During the 286-year rule of the Tang Dynasty, Kaiyuan Bao Tong was the main currency in circulation.
Wude Kaiyuan in Early Tang Dynasty
Qianzhuang is a high-quality Kaiyuan money written by Ou Yangxun, which is closely supervised by Qianjian. Its main features are: good front and back, complete outline, deep Qian Wen, pure copper and excellent casting. Money is 24 mm to 25 mm in diameter, 7 mm in diameter, 2 mm in width, and weighs about 4.5 grams. The four characters contain eight points and official script, and the strokes are dignified and steady, and the word "open" is symmetrical and dense; The word "yuan" is divided into short horizontal lines at the beginning and long horizontal lines at the second pass. The first three strokes of the word "Tong" are not connected with each other, showing the shape of three strokes, and the opening of the "Yong" part is larger; The word "Bao" is solemnly written, and its "shell" part is two short horizontal lines, which are not connected with the left and right vertical pens.
The Moon Marks in the Mid-Tang Dynasty and Kaiyuan
It looks like fingernail prints, and there are quite a few unearthed. On the Kaiyuan Qian Wen, the moon mark changed Ou Yangxun's dignified and steady Kaiyuan Qian Wen into a slender and delicate pen. The prefix "Yuan" is horizontally elongated, and the first three strokes of the word "Tong" are continuous twists and turns, and then evolve into continuous twists and turns. The pen opening of the "Yong" part is relatively flat, and the whole font looks thinner than the previous one. There are two horizontal extensions in the middle of the shell part of the word "Bao", which are connected with the left and right vertical pens respectively. The word "two" below "meter" indicates three vertical diameters.
Kaiyuan in the Late Tang Dynasty
In the sixth year of Huichang (AD 846), the casting guild was located in Kaiyuan, with a diameter as large as Kaiyuan, and the names of countries were cast on the back, such as "Jing" and "Chang" in Yangzhou. There are obvious differences in the process of casting money in different places, most of which are skewed and the casting text is vague (Figure 3). A year later, Huichang Kaiyuan stopped casting. Both of them are Huichang Kaiyuan, with obvious differences in quality, and there may be differences between official casting and private casting. In numerology, Huichang Kaiyuan is generally considered as a typical specimen of Kaiyuan in the late Tang Dynasty. In addition, small moon marks, moon marks, moon marks and multi-moon marks are openings or openings, copper-black, with high iron content and illegible handwriting. Qian Wen's strokes are slender, and the first three strokes of the word "Tong" are continuously folded in half or seemingly incoherent, and most of them have uneven outlines, which should be privately cast in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. As for the spread of flowers, experts verified that it was cast in the middle Tang Dynasty, mainly in the late Tang Dynasty. The word "Kai" for flowers to convey money develops to a wide body, with the prefix "Yuan" horizontally lengthened, the shape of "Tong" slender, the first three strokes of "Lian" twisted continuously, the stroke of "Bao" slender, the inner side of "North" horizontally elongated, and the left and right vertical pens connected. The diameter of money is 23 mm to 24 mm, and the copper is impure and the casting is sloppy.
Xiaojing kaiyuan
Refers to Kaiyuan coins with a diameter of 265,438+0 mm to 23 mm These small Kaiyuan coins may have been privately cast by the people in various periods. The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty and the Record of Food Goods wrote: "Apart from official casting, there are many private casting". Experts according to the excavation unearthed specimens of small kaiyuan, according to its popular stage, roughly divided into three types:
First, Qian Wen's handwriting imitates Wude Kaiyuan as much as possible, but the money is only 23mm in diameter and weighs less than 3g. Qian Wen is still clear, the outline is still regular, and the copper is not very bad; Type ⅱ, small kaiyuan in the middle Tang Dynasty, with vague fonts, rough casting process, copper doped with iron and lead, and serious corrosion; Type III, small kaiyuan in the late Tang Dynasty, with different widths, black copper, iron and lead, thin meat, fuzzy mold, nearly flat money back, diameter of 22 mm to 23 mm, weight of 1.7g to 3 g, mostly privately cast.
