultural relics experts these cash coins were a special issue that weren't meant to be circulated as money.[57] It has been speculated by these experts that these cash coins were issued under Nurhachi to be awarded to military generals for their meritorious achievements.[57] As these cash coins are extremely rare, it is speculated that the market value of this coin hoard would be $470,000 (¥3,000,000) at a minimum.[57] | Later Jin dynasty period (1616–1636) | ||
October 2011 | Cangzhou, Hebei | Secveral tonnes of iron cash coins. | In October 2011 it was reported that another pile of iron cash coins was unearthed in Cangzhou, Hebei.[58] Based on preliminary calculations, the pile of iron cash coins fill an area that is about 25 m by 16 m.[58] The top of the iron can coin pile is about 0.4 to 0.5 meters below the surface level.[58] At the time of the initial discovery experts estimated that there were several tons of iron cash coins in the discovered pile.[58] According to Mr. Yang Fengling (杨凤岭), the Director of the Cang Prefecture Cultural Relics Institute, it is not yet known if there is any connection between the newly discovered pile of iron cash coins and those that were discovered nearby in 1997.[58] | Song dynasty period | ||
27 October 2011 | Suqian, Jiangsu | A silver dollar depicting Yuan Shikai. | In a 27 October 2011 news report, the Suqian Evening News (宿迁晚报) noted that a silver coin bearing the image of Yuan Shikai had been discovered by Chinese archeologists inside of a coffin in Suqian, Jiangsu.[59][60] The archeologists were excavating tombs in an area where most of the tombs date back to the Han dynasty period, but the fact that this tomb contains a 20th-century silver coin is evidence that the tomb where it was discovered (No. 4 Tomb) is a more recent one.[59] While the casket did it include the coin, it did not include any corpse.[59] The archeologists working at the site speculated that the "No. 4 Tomb" might have been a cenotaph (traditional Chinese: 衣冠塚; simplified Chinese: 衣冠冢; pinyin: yī guān zhǒng).[59] A village elder alternatively speculated that the tomb may have been empty because of a local Suqian custom where the relatives of the deceased would have exhumed the corpse to have it reburied somewhere else.[59] | Between 1912 and 1949 | ||
27 October 2011 | Rufu Stone Pagoda (儒符石塔), Haikou, Hainan | 70 Taiping Tongbao (太平通寶) cash coins. | In a report by the Haikou Evening News (海口晚报) published on October 27, 2011 it was revealed that Chinese archaeologists had uncovered a number of Northern Song dynasty period cash coins while working at a restoration of the Rufu Stone Pagoda (儒符石塔) built from volcanic rock near Haikou, Hainan.[61][62] Up until that point it was difficult to determine when the Rufu Stone Pagoda had been built as the oldest historical records that mention the building date back to the Ming dynasty, but it was suspected prior to this discovery that the Rufu Stone Pagoda may have been constructed sometime during the late Song Dynasty, but there was no evidence that supported this hypothesis.[61] During the renovation a worker had found a stone tortoise-shaped box, inside of this box were over 70 bronze Northern Song dynasty period Taiping Tongbao (太平通寶) cash coins which were produced from 976 until 989.[61] Mr. Wang Daxin (王大新), the Director of the Haikou City Bureau of Cultural Relics (海口市文物局), noted that the thread that was used to bind the cash coins together had still been partially preserved.[61] Furthermore, inside of this tortoise-shaped box were six silver tablets (which were originally thought to have been made from tin), of these six tablets, one had the Chinese inscription Fude Changshou (Chinese: 福德長壽; pinyin: fú dé cháng shòu, "good fortune, virtue, and to live a long life"), the second tablet has the inscription Qian Yuan Heng Li Zhen (Chinese: 乾元亨利貞; pinyin: qián yuán hēng lì zhēn, a cryptic phrase from the I-Ching), and A third tablet has the inscription Wanggang Dasheng (Chinese: 王剛大聖; pinyin: wáng gāng dà shèng).[61] Three of the discovered silver tablets were too fragile to undergo cleaning and their inscriptions can't be read.[61] The discovery of the Taiping Tongbao cash coins were an important find as it might suggest that the Rufu Stone Pagoda was constructed during this period.[61] | Between 976 and 989 | ||
10 November 2011 | The Golden Horse River, Wenjiang District, Chengdu, Sichuan | A large number of Chinese cash coins. | It was reported on 10 November 2011 by the Sichuan News Network (四川新闻网) that a large number of local residents of the Wenjiang District, Chengdu, Sichuan were recovering cash coins from the Golden Horse River (traditional Chinese: 金馬河; simplified Chinese: 金马河; pinyin: jīn mǎ hé).[63][64] The Golden Horse River hoard is considered particularly unusual among Chinese coin hoards, because the bronze Chinese cash coins that were unearthed came from many different periods and dynasties in Chinese history spanning over two millennia.[63] The local residents arrived with shovels, hoes, sickles, and any other equipment used for digging to search for more coins. Some of the local residents managed to dig up several kilograms of cash coins while other locals were only able to find ten or twenty cash coins.[63] Soon the local police was alerted by the local authorities and they tried to cordon off the area to let the local Bureau of Cultural Relics dispatch archeologists to retrieve the cash coins.[63] The treasure hunting done by the local residents was seen as "looting" because in accordance to the law of the People's Republic of China all cultural relics that are buried on land or discovered somewhere in the territorial waters or seas of China are at all times to be considered state property, and the local residents were asked by the police to "return" their findings.[63] After the Chengdu archaeologists had arrived on the scene they had determined that the cash coins from the Golden Horse River board were strewn over an area approximately two hundred meters long and one hundred meters wide.[63] Within only a short period of time the Chengdu archaeologists had managed to find over 5 kilograms of cash coins.[63] The local archeologists stated that it was not practical to try to excavate the site or even attempt to preserve it because that there was a possibility of dangerous flood waters suddenly appearing.