Shengbao
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The currency of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (traditional Chinese:
Most cash coins issued by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were made from bronze with a smaller quantity being made from either iron or lead. Taiping rebellion cash coins made from either gold or silver are also known to exist but are extremely rare.[5][6] The reason why the Shengbao tend to be very diverse is because the central government of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had allowed local power-holders within their realm to produce their own cash coins within their jurisdiction.
History[edit]
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In 1850 the Taiping Rebellion was started by the head of the God worshippers Hong Xiuquan who founded the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, this rebellion lasted until 1864.[7] Despite its brief existence the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is known to have cast a number of different cash coins and varieties of them the denominations of all Shengbao notably weren't written down on the cash coins and had to be deduced by weight which made it an inconvenience for the people, some varieties of Shengbao are extremely rare such as a variant of the Taiping Shengbao with the inscription written as "
Although very little documentation exists about the coinage manufactured by the Taiping rebels, it is known that in June 1853 the occupying Taiping rebels ordered copper workers in Tianjing with the skills to cast coins to open new furnaces for the production of cash coins with the inscription Tianguo Shengbao that were reported to be "the size of foreign coins" (Mexican pesos), these coins were reported to be of very poor workmanship and their production was quickly discontinued and although no coins fitting this description are extant it is known that Taiping rebels in other areas and provinces did cast coinage.[9] The treasury of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was initially operated by village pawnbrokers, as was the custom in the rural areas of China at that time.
Cash coins with the inscription Taiping Tianguo (
Among the more common types of Shengbao are three types of cash coins, one was a Taiping Tianguo (
List of cash coins issued by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom[edit]
The following cash coins are known to have been cast by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:[11][8]
Obverse inscription (Romanised) |
Reverse inscription (Romanised) |
Denomination | Years of production | Catalogue numbers | Obverse image | Reverse image |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tongbao ( | ||||||
(Tianguo) |
(Tongbao)[a] |
10 wén | 1853–1855 | Hartill #23.1 | ||
(Tianguo) |
(Tongbao)[b] |
10 wén | 1853–1855 | Hartill #23.2 | ||
(Tianguo) |
(Shengbao)[c] |
10 wén | 1853–1855 | Hartill #23.3 | ||
(Tianguo) |
(Shengbao)[d] |
10 wén | 1853–1855 | Hartill #23.4, FD #2685, Schjøth #1608 | ||
(Tianguo)[e] |
(Shengbao) |
10 wén | 1853–1855 | Hartill #23.5 | ||
Written in Song style. "Guo" (囯) square. | ||||||
(Taiping Tianguo)[f] |
(Shengbao) |
1 wén | 1856–1860 | Hartill #23.6 | ||
(Taiping Tianguo)[g] |
(Shengbao) |
5 wén | 1856–1860 | Hartill #23.7, FD #2673 | ||
(Taiping Tianguo) |
(Shengbao) |
10 wén | 1856–1860 | Hartill #23.8, FD #2676 | ||
(Taiping Tianguo) |
(Shengbao) |
50 wén | 1856–1860 | Hartill #23.9, FD #2689 | ||
Written in Regular script. "Guo" (囯) oblong. | ||||||
(Taiping Tianguo)[h] |
(Shengbao) |
1 wén | 1860–1862 | Hartill #23.10, FD #2669, Schjøth #1605 | ||
(Taiping Tianguo) |
(Shengbao) |
5 wén | 1860–1862 | Hartill #23.11, FD #2672 | ||
(Taiping Tianguo) |
(Shengbao) |
10 wén | 1860–1862 | Hartill #23.12, FD #2674 | ||
(Taiping Tianguo) |
(Shengbao) |
50 wén | 1860–1862 | Hartill #23.13, FD #2688 | ||
Faint characters, seven stroke bei ( | ||||||
(Taiping Tianguo) |
(Shengbao) |
1 wén | 1856–1860 | Hartill #23.14 | ||
(Taiping Tianguo) |
(Shengbao) |
5 wén | 1856–1860 | Hartill #23.15 | ||
(Taiping Tianguo) |
(Shengbao) |
10 wén | 1856–1860 | Hartill #23.16, FD #2675 | ||
(Taiping Tianguo) |
(Shengbao) |
50 wén | 1856–1860 | Hartill #23.17 | ||
Six stroke bei ( | ||||||
(Taiping Tianguo) |
(Shengbao) |
1 wén | 1861–1864 | Hartill #23.18 | ||
Small characters | ||||||
(Taiping Tianguo) |
(Shengbao) |
1 wén | 1861–1864 | Hartill #23.19, Schjøth #1606 | ||
Large characters | ||||||
(Taiping Tianguo) |
(Shengbao) |
1 wén | 1861–1864 | Hartill #23.20, FD #2670 | ||
Others | ||||||
(Tianguo Shengbao)[j] |
(Taiping) |
1 wén | 1858–1864 | Hartill #23.21 | ||
(Tianguo Shengbao) |
(Taiping) |
5 wén | 1850s | Hartill #23.22 | ||
(Tianguo Shengbao)[k] |
(Taiping) |
1 wén | 1850s | Hartill #23.23 | ||
(Taiping Shengbao)[l] |
(Tianguo) |
1 wén | 1861–1864 | Hartill #23.24, Schjøth #1604, FD #2668 | ||
(Taiping Shengbao)[m] |
(Tianguo) |
1 wén | 1861–1864 | Hartill #23.25 | ||
(Taiping Shengbao)[n] |
