Answer:
What are the "four unique features of coins"? In fact, it is the combination of the exquisite coins made by the four dynasties of New Wang Mang, Song Huizong and Jin Zhangzong, and the Nine-fold Seal Script of the Northern Song Dynasty.
At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang was willing to risk the disapproval of the world and usurp the Han Dynasty to establish a new dynasty. Han Zuo could not be saved, and the coins of the Han Dynasty were eventually burned by the city gate. Wang Mang was not only satisfied with changing dynasties, but in terms of currency, he also deliberately carried out the Tuogu restructuring five times. The results were counterproductive and finally caused serious inflation and accelerated the collapse of the New Mang Dynasty.
However, the coins made by Wang Mang have repeatedly emerged as masterpieces in the history of Chinese coins.
"Dabu Huangqian" was the product of Wang Mang's implementation of the "treasure goods system" during his third currency reform process. It is one of the ten items of "cloth goods". This coin is 5.4 centimeters long, with a flat head and square feet, and a rectangular body. The waist is slightly concave, the head has a round piercing, and both sides of the piercing and the ribs have contours. The four characters "大布黄千" are cast on the face of the coin. The strokes are smooth and clear, the layout is uniform and decent, and the casting process is exquisite.
The main purpose of Wang Mang's last currency reform was to abolish the "six springs" of large and small sizes and replace them with "currency springs" and "goods cloth".
"Huoquan" has the same weight and value as the five coins of the Han Dynasty. It has a round square hole with a diameter of 2.3 cm. It has an inner and outer outline. The two characters "Huoquan" are cast on the money surface in seal script. It is a hanging needle seal and is clear. Neatly, the word "spring" is interrupted vertically in the middle. There is also Tongwen cake money, which can be several times thicker, and is also a rare item for reckless money.
It cannot be said that there are no heroes in the world, but there are indeed very few heroes who transcend their times. Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu and Wang Mang, both believed in prophecies, so they both reached the same destination through different paths. According to Xin Zhenwei, if we play a little word game and split the seal character "Huoquan" from two to four, then these four characters can be attached to "Baishui Zhenren", which is exactly the same as the Nanyang Baishui army launched by Liu Xiu. There is a connection with the water town. Therefore, after Liu Xiu came to the throne, although he abolished all other money, he only left the "Cuo Quan" and ordered it to continue to be minted, and it went hand in hand with the five baht that had been restored for 16 years. This is very similar to what Wang Mang did back then. Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty and established himself, but he always had a ghost in his heart. He believed that the character Liu in the Liu family's regime in the Han Dynasty was composed of "mao, gold, and knife", so he issued an edict that all "mao" in the first month of the first lunar month (the day of the first lunar month in the Han Dynasty use gold, gold, and mao). (an ornament made of jade or peach wood) and gold knife coins are no longer allowed to circulate. For this reason, the previous five baht coins and self-cast wrong knife coins and contract knife coins are abolished.
"Currency Cloth" is worth twenty-five pieces of "Currency Quan". The same as "Shibu", it is also in the shape of a cloth coin, with a flat head and square feet, 6 cm in length, and the word "Goods Bu" on the surface. The seal script is slender and beautiful, with softness in its hardness. Later generations praised it as "the pen is as round as hanging dew, and the tip of the pen is like a hanging needle", which is comparable to the machine-made money in the late Qing Dynasty. Although it is an imitation of pre-Qin cloth coins, it is extremely well made and represents the highest level of Wang Mang's cloth casting.
What is even more culminating is that Wang Mang also cast a kind of money that pursues retro and has a weird shape. Its shape is a combination of the five baht and the knife coins of the pre-Qin Dynasty. It has a round square hole on the top and a knife shape on the bottom. It is still called "knife coin". There are two main currency values: "Qidao Wubai", which is equivalent to five hundred five bahts, and "One knife equals five thousand", which is equivalent to five thousand five bahts. The words "Qidao" and "一刀" are cast on the upper round coin and read horizontally; "五百" and "平五千" are cast on the lower straight sword, which also directly indicates the currency value. Both of them, like the "Daquan Fifty", are "valuable money". Of course, after issuance, they will eventually be worth money.
Due to the extremely high value, in order to prevent counterfeiting, Wang Mang, a natural coin anti-counterfeiting expert, came up with an ingenious idea. The word "一刀" in the "one knife equals five thousand" coin was actually inlaid with gold in the wrong way. Also known as the "gold-wrapped knife", unfortunately, this gold-wrapped technique has been lost.