[63] A few local archaeologists speculated as to why the cash coins were found there spun over such a large period of time, Mr. Liu Yumao (刘雨茂) noted that it was customary throughout Chinese history to place old cash coins into structures that were built for things such as irrigation and water conservancy, this superstition was done in the hopes of gaining good fortune and to avoid disaster.[63] Liu Yumao further stated that the cash coins from the Golden Horse River hoard may have originally been buried inside of such a structure, and that later over time this structure had eroded and was washed.[63] After this the cash coins could then have been carried across the river by the current and eventually ended at the site where they were found.[63] As to why most of the unearthed cash coins came from the Tang dynasty period, local archeologist Mr. Wang Zongxiong (王仲雄) noted that it was possible that during this period a boat which was carrying coins across the Golden Horse River may have sunk and that the cash coins in its cargo were hidden underwater until they were found in 2011.[63] While most cash coins found at the Golden Horse River hoard are Tang dynasty period Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶) and Qianyuan Zhongbao (乾元重寶), while other inscriptions of cash coins found at the Golden Horse River hoard range from Han dynasty period Wu Zhu (五銖), Xin dynasty Huo Quan (貨泉) to Manchu Qing dynasty period Qianlong Tongbao (乾隆通寶) as well as Guangxu coinage (光緒錢).[63] | Various periods |
2011 (Hong Kong)
List of 2011 coin hoards in Hong Kong | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
2011 | San Tau, Lantau Island, Hong Kong | Kaiyuan Tongbao cash coins | During excavations of graves conducted on San Tau on Lantau Island in Hong Kong a number of coins were unearthed.[65] Excluding a single Hong Kong ten-cent coin with a diameter of 2/05 centimeters, a thickness of 0.20 centimeters, and a weight of 5 grams issued in 1961, all coins found during the excavation were Tang dynasty period Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寳, 621–907) cash coins.[65] Most of the unearthed Kaiyuan Tongbao cash coins were stacked which suggests that they were either strung together or kept in either a small bag or a pouch.[65] The found cash coins were cast in different styles, sizes, thicknesses, and weights.[65] All Tang cash coins had their inscriptions written in regular script.[65] The smallest of the Tang coins were 2.40 centimeters in diameter while the largest were 2.60 centimeters.[65] The grave with the most coins was identified as Grave G4.[65] | Tang dynasty period |
2012 (Mainland China)
List of 2012 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
2012 | Tongxin County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region | A cache of Western Xia cash coins. | In the year 2012 a farmer digging in a field in Tongxin County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region had uncovered a cache of Western Xia cash coins.[21] This discovery is notable for including a Qianyou Yuanbao (乾佑元寶) cash coin issued during the reign of Emperor Renzong written in seal script.[21] This is the known instance of a Qianyou Yuanbao cash coin with an inscription written in seal script.[21] The seal script Qianyou Yuanbao cash coin has a diameter of 25.4 millimeters, a thickness of 1.5 millimeters, and weighs of 3.3 grams.[21] | Western Xia dynasty period | ||
2012 | Hebei | 98 specimens of knife money and 161 specimens of spade money. | In the year 2012 a Chinese villager in the province of Hebei digging a well in his yard had unearthed a large cache of knife and spade money which was dated to the Warring States period.[66] The hoard included 98 specimens of knife money and 161 specimens of spade money.[66] This was the first major hoard of ancient Chinese coinage from this era that had been unearthed in Laiyuan County, Hebei.[66] Both the spade and knife money from this hoard were attributed to Yan.[66] The hoard includes both "square foot" spades (方足布) and "pointed foot" spades (尖足布).[66] | Warring States period | ||
5 January 2012 | Longwan Zhen (龙湾镇), Qianjiang, Hubei | Cash coins from the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties and a bronze mirror with a cash coin design | It was reported on January 5, 2012 that cash coins and a bronze mirror incorporating a cash coin design were discovered during the excavation of a Song dynasty period tomb in Longwan Zhen (龙湾镇), Qianjiang, Hubei.[67][68] The Qianjiang Cultural Relics Bureau (潜江文物局) stated that archaeologists had uncovered a Song dynasty bronze mirror which incorporated cash coin motifs, 3 silver bracelets, a bronze wash basin, and 42 cash coins.[67] The cash coins were issued during different reign periods by over ten emperors, which was a first for any single tomb located in Qianjiang.[67] According to the Qianjiang Cultural Relics Bureau the discovery of this tomb will contribute greatly to the understanding of how local past burial customs were observed during the time and it would also contribute to the understanding of the historical changes that had occurred in the region during the Song dynasty period.[67] The inscriptions on the discovered cash coins include Han dynasty period Wu Zhu (五銖), Tang dynasty period Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寳), and Song dynasty period Taiping Taobao (太平通寶, 976–989), Jingde Yuanbao (景德元寶, 998–1022), and Xining Tongbao (熙寧通寶, 1068–1085).[67] | Song dynasty period | ||
16 July 2012 | Kuqa, Xinjiang | Han dynasty era Wu Zhu (五銖) and "Chiseled rim Wu Zhu" (鑿邊五銖) cash coins, Xin dynasty era Huo Quan (貨泉) and Daquan Wushi (大泉五十) cash coins, a Three Kingdoms period Taiping Baiqian (太平百錢) cash coins, as well as native cash coins. | On 16 July 2012 a large cache of 14,000 ancient Chinese coins was found in Kuqa, Xinjiang which included Han dynasty era Wu Zhu (五銖) and "Chiseled rim Wu Zhu" (鑿邊五銖) cash coins, Xin dynasty era Huo Quan (貨泉) and Daquan Wushi (大泉五十) cash coins, a Three Kingdoms period Taiping Baiqian (太平百錢) cash coins, as well as native cash coins.[69][70] Alongside the cash coins were shards of pottery as well as fragments of human bones which lead the archeologists believe that this was an old cemetery.[71] | Kucha Kingdom period | ||