(Tianguo) |
5 wén | 1861–1864 | Hartill #23.26 | ||
(Taiping) |
(Shengbao) |
1860s |
Vault protector coins of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom[edit]
During the later part of the Taiping Rebellion, the government of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom cast a small number of vault protector coins with the inscription Taiping Tianguo (
A specimen that was previously in the collection of Ma Dingxiang and sold at auction held in the year 2011 for an amount of $111,286 (RMB 690,000).[12]
Surviving specimens[edit]
During the Great Leap Forward, Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong had encouraged every Chinese commune and urban neighbourhood to build their own backyard steel furnaces; this policy was proclaimed in the party's five-year plan in order to further accelerate China's economic and industrial development.[5] In the villages "scrap iron" was to be collected for building these furnaces; this "scrap iron" was often collected from usable iron utensils and other iron tools.[5] In one Chinese village a technician collecting the iron to build the local furnace received a string of between ten and twenty Taiping Heavenly Kingdom iron cash coins to be melted down to make the furnace; the technician thought that destroying these cash coins would be "a waste" and hid them in his pocket and secretly brought them to his house.[5] Later these iron cash coins passed down to his descendants.[5]
Numismatics and research[edit]
According to a 2009 article in the numismatic journal Anhui Numismatics (
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Closed head tong (
通 ). - ^ Square head tong (
通 ). - ^ The bottom of the sheng (
聖 ) is written with a long middle stroke, like "壬 ". - ^ The bottom of the sheng (
聖 ) is written with a short middle stroke, like "王 ". - ^ "Tian" (
天 ) written in a compressed style. Often found in Nanjing. - ^ There are degenerate examples of this type.
- ^ Narrow rims.
- ^ Found in the Jiangsu area.
- ^ Ma and Ma attribute this type to the Hengyang Mint in southern Hunan.
- ^ Associated with the Hangzhou area.
- ^ Different style "Bao" (
寳 ). - ^ Seven stroke bei (
貝 ). - ^ Six stroke bei (
貝 ). - ^ Seven stroke bei (
貝 ).
Catalogue numbers[edit]
- Hartill = Cast Chinese Coins by David Hartill. Trafford, United Kingdom: Trafford Publishing. September 22, 2005. ISBN 978-1412054669.
- FD = Fisher's Ding (
丁 ), George A. Fisher's copy of Ding Fubao's (丁 福 保 ) original work catalogue, 1980, 251 pages. - Schjøth = "Chinese Currency, Currency of the Far East – A Comprehensive Text Chou Dynasty, 1122 B.C.–255 B.C. Through Ch'ing Dynasty 1644 A.D.–1911 A.D." by Fredrik Schjøth and Virgil Hancock, Oslow, Norway, 1929.
- Hartill-Qing = Qing Cash (
清 代 貨幣 ) by David Hartill, Royal Numismatic Society (2003). - Krause = C.L. Krause and C. Mishler, Standard Catalog of World Coins, Krause Publications, 1979.
References[edit]
- ^ TaipingRebellion.com
太平 天 囯 Tai Ping Tian Guo - Coins of the Taiping. Retrieved: 30 August 2018. - ^ "Money of the Kingdom of Heavenly Peace". The Currency Collector. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ^ "Chinese Cast Coins - THE CH'ING DYNASTY § Tai Ping Rebels". by Robert Kokotailo (Calgary Coin & Antique Gallery - Chinese Cast Coins). 2015. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
- ^ Hartill 2005, p. 429.
- ^ a b c d e "Taiping Rebellion Coins Saved from Furnace". Gary Ashkenazy / גארי אשכנזי (Primaltrek – a journey through Chinese culture). 1 June 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
- ^ The “Chutian City News” (
楚 天 都市 报). - Grandfather Saved Iron Coins from the Taiping Rebellion. Published: 5 May 2011. Retrieved: 1 June 2011. (in Mandarin Chinese using Simplified Chinese characters) - ^ Chinese Numismatics in Research - Taiping Tien Kuo - The Peasant Insurrectionary army Coinage by Y.K. Leung. Retrieved: 30 August 2018.
- ^ a b c "Chinese coins –
中國 錢 幣 § Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)". Gary Ashkenazy / גארי אשכנזי (Primaltrek – a journey through Chinese culture). 16 November 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2018. - ^ Hartill 2005, p. 425.
- ^ "Qing Period Money". By Ulrich Theobald (Chinaknowledge - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art). 13 April 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
- ^ Hartill 2005, p. 425-428.
- ^ a b c d e "Vault Protector Coins". Gary Ashkenazy / גארי אשכנזי (Primaltrek – a journey through Chinese culture). 10 June 2015. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
- ^
徐 州 旅行 社 (7 May 2014). "瞻园(太平 天国 历史博物 馆)" (in Chinese (China)). 0516tx News. Retrieved 12 January 2020. - ^ a b c d Wen Su (
文 甦 ) - Lead Taiping Heavenly Kingdom cash coins (铅质太平 天国 钱) - "Anhui Numismatics" 2009 No. 2 (《安徽 钱币》2009年 第 2期 : 37-37页共 2页).
Sources[edit]
- Hartill, David (2005). Cast Chinese Coins: A Historical Catalogue. Trafford. ISBN 978-1-4120-5466-9.
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