Wude Kaiyuan in Early Tang Dynasty
Kaiyuan Bao Tong
Qianzhuang is a high-quality Kaiyuan money written by Ou Yangxun, which is closely supervised by Qianjian. Its main features are: good front and back, complete outline, deep Qian Wen, pure copper and excellent casting. Money is 24 mm to 25 mm in diameter, 7 mm in diameter, 2 mm in width, and weighs about 4.5 grams. The four characters contain eight points and official script, and the strokes are dignified and steady, and the word "open" is symmetrical and dense; The word "yuan" is divided into short horizontal lines at the beginning and long horizontal lines at the second pass. The first three strokes of the word "Tong" are not connected with each other, showing the shape of three strokes, and the opening of the "Yong" part is larger; The word "Bao" is solemnly written, and its "shell" part is two short horizontal lines, which are not connected with the left and right vertical pens.
The Moon Marks in the Mid-Tang Dynasty and Kaiyuan
It looks like fingernail prints, and there are quite a few unearthed. On the Kaiyuan Qian Wen, the moon mark changed Ou Yangxun's dignified and steady Kaiyuan Qian Wen into a slender and delicate pen. The prefix "Yuan" is horizontally elongated, and the first three strokes of the word "Tong" are continuous twists and turns, and then evolve into continuous twists and turns. The pen opening of the "Yong" part is relatively flat, and the whole font looks thinner than the previous one. There are two horizontal extensions in the middle of the shell part of the word "Bao", which are connected with the left and right vertical pens respectively. The word "two" below "meter" indicates three vertical diameters.
Kaiyuan in the Late Tang Dynasty
In the sixth year of Huichang (AD 846), the casting guild was located in Kaiyuan, with a diameter as large as Kaiyuan, and the names of countries were cast on the back, such as "Jing" and "Chang" in Yangzhou. There are obvious differences in the process of casting money in different places, most of which are skewed and the casting text is vague (Figure 3). A year later, Huichang Kaiyuan stopped casting. Both of them are Huichang Kaiyuan, with obvious differences in quality, and there may be differences between official casting and private casting. In numerology, Huichang Kaiyuan is generally considered as a typical specimen of Kaiyuan in the late Tang Dynasty. In addition, small moon marks, moon marks, moon marks and multi-moon marks are openings or openings, copper-black, with high iron content and illegible handwriting. Qian Wen's strokes are slender, and the first three strokes of the word "Tong" are continuously folded in half or seemingly incoherent, and most of them have uneven outlines, which should be privately cast in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. As for the spread of flowers, experts verified that it was cast in the middle Tang Dynasty, mainly in the late Tang Dynasty. The word "Kai" for flowers to convey money develops to a wide body, with the prefix "Yuan" horizontally lengthened, the shape of "Tong" slender, the first three strokes of "Lian" twisted continuously, the stroke of "Bao" slender, the inner side of "North" horizontally elongated, and the left and right vertical pens connected. The diameter of money is 23 mm to 24 mm, and the copper is impure and the casting is sloppy.
Xiaojing kaiyuan
Refers to Kaiyuan coins with a diameter of 265,438+0 mm to 23 mm These small Kaiyuan coins may have been privately cast by the people in various periods. The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty and the Record of Food Goods wrote: "Apart from official casting, there are many private casting". Experts according to the excavation unearthed specimens of small kaiyuan, according to its popular stage, roughly divided into three types:
First, Qian Wen's handwriting imitates Wude Kaiyuan as much as possible, but the money is only 23mm in diameter and weighs less than 3g. Qian Wen is still clear, the outline is still regular, and the copper is not very bad; Type ⅱ, small kaiyuan in the middle Tang Dynasty, with vague fonts, rough casting process, copper doped with iron and lead, and serious corrosion; Type III, small kaiyuan in the late Tang Dynasty, with different widths, black copper, iron and lead, thin meat, fuzzy mold, nearly flat money back, diameter of 22 mm to 23 mm, weight of 1.7g to 3 g, mostly privately cast.