August 2012 | Huoluochaideng, Ordos City Inner Mongolia | 3,500 kg of Wu Zhu and Xin dynasty era cash coins. | In August 2012 a large hoard of Wu Zhu cash coins and Xin dynasty era cash coins was found in the city of Huoluochaideng, Ordos City Inner Mongolia.[72] The hoard included 3500 kg of Chinese cash coins and around 150 clay moulds used to manufacture coins from the Xin dynasty.[72] According to archeologists the site might've been a mint that was in operation since the reign of Emperor Wu until Emperor Wang Mang.[73][74][75] | Han dynasty period | ||
18 August 2012 | Zaozhuang, Shandong | The smallest Chinese cash coins ever found. | It was reported on August 18, 2012 by China Central Television on an unusual coin hoard in Zaozhuang, Shandong.[76] The hoard is unusual because the discovered coin may be the smallest Chinese cash coin that has ever been found.[76] The China Central Television report stated that the cash coin was "paper-thin with a rough edge and no larger than a fingernail".[76] While the cash coin has no inscription, it is believed to be a privately produced cash coin from the Southern and Northern dynasties period.[76] The reporters noted that these diminutive cash coins were produced by people whom they described as "money-mad governors and greedy landlords" with the reason given by China Central Television being "to squeeze poor peasants"[76] Furthermore, the report noted that during the Southern and Northern dynasties period 10,000 of these cash coins would not have been sufficient to purchase a single bowl of rice.[76] | Southern and Northern dynasties period | ||
Early October 2012 | Wangminxiang Hongtaicun Village (王民乡红太村), Xiji County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region | 17 Kushan coins | In early October, 2012, a villager digging near an old wall had unearthed 17 ancient Silk Road coins in Wangminxiang Hongtaicun Village (王民乡红太村), Xiji County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. According to Mr. Su Zhengxi (苏正喜) of the Xiji Prefecture Coin Museum (西吉县钱币博物馆) these are coins issued by the Kushan Empire.[69] The coins are about 1.2 to 1.5 centimeters in diameter, they have a thickness of 0.25 centimeters, and they tend to have a weight between 2.4 and 3.7 grams.[69] The description of the Kushan coins from this hoard are described differently by different newspaper reports.[69] According to some articles the discovered Kushan coins bear the image of a king on one side and the image of either a cow or an ox on their reverse sides.[69] An article from another newspaper report state that there are written letters on one side of the cooks and an image of a cow or oxen on the other side.[69] Su Zhengxi mentions that three of the discovered bronze Kushan coins have inscriptions that are written in a "foreign (non-Chinese) script".[69] Another newspaper article mentions that the Kushan coins were minted (struck) in the same manner as ancient Greek coins were and that the obverse sides of the coins have legends that are written in a form of "Kushanised" Greek letters.[69] This article mentions that the reverse sides of the unearthed coins in Xiji County are said to have images of ancient Persian and Indian deities.[69] This coin hoard is notably the first one in Ningxia that contains Kushan coinage, and this was the largest hoard of such coins that up until this point have ever been discovered in Ningxia, and for the first time Silk Road coins have been unearthed that were not mixed with any other types of coins.[69] Previous to this coin hoard in Xiji County, the only Kushan coinages of this type that have been unearthed anywhere in China have included around "several tens of coins" that were discovered in the Loulan ruins (楼兰遗址) and Hotan County, Xinjiang.[69] While historical records do mention that the area where these coins were discovered in formed a part of the Silk Road, there had been no prior archaeological evidence to confirm these claims, but this coin hoard is the archeological evidence that was needed to verify these claims.[69] | Mid-Yuan dynasty period | The Xiji Prefecture Coin Museum | |
November to December 2012 | The Yujiabu cemetery in Zhangqiu, Jinan Shandong | Wu Zhu and Daquan Wushi cash coins | During excavations conducted from November to December in 2012 in the Yujiabu cemetery in Zhangqiu, Jinan Shandong, the Jinan Municipal Archaeological Institute had discovered a number of cash coins in the tombs.[77] The excavation had discovered a total of seventeen tombs, including earth shaft tombs from the Han dynasty period, earth shaft tombs with a brick-built outer coffin from the Han dynasty period, brick-chamber tombs from the Han dynasty period, and an earth pit tomb with cave chamber from the Qing dynasty period.[77] The 6 earth shafts mostly yielded Wu Zhu cash coins, while the tombs identified as "Tomb M3" and "Tomb M8" contained Xin dynasty period Daquan Wushi (大泉五十) cash coins, indicating that the people buried there were likely done so during the Xin dynasty period rather than the Han dynasty era.[77] | Han and Xin dynasty periods |
2013 (Mainland China)
List of 2013 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
2013 | The tomb of Emperor Jiemin of Northern Wei in Luoyang, Henan | A gold solidus issued during the reign of Emperor Anastasius I Dicorus | In the year 2013 a gold Eastern Roman coin had been discovered inside of a tomb preliminarily concluded to be that of Emperor Jiemin of Northern Wei in Luoyang, Henan.[78][79] The gold coin is a solidus issued during the reign of Emperor Anastasius I Dicorus and has a diameter of between 2.1 and 2.2 centimeters.[78] According to the archaeologists at the site, the discovery of this solidus inside of an imperial Chinese tomb provides further evidence that the city of Luoyang was the eastern terminus of the Silk Road.[78][80] | Northern and Southern dynasties dynasty | ||
25 January 2013 | The Fuhaiyuan Temple (福海院) in Anxi County, Quanzhou, Fujian | 27.5 kilograms of Kaiyuan Tongbao cash coins. | It was reported on January 25, 2013 that during a renovation of one of the rear halls of the Fuhaiyuan Temple (福海院) in Anxi County, Quanzhou, Fujian, a buried jar containing 27.5 kilograms of ancient Chinese cash coins was discovered.[81][82] All of these cash coins date to the Tang dynasty period and have the inscription Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶).[81][82] Construction on the temple began in the year 900 and it remains unknown why the cash coins were buried there.[81][82] A local official named Ms. Lin Meilian (林美莲) speculated that, despite the Fuhaiyuan Temple being the largest temple in the area during the Tang period, the cash coins might have been buried at the temple as a "rainy day fund".[81][82] | Around 900 | ||
