Many people have never heard of knife coins and don’t know much about these ancient coins. Even if they know about them, they only know part of them from the Internet. For people who know the industry, knife coins and cloth coins are good things and have great value. It is also very high. It is the best in the category of ancient coins. Very few have been preserved for thousands of years. Each one is priceless. In the words of collectors, even if it is priceless, I will introduce the knife coin next. .
How to identify knife coins:
Knife coins
There are many types of ancient coins, among which knife coins and cloth coins are the main ones. variety. Knife coins and cloth coins are a beautiful collection of an era.
Knife coins, shaped like knives, evolved from the production of tool knives and were circulated in Qi, Yan, Zhao and other countries during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. There are many types of knife coins, including Qi Dao, Jimo Dao, Anyang Dao, etc. The Qi State in the east and the Yan State in the north mainly used knife coins. The shape of the knife coins was taken from the knife tools used by northern nomadic peoples such as Shanrong and Beidi for fishing and hunting.
Cloth coins originated from agricultural tools and money. "The Book of Songs" Zhou Song "Chen Gong" says: "Order all of us, the preface is made of money, and the dying view hammers moxa." ?Kong Yingda cited "Shuowen" as annotation: ?Qian, Cho, Gutian utensils. ?And "Shuowen" explains the casting as "One Day Field Ware". Money and castings are both agricultural tools used for tilling grass. The money is shaped like a shovel, with a hook on the upper end, and a wooden handle can be installed vertically. It was cast similar to today's hoe, with holes in the upper part for installing a wooden handle horizontally. The earliest cloth coins were very similar to farm tool money. They were larger in shape, with a thick upper part, a thin blade, and a hollow upper end. The hook extends to the middle and upper part of the Qian body, and there is a ridge on the back to enhance the bearing capacity. Due to factors such as shape, process improvement, and simplification, cloth coins are divided into many types: curved-footed empty-headed cloth, pointed-footed empty-headed cloth, pointed-footed cloth, etc.
Before starting to collect coins, in addition to mastering the characteristics of the times and individual characteristics of coins, you must also be familiar with the basic characteristics of counterfeit money. In addition, sound identification is also one of the ways to identify counterfeit money. Genuine ancient coins have been handed down for a long time, and the fire during smelting has disappeared, and the sound has no tone when struck. However, although the newly minted coins bear the ancient year number, But there is a transflection when struck. In addition, since counterfeit coins are not a whole piece of metal, but are pieced together, and some are made of two different metals, the inside of the coin may be damaged, so just drop it lightly on the table or tap it with metal. It will make a cracking sound.
Of course, if you see a lot of fakes, you will naturally be able to identify them, and you can basically tell the real ones from the fake ones.
The cultural value of knife coins:
Some categories that are handed down from generation to generation are popular mainly because of their high cultural taste and artistic value. For example, coins such as "Huoquan" and "Buquan" in Wang Mang's new dynasty in the Han Dynasty used vertical needle seal script; the nine-fold seal script "Quan Ti Tong Bao" cast during Renzong's reign in the Northern Song Dynasty was the earliest artistic calligraphy in China and is a collection of Treasure. "Kaiyuan Tongbao" written in the fourth year of Wude, Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, is the handwriting of the great calligrapher Ouyang Xun. His calligraphy style is upright and simple, strict and strict, vigorous and implicit; "Chunhua Yuanbao" was written by Song Taizong Zhao Guangyi in regular script, running script and cursive script. The cursive writing, the regular script is thick and dignified, the running script is timeless, and the cursive script is unrestrained and smooth, bringing the coin writing art of the Song Dynasty to an unprecedented level. There is also a pair of coins from the Song Dynasty. The original text and cursive writing were written by Sima Guang and Su Dongpo respectively. They are elegant and vigorous. They are unique in ancient and modern times and have high collection value. In addition, ancient coins that enjoy "unparalleled craftsmanship in seal script and the crown of the Six Dynasties" and "Northern Three Grades" and "Chongbao" belong to this category.
It is very important to master the appearance of the product. The investment value and growth rate of ancient coins are closely related to their appearance. If the same coin has different appearance, the price difference is often as high as ten times or even dozens or hundreds of times, which shows the importance of its appearance. Regardless of whether the coin is rare or not, if the coin has a blurred surface, missing outline, serious rust, or poor appearance, try not to collect it. When collecting ancient coins, you should also pay attention to whether there are signs such as moon patterns and star patterns. The identification of ancient coins uses the back text to distinguish the casting age and address, and evaluate their rarity. Generally speaking, coins with moon patterns, star patterns and other marks on the back are more valuable for collection than coins with a smooth back. Among the coins worth collecting, palace coins made of gold, silver, white copper, etc. have small minting quantities and good quality, and are precious cultural relics.
The market value and evaluation of knife coins:
The official name of "knife coins" is "knife-oriented (goods) knife coins", which consists of a knife head, a knife body, a knife handle and a knife coin. The ring consists of four parts.
The edge of the knife is contoured, and the blade is not outward, facing left instead of right. The blade has a concave back and a convex edge, the head of the knife is close to a triglyph, and the blade and handle are two rectangles of similar size. , the knife ring is round, and these geometric shapes are cleverly combined to form a stable, upright, plump and round image beauty and harmonious beauty.
According to actual measurement, the diameter of the knife ring and the length of the knife head are 1:7.5, which is exactly the ratio of the human head to the height. The length of the entire "knife coin" (generally about 18 centimeters) is almost the length of a human hand. If 6 sword coins are connected end to end, they can form a ring. This is what is mentioned in "Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji" It is said that "Zhu's style is cut, long and wide, and combined with six sides to form a rule."
These precise designs and ingenious conceptions fully reflect the ingenuity of the ancient working people. Later, with the expansion of Qi's territory and war with neighboring countries, the circulation scope of Qi's sword coins gradually expanded to the Yan and Zhao regions. At this time, the sword coins formed three series: "Qi Dao", "Yan Dao" and "Zhao Dao" due to different casting places and different shapes.
The price of ancient coins and treasures is high, and the continuous auction of carved mother-of-pearls fetched sky-high prices
In May 2013, at the Hong Kong spring auction, ancient coins and treasures attracted much attention, and knife coins and cloth coins were sold one after another. The auction price was high, such as a set of 6 Warring States Period "Qi State Three-Character to Six-Character Swords" sold for 1.058 million yuan. One of them, "Qi Returned to the Governor of the State for Fahua", "Back" and "Sun", "Six-Character Sword" is extremely rare. It is in excellent condition and has extremely high collection value; an only surviving coin from the Warring States Period with an inscription and a three-hole cloth was sold at a high price of 1.495 million yuan. The coin has elegant and straight text, an ancient color handed down from ancient times, is well preserved, and is extremely rare. rare.
In November 2013, at the Shanghai Autumn Auction, a Qing Dynasty Xianfeng Yuanbao with a Baoquan Dang Five Hundred Yuanbao that attracted much attention before the auction was sold for a sky-high price of 2.185 million yuan. .
This carving is made of fine yellow copper. The characters on the money are exquisitely carved and the words are deep and sharp, like an ax cutting with a knife. A "Xianfeng Yuanbao" with "Baoquan Dang Fifty" carved mother on the back was also sold for 805,000 yuan; a small Zhao State inscription "Wuxing" in the Warring States Period, with "Twelve Zhu Zhu" on the back and three-hole cloth on the back, sold for 1.4375 million yuan. , the coin has exquisite craftsmanship and beautiful writing. It is a unique product handed down from generation to generation and has a reliable source. It was collected by Luo Zhenyu.