Although the Yuan Dynasty was dominated by paper money, it also made money, and many historical books were lost. There are two kinds of early Mongolian "Great Dynasty Bao Tong": copper and silver. When Kublai Khan arrived in Yuan Shizu, in the middle period (from the first year to the fourth year of Ding Jing in the Southern Song Dynasty, AD 1260- 1263), the "middle wing" was cast, and Qian Wen was a Chinese seal script with regular script, which was a small flat coin. But this money does not meet the requirements for money, because seal script is read in rotation and regular script is read straight (straight). There are no characters in seal script, but it has four stars, which is extremely rare. In the 22nd year of Zhiyuan (AD 1285), Zhiyuan Bao Tong was cast. There are two kinds handed down, one is small flat money in regular script in Chinese, and the other is Basiba commonly known in Mongolian, which is about two yuan in size. During Yuan Zhen's reign (A.D. 1295- 1297), Yuan Chengzong cast a "treasure of Yuan Tong" called Xiao Ping Qian, and "Yuan Zhen Yuan Bao" was converted into two yuan, all of which were regular script in Chinese. There is also an eight-part essay "Yuan Tong Zhen Bao", which seems to have folded San Qian; During the Dade period (A.D. 1297- 1307), there were "Dade Bao Tong", including Chinese regular script money and Basiba script money. Regular script money has Xiaoping, 50% off and 30% off. Basiba script money is only big, the size is between two and three. Yuan Wuzong earned two kinds of money in the third year of his freshman year (A.D. 13 10). One was "Zhi Da Bao Tong" regular script small flat money; The other is "Dayuan Bao Tong", written in eight languages, which is the top ten money. At that time, there were spring goods in Shandong, Hedong, Liaoyang and other places, so Datong's precious money was passed down from generation to generation. In addition, there are two other kinds of big yuan Bao Tong money, one is small flat money with no words on the back, the other is big yuan money, and the four words "big, tong and Bao" on the front are thin gold, modeled after the font of Huizong Daguan money in the Northern Song Dynasty, but the word "yuan" is extremely poor and unique to Yuan people. After the Great Dynasty, titles of various dynasties also had coins, and Yuan Renzong had coins in regular script of China, such as "Huang Qing Yuanbao", "Yan You Yuanbao", "Yan You Bao Tong" and "Yan You Treasure". Yuan Yingzong has such currencies as "Zhi Zhi Treasure" and "Zhi Zhi Bao Tong", and another large sum of money consists of three minority languages: Basiba, Chagatai and Xixia. It is rare to see the four-character "Zhi Zhi Bao Tong" composed of three languages. Tai Huang minted coins such as "Taiding Yuanbao", "Taiding Bao Tong" and "the first year of Taiding". In the first year of He Zhi, "He Zhi Yuanbao" was cast. Yuan Wenzong minted Tian Li Yuanbao, Shunzhi Yuanbao and Shunzhi Bao Tong, and also minted Shunzhi Renshen Money with the words "Tai Chi" and "Protecting the Sage" on the back. Yuan Shundi minted "Tong Yuan Bao", "Zhi Tong Yuan Bao" and "Bao Zhiyuan" coins. There were seven years' money in Yuan Dynasty. The words "Tai Chi", "Guarding Saints" and "Qian Wen" at the back of the above words refer to raising wealth. In addition, in order to restore the credit of paper money, Yuan Shundi also created "Quanqian", the face text is "the treasure of the best", which is regular script. The word "Ji" is printed on the back of the money (supervised by Ji 'an Road, Jiangxi Province), the word "Quanqian" is printed on the back as a silver ticket, and the currency value is written on the left, which is five cents, one yuan and one yuan respectively. The face value of money is smaller than that of paper money, for example, money is only worth half of silver. During the ten years in Zheng Zheng, there were five kinds of "Zheng Zheng Bao Tong": Xiaoping, Zheer, Zheer, Zheer and Dangerous, all of which were regular script, and Qian Wen read them in sequence. There are four kinds of back words: one is wearing Ba Siba's "land" on his back, and the back words of Xiaoping, Zheer and Zheer have the word "Yin"; Second, put it on the back, and put the word "three" in Basiba and the word "three" in China's regular script; The third is to put the word "Xu, Hai" on Basiba and the word "three" on China's regular script; The third is to paste the word "Xu, Hai" in Basiba on the back and the Chinese character "Ten" in regular script. In the Yuan Dynasty, all kinds of currencies were rare except some copper coins of "Supreme Bao Tong" and more Datong treasures.