20 February 2013 | Chenzhou, Anren County, Hunan | 7.5 kg of Tang, Song, and Mongol Yuan dynasty cash coins. | On February 20, 2013 workers digging at a construction site had unearthed a "money pit" that dated back some seven centuries in the city of Chenzhou, Anren County, Hunan.[83][84] The "money pit" contained approximately 7.5 kg of cash coins dating from the late Southern Song dynasty period until the early Mongol Yuan dynasty period, with a few cash coins dating as far back as the Tang dynasty.[83] The report on the find was covered by Mr. Cai Ning (蔡宁) of the Anren Prefecture Cultural Relics Administrative Office (安仁县文物管理所) and Mr. Duan Bangqiong (段邦琼) of the Anren Prefecture Bureau of Culture, Broadcasting and the Press (安仁县文广新局).[83] Over 20 different inscriptions of Southern Song dynasty cash coins had been recovered at the site.[83] The reported cash coin inscriptions from the hoard include (among others) the Tang dynasty period Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶), Song dynasty period Chongning Tongbao (崇寧通寶), Chongning Zhongbao (崇寧重寶), Zhenghe Tongbao (政和通寶), Huangsong Tongbao (皇宋通寶), and Xianping Zhongbao (咸平重寶), and the Mongol Yuan dynasty period Dade Tongbao (大德通寶).[83] Furthermore, the inscriptions mentioned by the news articles include Jingyuan Tongbao (景元通寶, Cảnh Nguyên Thông Bảo), which is sometimes attributed to Vietnam, but the cash coins true origins remain unknown, and Chunhua Tongbao (淳化通寶).[83] What's notable about this find is that no historical sources or major Chinese coin catalogues ever mentioned either the Chunhua Tongbao (淳化通寶) cash coins or the Xianping Zhongbao (咸平重寶) cash coins, as these might have been cast during the same periods as the Chunhua Yuanbao (淳化元寶) cash coins and the Xianping Yuanbao (咸平元寶) cash coins, respectively.[83] While no other Chunhua Tongbao cash coin has ever been known to exist prior to this find, another Xianping Zhongbao was unearthed in 2010 in Shaanxi.[83] If the reports on these cash coins turn out to be true then this Anren County coin hoard would be considered a significant find in Chinese numismatics.[83] | Early Yuan dynasty period | ||
March 2013 | Longshan Village (龙山村) near Xuzhou, Jiangsu | "Several tens" of Song dynasty period cash coins | In an article published by the Pengcheng Daily (彭城晚报) newspaper in their May 6, 2013 edition it was reported that in March 2013 archaeologists were excavating a brick Ming dynasty period tomb they had found Song dynasty cash coins in Longshan Village (龙山村) near Xuzhou, Jiangsu.[85][86] During the excavation the archeologists were tasked with moving the entire tomb to the Suining County Museum (睢宁县博物馆).[85] Usually tombs can be fairly easily attributed to a time period because of the coinages found inside of them but this is not the case for this tomb as no Ming dynasty period cash coins were found inside of it.[85] The tomb is attributed to the year 1595 during the Ming dynasty period because it contains the inscription "Wanli Er Shi San Nian Si Yue Wang Ri" (萬曆二十三年四月望日, "15th day of the 4th (lunar) month of the 23rd year of Wanli Emperor") written above the door of the coffin chamber, the tomb contains two skulls which the archeologists believed belonged to a married couple.[85] The wooden caskets where they would have lied inside of have completely decayed and only some coffin nails remain. Inside of this old tomb the only coins that were found were exclusively Song dynasty cash coins, during the excavation of the tomb "several tens" of Chinese cash coins had been discovered by the archeologists on the floor located on the left side of the chamber that housed the coffins.[85] According to the Pengcheng Daily the room had been "disturbed" in the past, which means that it is unclear if the cash coins were found in the original location as according to burial customs of the time, the Song cash coins were in all likelihood placed either underneath the corpses or somewhere inside of the wooden casket.[85] The Chinese archaeologists stated that "unless the deceased were Buddhists or coin collectors", the answer as to why only Song dynasty period cash coins were located inside of the tom must probably have to do with another contemporary Chinese burial custom.[85] The archeologists speculate that the custom might be a Ming dynasty version of the "five emperor coins" used today with Qing dynasty cash coins.[86][85] The cash coins found were produced during the reign of Emperor Shenzong and have the inscriptions Xining Zhongbao (熙寧重寶) and Yuanfeng Tongbao (元豐通寶).[85] These legends can be viewed as auspicious inscriptions as the "Xining" (熙寧, "peaceful prosperity") and "Yuanfeng" (元豐, "primary abundance") period titles, or era names, both have auspicious meanings.[85] | 1595 | ||
3 May 2013 | Guangxingdian Village (广兴店村), Pingquan, Hebei | 600 Ming knives | It was reported on May 3, 2013 that Mr. Liu Jiafu (刘佳富), a villager from Pingquan, Hebei, had discovered a buried clay pot containing about 600 specimen knife money in Guangxingdian Village (广兴店村). According to Mr. Chang Wen (常文) from the Cultural Relics Protection Bureau of Pingquan County (平泉县问保所) all of the knife money found were "Ming knives" issued by Yan.[87][88] | Warring States period | ||
18 May 2013 | Guzhen County, Anhui | 500 pounds of cash coins rom the Tang and Northern Song dynasties | In a news report broadcast by the Anhui TV Station (安徽卫视) on May 18, 2013, it was reported that Chinese archaeologists from the Guzhen County Bureau of Cultural Relics (固镇县文物局) dug up 500 pounds of cash coins in Guzhen County, Anhui.[89][90][91] The cash coins were discovered stacked together in a very orderly manner.[89] The Chinese archaeologists speculate that most of the cash coins they found would have been threaded together on strings and that they were then neatly arranged.[89] However, by the time of the excavation the strings that held the cash coins together have long since rotted away and many of the unearthed cash coins were corroded together.[89] The unearthed coins include Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶) cash coins from the Tang dynasty period, as well as Yuanfeng Tongbao (元豐通寶), Yuanyou Tongbao (元祐通寶), Chongning Tongbao (崇寧通寶) cash coins among others from the Northern Song dynasty period.[89] The archeologists of the Guzhen County Bureau of Cultural Relics suspect that the cash coins probably belonged to a rich family during the Northern Song dynasty period that wanted to hide the money from robbers or during a time of unrest.[89] | Northern Song dynasty period | ||
