CHINA NORTH and SOUTH Dynasties 420-581 AD SI ZHU
$150.00
CHINA, NORTH and SOUTH Dynasties, 420-581 AD, cash, Obverse: SI ZHU, Reverse: LIN ZI SI ZHU, square, loop with incomplete hole on bottom, bronze, 10x16mm, 1.66g, H13.64v, aVF
Out of stock
Description
A batch of these came into the market in the early 2000s. There are people who hold the opinion that all known specimens are fake. After several years of thinking about it I decided that they are mostly genuine, and sold the ones I had. This is the last one.
Poor governance by later Han administrations combined with external pressures caused a breakup of China into smaller independent kingdoms. Unsettled conditions continued for several centuries until reunification by the Sui Dynasty, whose reforms were largely adopted by the successor Tang Dynasty.
The oldest Chinese coins are at least as old as the earliest Greek coins. The Chinese coinage system differed from other systems in two ways. It was monometallic, only bronze coins circulated in general commerce. Gold and silver were treated as commodities. And the manufacturing method was by casting in moulds rather than by striking heated solid planchets. The main reference I use in attributing and describing these coins is the book: Chinese Cast Coins, by David Hartill.
