When Li Yuan first entered Chang'an, the people used light money from the Sui Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty lasted for 289 years, and there were only three types of money recorded in official history, namely: Kaiyuan Tongbao, Qianfeng Quanbao, and Qianyuan Chongbao. The most important thing is of course Kaiyuan Tongbao.

The Qianwen of Kaiyuan Tongbao was written by Ouyang Xun, a famous calligrapher at that time. It has eight points and three characters of seal script and official script. This is also the first time that the name of the person who wrote Qianwen has been recorded in history books. This shows that casting Kaiyuan Tongbao was a major event in the early Tang Dynasty. Kaiyuan Tongbao's four characters are vigorous in writing, precise in mood, dignified and elegant, dignified and powerful.

1. The era name coins of the Tang Dynasty

Kaiyuan Tongbao coins are not the era name coins. The first type of era name coins in the Tang Dynasty was the Qianfeng Spring cast in the first year of Qianfeng. At that time, each Qianfengquan treasure was equivalent to 10 Kaiyuan Tongbao, which was a virtual currency. The font is regular script, cast and finished, the diameter of the coin is 25~28mm, and the weight is 3.7~4.9g. People are not happy to use it, and it will be discarded after one year. There are few surviving coins.

Among the four characters for Qianfeng Quanbao, the word Qianquan is written in regular script, while the character Fengbao is still written in official script. This is also a trend of changes in the style of money writing. The calligraphy of the Tang Dynasty paid attention to the four characters of Qian Wen, which are extremely powerful and profound, and are difficult for people today to imitate. Among the fakes, the money writing is often diffuse and the strokes are weak. If the well-cast mother money or bank money is recast, the spirit of the text will also be weakened. At this point, those who are new to the spring world can carefully observe Qian Wen's feelings and explore experience.

The next coins were almost all year-name money, that is, the year name at that time was accompanied by words such as Tongbao, Yuanbao, Chongbao, etc. This format of money writing was used until the last year of the Qing Dynasty. The number Xuantong can still be seen even on some machine-made coins.

Tongbao means "traveling treasures". "Tongbao" appears in Jia Yi's "Guo Qin", "We do not care about treasures and fertile lands." Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty also said in the edict that "money is the most important treasure of the country". In the first year of Qianyuan of the Tang Dynasty, another Qianyuan Chongbao was minted for ten coins; in the second year of Qianyuan, another fifty Qianyuan Chongbao coins were minted. This fifty Qianyuan Chongbao coins were carried on the back of a heavy wheel, requiring each thousand coins to weigh Twenty pounds is twice as much as ten qian. But in fact, the Qianyuan Chongbao is not evenly minted when it is fifty coins. There are also small coins, even as small as less than 1g. It can be seen that the private casting situation still existed at that time, and it was also relatively serious.

The heavy treasure of Qianyuan is worth ten mother coins

The heavy treasure of Qianyuan is worth ten gilt coins

The heavy treasure of Qianyuan is worth ten pieces of gilded gold

Two , They may be privately minted

No matter the above-mentioned coins are minted, the money and writing skills are all dignified and elegant, and they should undoubtedly be official mints. However, there are obvious differences in the styles of some coins in the Tang Dynasty that are less surviving, such as Dali Yuanbao and Jianzhong Tongbao. Although there are fewer coins in existence than Kaiyuan Tongbao, the market value is also affected by the exquisiteness of the coins.

Dali Yuanbao

Jianzhong Tongbao

One each of Jianzhong Tongbao and Dali Yuanbao

After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty The national power has declined significantly, and the separatism of various regions has become a formality. During the Dali period, Dali Yuanbao was minted, but the money body was not well made, and the condition of the money body looked like privately minted money. Most of the ancient coins of the Tang Dynasty were read directly, but both Dali Yuanbao and Jianzhong Tongbao were changed to spin reading, which was somewhat irregular. During the Dali period, the price of money was very low and the price of copper was high, so coins should not be minted. However, because it was necessary to collect money from young crops at that time, and the people did not have much cash in their hands at that time, it was more reasonable to mint some privately. However, if the Dali Yuanbao is cast privately, private castings are often imitations of old coins. Private castings of newly minted coins are extremely rare. This point still needs further study.

Jianzhong coins were also minted in the first year of Jianzhong. This kind of coins was lighter and smaller than Li Yuanbao, and the quantity was smaller. This was also suspected to be private money coined by the people at that time. In the first year of Jianzhong, the Two Tax Law was implemented and all taxes were monetized. Under this situation, the people had to mint some more coins privately, but because the price of copper was high at the time, the number was not too large. Among these privately minted coins, more should be Kaiyuan Tongbao

3. Dazhen coins of the Tang Dynasty

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, in the eleventh year of Tang Yizong Li Xiantong, Guangxi Yangjian once cast Xiantong Xuanbao. During the 14 years of Tang Yizong's reign, he favored villains and alienated virtuous ministers, which made the Tang Dynasty decline even more. Wang Tong, the casting supervisor in Guiyang, requested the casting of Xiantong Xuanbao, but he could not stop because of a problem. There are very few Xiantong Xuanbao in the Tang Dynasty and they are among the most valuable coins of the Tang Dynasty. Among them, Qian Wenxuanbao is also a special case in the history of coins.

Xiantong Xuanbao

4. Coinage in the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty

The culture of the Tang Dynasty was highly developed, which enabled the monetary culture of the Tang Dynasty to spread abroad. Such as Japan, North Korea and other countries. At the same time, it also affected some ethnic groups in the Western Regions, such as the Huihe and Tuqishi. During the Anshi Rebellion, Uighurs used their troops to assist the Tang Dynasty in quelling the rebellion. The Tang Dynasty rewarded the Uighur Khan at that time and betrothed the princess to the Khan.

Mouyu Khan, the son of the Khan, once cast a kind of square-hole coin with Uighur characters on the front and back. One side means the reputation of the virtuous Huihe Mouyutian Khan, and the other side means the order of protecting the country