22 May 2013 | Dingxi, Gansu | 114 kilograms of Chinese cash coins from various dynasties. | On May 23, 2013 it was reported in an issue of the Lanzhou Morning News (兰州晨报) that cash coins from the Han, Tang, Song, and Jurchen Jin dynasties had been unearthed at a construction site in Dingxi, Gansu on May 22, 2013.[92] According to eyewitness reports the coin hoard occupied an area of two meters square and was about eighty centimeters in depth.[92] The coin cache was buried about two meters below the surface level.[92] Soon after the discovery archaeologists from the Dingxi City Museum (定西市安定区博物馆) were sent to the construction site where they would recover 114 kilograms (or 251 pounds) of ancient Chinese bronze cash coins.[92] Most of the unearthed cash coins date to the Song dynasty period.[92] According to the archaeologists from the Dingxi City Museum, this coin hoard was the largest cache of ancient Chinese bronze cash coins ever discovered in Dingxi City at the time.[92] Inscriptions of the cash coins include Han dynasty period Wu Zhu (五銖), Tang dynasty period Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶) and Qianyuan Zhongbao (乾元重寶), Northern Song dynasty period Xiangfu Tongbao (祥符通寶), Tiansheng Yuanbao (天聖元寶), Mingdao Yuanbao (明道元寶), Huangsong Tongbao (皇宋通寶), Zhiping Yuanbao (治平元寶), Xining Zhongbao (熙寧重寶), Yuanfeng Tongbao (元豐通寶), Yuanyou Tongbao (元祐通寶), Shaosheng Yuanbao (紹聖元寶), Yuanfu Tongbao (元符通寶), Shengsong Yuanbao (聖宋元寶), Chongning Zhongbao (崇寧重寶), Daguan Tongbao (大觀通寶), Xuanhe Tongbao (宣和通寶), Southern Song dynasty period Shaoxing Yuanbao (紹興元寶), and some unspecified Jurchen Jin dynasty cash coins.[92] | Song dynasty period | Dingxi City Museum | |
23 April 2013 | A construction site in Kuqa County, Xinjiang | Around 3,000 Kaiyuan Tongbao cash coins | In an April 25, 2013 article by the China News Service it was reported that the Kucha Bureau of Cultural Relics (库车县文物局) was informed of the discovery of a large number of Tang dynasty period Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶) cash coins at a construction site in Kuqa County, Xinjiang on April 23, 2013.[93][94][95] By April 24 a team of archeologists had uncovered around 3000 Kaiyuan Tongbao cash coins, by this time the construction site was being managed by staff of the Kucha Bureau of Cultural Relics and the Qiuci Bureau of Public Security (龟兹公安分局) and more cash coins were continuing to be unearthed at the site.[93][94] According to Ms. Yin Qiuling (尹秋玲), a cadre with the Kucha Bureau of Cultural Relics, the Kaiyuan Tongbao cash coins had been buried at the site for more than a millennium, and while the cash coins had acquired a patina, their legends could still be quite clearly read.[93][94] The Kaiyuan Tongbao cash coins at the site were found scattered in an area that was about 10 meters long by 5 meters wide.[93][94] It was later reported on May 2, 2013 that the number of unearthed Kaiyuan Tongbao cash coins at the site had almost reached 10,000.[93][95] | Tang dynasty period | ||
Early August 2013 | Renhezhai Village, Xiping County, Zhumadian, Henan | An undocumented number of Northern Song dynasty period cash coins. | It was reported by Dahe Daily on 16 September, 2013 that a coin excavation has been conducted by local villagers in Renhezhai Village, Xiping County, Zhumadian, Henan.[96] While workers were digging a ditch in early August 2013 some young children playing at the site had found some cash coins in the ditch, which inspired adults from near and far to start digging to look for more, who reported found "many had found lots of ancient coins", while other people went to the scene to purchase the coins.[96] A local resident named Ms. Li (李姓) noted that the coins sold for 380 yuan ($60) per kilogram.[96] Local villagers were confused as to why after a month no local officials in charge of cultural relics had attempted to intervene as is customary in China, Dahe Daily reported that the more soil is dug at the site in Renhezhai Village the process of searching for ancient Chinese cash coins, the mud might collapse which may cause lethal accidents.[96] Of the coins that were excavated at the site, most dated back to the Northern Song dynasty period.[96] | Northern Song dynasty period |
2015 (Mainland China)
List of 2015 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
2015 | The tomb of the Marquis of Haihun in Xinjian, Nanchang, Jiangxi | Around 2,000,000 Wu Zhu cash coins weighing 10 tonnes | In 2015 Chinese archeologists uncovered 10 tonnes of bronze Wu Zhu cash coins from the Western Han dynasty (or around 2 million cash coins) alongside over ten thousand of other iron, bronze, and gold items in the Haihunhou cemetery near Nanchang, Jiangxi, among the other uncovered items were bamboo slips, wood tablets, as well as jade objects. As these Wu Zhu cash coins were strung in strings of 1000 pieces this proved that the practice of stringing cash coins per 1000 didn't first happen during the Tang dynasty as was previously thought but actually six hundred years earlier.[97][98] By 2017 the cash coins unearthed at the site had numbered to around 2,000,000 Wu Zhu cash coins, on 9 January 2017 iFeng.com reported that a rare Wu Zhu cash coin with a character that was found to have been carved upside down.[99][100] | Western Han dynasty period | ||
26 January 2015 | Xinjiang County, Shanxi | Over 12,000 Northern Song dynasty period iron cash coins | On January 26, 2015 the Shanxi News Network (山西新闻网) reported that over 12,000 iron cash coins produced during the Northern Song dynasty had been recovered at an archaeological site, situated on a high precipice, in the historical prefecture of Jiangzhou, located in Xinjiang County, Shanxi.[12][13] The iron cash coins were unearthed during a 20 month excavation by the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology (山西省考古研究所).[12][13] While the unearthed iron cash coins were severely corroded, after the archeologists had treating them for rust, it was revealed that the iron cash coins originated during six reign periods in the mid and late Northern Song dynasty period.[12][13] The inscriptions of the iron cash coins were Xining Tongbao (熙寧通寶), Yuanyou Tongbao (元祐通寶), Shaosheng Yuanbao (紹聖元寶), Chongning Tongbao (崇寧通寶), Daguan Tongbao (大觀通寶), and Zhenghe Tongbao (政和通寶).[12][13] The most commonly found inscription in the hoard was Zhenghe Tongbao.[12][13] Other than the iron cash coins, the archeologists had further unearthed several furnaces (爐灶, lú zào) and crucibles (坩堝, gān guō).[12][13] It remains currently unknown whether or not the furnaces and crucibles are somehow related to the over 12,000 iron cash coins that were uncovered.[12][13] | Northern Song dynasty period | ||
Approx. 10:00 AM 21 March 2015 | Longgang Town, Yancheng, Jiangsu | Tang and Song dynasty period cash coins | At approximately 10:00 AM on March 21, 2015 the excavator was dredging a small 6-meter wide river that runs through Longgang Town, Yancheng, Jiangsu had uncovered a pile of ancient Chinese cash coins dating to the Tang and Song dynasties that had been stored inside of a earthenware pot.[41][42] After the word of the coin hoard had spread throughout the village, a number of local residents started to "treasure hunt" in the area looking for more old cash coins.[41][42] The villagers had found around 200–300 catties (267–400 pounds, 121–181 kilograms) of cash coins before they were chased away by the police because it's illegal in the People's Republic of China to take "cultural relics" as they’re all legally government property.[41][42] Zhao Yongzheng (赵永正) of the Archaeology Department of the Yancheng Museum (盐城市博物馆考古部) noted that this coin cache was probably buried there somewhere at the beginning of the Southern Song dynasty period.[41][42] The inscriptions of the unearthed cash coins included the Tang dynasty period Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶), as well as the Song dynasty period Taiping Tongbao (太平通寶), Tiansheng Yuanbao (天聖元寶), Xiangfu Yuanbao (祥符元寶), Zhenghe Tongbao (政和通寶).[41][42] | Southern Song dynasty period | ||
11 May 2015 | Mengyuan Village (孟塬乡) Pengyang County, Guyuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region | A Western Xia period Da An Bao Qian (大安寶錢, 𘜶𗵐𘏨𘔭) cash coin and a Northern Song dynasty Chunhua Yuanbao (淳化元寶) cash coin. | According to an article published on May 11, 2015, two cash coins were uncovered in Mengyuan Village (孟塬乡) Pengyang County, Guyuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.[101][102] The two cash coins were obtained by the Pengyang County Office of Chronicles Compilation (彭阳县史志办公室) from a local coin collector named Mr. Hu (虎).[101] The first cash coin is a Western Xia period Da An Bao Qian (大安寶錢, 𘜶𗵐𘏨𘔭) cash coin with a diameter of 2.4 centimeters. Its inscription is notably written in a "slanted character" variety (斜字版, Xié zì bǎn) of Tangut script and it has a blank reverse.[101] The second cash coin is a Chunhua Yuanbao (淳化元寶) cash coin produced during the Northern Song dynasty period.[101] It is notably a rare version of the regular script (or "royally inscribed") variety of the coin, as the "氵" radical of the Chinese character "淳" is a "shortened" variant which does not extend all the way to the bottom of the character, as the more "common" variants of the Northern Song dynasty's Chunhua Yuanbao cash coins tend to have. Because of the way the radical looks, this type of Chunhua Tongbao is known to Chinese numismatists as the "shortened shui" or "shrunken shui" variety (縮水版, Suōshuǐ bǎn) and only a handful of authentic specimens of the "shortened shui" Chunhua Tongbao cash coins are known to exist.[101] According to Qi Yuezhang (祁悦章) from the Pengyang County Office of Chronicles Compilation both of the cash coins were deemed to be authentic specimens.[101] Of ancient cash coins that are held in the collection of the Pengyang County Office of Cultural Relics (彭阳县文物馆) over half of them were produced by either the Tangut Western Xia dynasty and Song dynasty.[101] | Western Xia and Northern Song dynasties period | ||
16 June 2015 | Yuncheng "salt lake" (运城盐池), Yuncheng, Shanxi | 500 clay moulds | It was reported on June 16, 2015 by the Yuncheng News Network (运城新闻网) that two bird photographers and enthusiasts of the "salt lake culture", Mr. Jing Xiaoxiong (景晓雄) and Mr. Zhang Xiaobie (张小别) had discovered 500 clay moulds used to cast iron cash coins during the Song dynasty period.[103] The clay moulds were located at the Yuncheng "salt lake" (运城盐池), which is sometimes known as "China's Dead Sea" (中国死海) located near the city of Yuncheng, Shanxi.[103] While quite a number of these clay moulds were in good condition with very distinct inscriptions, many of the around five hundred clay moulds are in poor condition.[103] The inscriptions on the discovered Song dynasty era coin moulds include Yuanfeng Tongbao (元豐通寶), Chongning Tongbao (崇寧通寶), Daguan Tongbao (大觀通寶), Zhenghe Tongbao (政和通寶), and seal script Zhenghe Zhongbao (政和重寶).[103] The discovery of the clay coin moulds is notable because no historical documents have ever mentioned that the city of Hedong (河東), the name of Yuncheng during the Song dynasty period, had a mint, nor have any ruins of a mint been discovered in the area.[103] The discovery of the clay coin moulds will further encourage the study of Song dynasty ruins in the area of Yuncheng, Shanxi to search for the possible existence of an ancient cash coin mint.[103] | Northern Song dynasty period | ||
1 August 2015 | Qianjiang District, Chongqing | 4,000 cash coins cast in a period of about 1400 years. | On August 1, 2015 in the Qianjiang District, Chongqing, a woman named Wang Meiying (王美英), while collecting wood in the mountain area, had discovered a hole in which a large quantity of old cash coins were buried.[25] The cash coins found in the hole weighed about 30 catties and consisted of over 4,000 cash coins, the inscriptions found on the coins cover a period of about 1400 years.[25] The hoard includes Tang dynasty era Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶) cash coins, Song dynasty era Jingde Yuanbao (景德元寶) and Yuanfeng Tongbao (元豐通寶) cash coins, and Ming dynasty era Chongzhen Tongbao (崇禎通寶) cash coins. But 80% of the hoard consists of Qing dynasty coinage, namely Kangxi Tongbao (康熙通寶), Qianlong Tongbao (乾隆通寶), and Xianfeng Tongbao (咸豐通寶) cash coins.[25] It was reported by a 75 year old villager from the area named Ms. Wan Jixiang (万继湘), that this area of the Qianjiang District did not use cash coins in the past and that the area housed no landlords or government officials that could have accumulated such an amount of wealth.[25] As the area has had a long history of criminality, it was speculated by some locals that the cash coins may have been buried there long ago by bandits (土匪) who were on the run.[25] | Qing Xianfeng period | ||
21 August 2015 | Cishi Pagoda (慈氏塔) located in Yueyang, Hunan | Over a thousand Tang and Northern Song dynasty cash coins. | On August 21, 2015 it was reported on by the government-owned Yueyang Daily (岳阳日报) that over a thousand Tang and Northern Song dynasty cash coins were discovered during the renovation of the Cishi Pagoda (慈氏塔) located in Yueyang, Hunan.[104] Among the cash coins are a number of early Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶) cash coins from the Tang dynasty, as well as several Northern Song dynasty era inscriptions such as Chunhua Yuanbao (淳化元寶), Xianping Yuanbao (咸平元寶), Tianxi Tongbao (天禧通寶), and Tiansheng Yuanbao (天聖元寶).[104] Ou Jifan (欧继凡), the Deputy-Director of the Yueyang Municipal Office of Cultural Relics (市文物管理处副主任), stated that the date major restoration was confirmed to be 1066 through an analysis of the cash coins.[104] Ou Jifan further stated that there was an ancient tradition of burying coins during the construction and renovation of pagodas in China, as in the past people had believed that coins offered a form of protection to the pagoda that was being constructed or renovated, and that they furthermore would serve as a type of sacrifice to the heavens, and that the cash coins expressed the hope for peace.[104] Earlier during the same restoration of the Cishi Pagoda in 2015 a covered alms bowl with the inscription "Da Song Zhiping San Nian" (大宋治平三年, "the 3rd year of Zhiping of the Great Song") was discovered, which also indicates that the pagoda underwent a major renovation in the year 1066.[104] | 1066 | ||
24 September 2015 | Zhaojiazhuang Cemetery, Shandong | Cash coins from various periods and silver sycees issued under the Jurchen Jin dynasty. | It was reported on 24 September 2015 that a number of cash coins had been found in tombs located in tombs during excavation work undertaken by the Jinan City Archaeological Research Institute nearby the Zhaojiazhuang Cemetery, Shandong.[105] The tombs yielded cash coins produced during the Song, Tang, and Manchu Qing dynasties with the latest examples being Xianfeng era cash coins.[105] A tomb identified as "Grave M1" also contained silver sycees issued under the Jurchen Jin dynasty.[105] | Various periods | ||
November 2015 | The tomb of the Marquis of Haihun in Xinjian, Nanchang, Jiangxi | 25 gold hoofs (a type of sycee) and 50 very large gold coins | It was reported on 17 November 2015 by the Xinhua News Agency that at the tomb of the Marquis of Haihun in Xinjian, Jiangxi a number of gold coins had been found.[106][107][108] Excavations of the tomb have been conducted since 2011.[109][110] The gold objects unearthed included some 25 gold hoofs (a type of sycee) with varying weights from 40 to 250 grams and 50 very large gold coins weighing about 250 grams each.[106][107] The gold coinages were packed inside of three different boxes that were placed under a bed that was located inside of the main chamber of the tomb.[106][107] According to Yang Jie, who leads the excavation team, the gold objects were likely awarded to the Marquis of Haihun by the emperor himself.[106][107] | Han dynasty period |
2016 (Mainland China)
List of 2016 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
Saturday 27 February 2016 | Nanzuo Village, Xingping, Shaanxi | 459 kilograms of Xin dynasty cash coins | It was reported on Thursday 3 March 2016 by China.org.cn that local newspapers had covered a story on Tuesday 1 March 2016 where a villager surnamed Zhang in Nanzuo Village, Xingping, Shaanxi had unearthed 459 kilograms of Xin dynasty cash coins.[111] While Mr. Zhang was levelling the land on Saturday 27 February 2016 with a spade, after digging for about half a meter he had discovered the coins.[111] All of the discovered Wang Mang period copper-alloy coins have centre holes and can further be subdivided into three kinds, some have square centre holes, others have rectangular centre holes, and others had round ones.[111] After the local police was called, a local police officer with the cultural relics inspection detachment named Feng Pengru had told the Xinhua News Agency that they were all produced during the Xin dynasty.[111] After the cash coins that were found in Nanzuo Village were cleaned and evaluated from the site by a team of archaeologists they were given to the local museum.[111] | Xin dynasty period | ||
27 April 2016 | Rongpo Monastery, Tingri County, Xigazê, Tibet Autonomous Region | 5,500 Tibetan coins. | Over 5,500 coins (weighing 26.6 kg in total) were unearthed at the Rongpo Monastery located near the base of Mount Everest in Tibet. The coins were found during a renovation and are believed to be two centuries old. The coins are round and bear floral patterns. |
2017 (Mainland China)
List of 2017 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
February 2017 | Gan River in Xingan County, Jiangxi | Over 500 kilograms of Qing dynasty cash coins | It was reported on 5 January 2017 that local villagers had dug up over 500 kilograms of Qing dynasty cash coins near the Gan River in Xingan County, Jiangxi.[112] The villlagers had occupied an area of 30 square metre and were excavating the site without permission, most of the villagers at the site were pensioners and children.[112] Eventually the local police force had to call in 20 reinforcements to cordon off the area so archaeologists could excavate the area later.[112] | Qing dynasty period | ||
March 2017 | Minjiang River in Meishan, Sichuan | Over 10,000 gold and silver objects | In March 2017 a Xiwang Shanggong (西王賞功) cash coin issued by Zhang Xianzhong was unearthed at the Jiangkou stretch of the Minjiang River in Meishan, Sichuan.[113] The findings at the river included over 10,000 individual items of gold and silver including a number of golden and silver sycees.[114][115] | Transition from Ming to Qing | ||
July 2017 | Xi'an, Shaanxi | 2 gold Eastern Roman coins and 1 silver Sasanian coin | On 7 July 2017 the state-run tabloid Global Times reported that the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology (SPIA) had uncovered two Eastern Roman gold coins as well as a Sasanian coin inside of a tomb in Xi'an, Shaanxi.[116] The tomb belonged to Lu Chou, a Western Wei dynasty nobleman who died in 538.[117] The golden Eastern Roman coins were issued under Anastasius I and Justinian I, respectively, and the silver Sassanian coin was issued Peroz I. | Western Wei dynasty period | ||
22 October 2017 | Chacun Village, Fuliang County, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi | 300,000 Song dynasty cash coins (weighing around 5.6 tonnes) | It was reported on 27 October 2017 by China Daily that about 300,000 cash coins (weighing around 5.6 tonnes) have been unearthed from under a residential house, after it had been discovered by a villager during the rebuilding of his old home, in Chacun Village, Fuliang County, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi.[118][119] Archaeologists had completed the excavation of the site on 22 October 2017.[118][119] Several local villagers noted that folk tales claimed that the area was owned by a wealthy landlord a millennium prior to the find, which might be the origin of the cash coins.[118][119] Feng Ruqin, curator of Fuliang Museum, stated that the cash coins must have probably been collected and placed there by a folk organisation as the nominal value of the cash coins were too small to do with the landlord.[118][119] The cash coins found at the site were attributed to the Song dynasty.[118][119] According to the South China Morning Post Jingdezhen has been referred to as the "capital of porcelain" since the 3rd century.[120][121] | Song dynasty period | The Fuliang Museum | |
Monday 13 November 2017 | Near Zhoukou, Henan | Han, Xin, and Song dynasty coinages. | On Monday 13 November 2017, the Henan Cultural Relics Department announced that an excavation near Zhoukou, Henan had unearthed a large number of tombs and cash coins that date to the Han dynasty period.[122] Over 120 different tombs were discovered, of which 105 dated to the Han dynasty period and 15 to the Song dynasty and Qing dynasty periods.[122] Most of the cash coins unearthed at the site were Wu Zhu (五銖) cash coins, while also a number of Xin dynasty spade coins issued under Wang Mang, and song Dynasty cash coins were also found in a number of tombs.[122] | Various periods |
2018 (Mainland China)
List of 2018 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
15 July 2018 | Sanmenxia, Henan | 504 spade coins | On July 15, 2018 it was reported by the Xinhua News Agency that 504 Spring and Autumn period spade coins were unearthed at a construction site in Sanmenxia, Henan.[123][124] The spades were preserved inside of a clay pottery cooker.[123] Of the total of 504 spades that were unearthed, 434 had remained intact.[123] Li Shuqian, the head of the local museum, noted that it was very rare for such a large amount of ancient Chinese coinage to remain preserved in such a good state.[123] | Spring and Autumn period | ||
26 October 2018 | Tianba Village, Guanba town, Qijiang District, Chongqing | Around 3,000 iron Southern Song dynasty cash coins | It was reported on 30 October 2018 by CQCB (重庆日报客户端) that a coin hoard of around 3,000 Southern Song dynasty period cash coins had been discovered at a construction site along S434 in Tianba Village, Guanba town, Qijiang District, Chongqing.[125][126] The cash coins were initially discovered on 26 October 2018 after a few construction workers had noticed the presence of round coins with square centre holes mong the rocks they were clearing.[125][126] Liao Xiaobo, the On-Site Principal of Highway Maintenance Station of Chongqing Traffic, noted that these cash coins were found over 20 meters in the ground.[125][126] Archaeologists managed to dig up around 3,000 cash coins at the site.[125][126] At the time of the report all the unearthed cash coins were made from iron.[125][126] The archaeologists suspect that the coins were produced during the Southern Song dynasty period but suspect that they may have been produced earlier.[125][126] Linghu Keqiang, the head of the Museum of Chongqing Wansheng Economic and Technological Development Zone, stated that the find would aid with research on immigrant culture to the area and the local socio-economic development of Wansheng as it reflected the economic development level of the area at the time.[125][126] | Southern Song dynasty period | The Chongqing Museum |
2020s
2020 (Mainland China)
List of 2020 coin hoards in Mainland China | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of discovery | Place of discovery | Image | Content | Long description of the find and notes | Date (if known) | Current location (if known) |
Sunday 15 March 2020 | Zhanghuabao Village, Zhangtai, Wei County, Xingtai, Hebei | Over 1000 bronze Northern Song dynasty cash coins, primarily with the inscriptions Daguan Tongbao (大觀通寶) and Zhenghe Tongbao (政和通寶). | It was reported on 17 March 2020 by the Weixian Cultural Preservation Institute that one of their staff members had found the location of a temple site in Zhanghuabao Village, Zhangtai, Wei County, Xingtai, Hebei.[127][128] On the 15 March 2020 a cultural relic enthusiast had found several ancient Chinese cash coins around the area, afterwards the man took a few excavation tools and started digging around the area and found the location of more cash coins.[127][128] Villagers then reported the find to the Weixian Cultural Preservation Institute who immediately excavated the site.[127][128] At the temple site over a thousand Northern Song dynasty period cash coins were unearthed by the Weixian Cultural Preservation Institute.[127][128] Most of the discovered cash coins had suffered from corrosion and were rusted together.[127][128] Wang Xiaohui, the director of the Weixian Cultural Preservation Institute, stated that the clean-up revealed that the majority of the cash coins date to the Northern Song dynasty and that the most common inscriptions were Daguan Tongbao (大觀通寶) and Zhenghe Tongbao (政和通寶).[127][128] | Southern Song dynasty | ||
May 2020 (Excavations began in 2015) | Chengdu, Sichuan | 86 burial objects and hundreds of coins inside of a late Han dynasty tomb designated the "M94 Cliff Tomb". | In May of the year 2020 the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology reported on the findings in various tombs located in Chengdu, Sichuan which range from the Warring States period, the Qin dynasty, the Han dynasty, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the Ming dynasty, and the Manchu Qing dynasty.[129] Among these finds hundreds of cash coins dating to the late Han dynasty period were discovered. Various other items were also discovered inside of these burial sites.[129] | 475 BCE–1912 CE |
See also
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