"Jin Cuo Dao" is very famous in history. Zhang Heng's "Poetry of Four Sorrows" said: "A beauty gave me a gold Cuo Dao, how can I repay Ying Qiong Yao." It can be seen that in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Jin Cuo Dao The knife has become a valuable collectible. Li Bai has a sentence that "a promise to others is worth a thousand gold and a sword" ("Reminiscing about the past and giving Jiangyang Zai Lu Tiao"), and Han Yu has a sentence "I heard that pine trees and glutinous rice are cheap, why use gold and swords" ("Tanzhou Boating"), It can be seen that once the three characters of "Golden Staggered Knife" were incorporated into poetry, they were extremely elegant and became a subject of poetry for a while.
The copper coin with the largest face value so far in the history of our country should be the "National Treasure Golden Chamber 10,000" coin, which is known as the "Guquan Leader" by later generations.
This coin must have been cast by Wang Mang in his later period, with a round top and a bottom shape. The upper part is in the shape of a square hole with a round shape and the four characters "National Treasure Golden Chamber" are cast on it; the lower part is in the shape of a square spade and the two characters "Zhiwan" are cast on it. The font is in seal script and the coins are very exquisite. According to historical records at that time, ten thousand five-baht coins could be exchanged for one catty of gold, and one "National Treasure Golden Chamber Zhiwan" coin was worth as much as one catty of gold. For various reasons, this coin has never been recorded in historical records. It was not until the 27th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1901 AD) that a farmer in Xi'an found two coins on the ground, and the world learned of its existence.
One of these two coins was purchased by Zhang Shuxun, an ancient coin collector, and its whereabouts are still unknown. The other one was bought by the British Liu Ma, and later bought back by Zhang Jin, a coin collector in Shanghai. Later, it was purchased by the central government with a large sum of money and is now collected in the Chinese History Museum. This money is quite controversial. Because of its huge value, some people believe that this money is not circulation money, but money for the town treasury. It existed for a short period of time as a symbol of measuring the number of coins in Wang Mang's treasury.
Wang Mang's currency reform ended in failure, but it created a "golden age" in the history of ancient Chinese coinage. Wang Mang was eventually regarded as "the world's number one coin minting master" by future generations. Ridiculed as the "Sage of Money".
There is a saying that "talented people have emerged from generation to generation, and each has led the way for hundreds of years."
This cannot but mention Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty. This subjugated king is similar to Li Yu, the later leader of the Southern Tang Dynasty. They are both a scholarly emperor with great talents, but they are also born in the last days, and their lives are full of misfortunes. Especially Huizong of the Song Dynasty, he was proficient in all kinds of music, chess, calligraphy and painting, especially painting and calligraphy, which ranked him among the great masters of ancient times. In terms of calligraphy, Huizong of the Song Dynasty can be regarded as the master of the generation. His original "thin gold calligraphy" iron painting and silver hook, elegant and powerful, is unique in the history of Chinese calligraphy and can be regarded as a masterpiece. People often say that words are like people, but the fat and fat portrait of Huizong of the Song Dynasty in the "Album of Emperors and Empresses" cannot be easily compared with the thin golden body.
Song Huizong had a special liking for coinage and liked to write money articles in his original "Thin Gold Book". Its "Daguan Tongbao", "Chongning Tongbao" and "Xuanhe Tongbao" all became treasures among ancient coins because of Song Huizong's "Thin Gold Book"; they are teaching aids for future generations to understand "Yu Shu Qian". This kind of money is exquisitely cast, and the money-casting technology and money calligraphy art have reached a new peak, becoming a unique ancient coin. Therefore, later generations ranked Song Huizong and Wang Mang side by side, giving them the reputation of "the two saints of coin-making". For this reason, later generations also praised Song Huizong as "the second best at making money".
The coins of the Jin Dynasty can be said to be the sudden appearance of strange peaks in the vast plains.
After the founding of the Jin Dynasty, due to frequent wars and limited technology, they continued to use money from the Song and Liao Dynasties. Independent coinage began with the "Zhenglong Tongbao" in the second year of Zhenglong (1157). It may be difficult to understand, but it is true. The Jin people attached great importance to coining money. In order to ensure the quality, they also set up a special "money supervisor" position. They did not hesitate to spend money and robbed many craftsmen from the Central Plains. Therefore, the coins minted in the Jin Dynasty are known for their exquisiteness, among which the "Taihe Chongbao" minted during the Jin Zhangzong period is the best.
Jinzhang's name was Wanyan Jing, and he reigned from 1189 to 1208. During his reign, he established etiquette and music, revised the criminal law, reformed the official system, improved various systems of the Sejong Dynasty, established a criminal department, established Changpingcang, updated the imperial examination system, and built a Confucius temple. Jin Zhangzong was particularly fond of Han culture and searched extensively for books, calligraphy and paintings by famous people. He was good at calligraphy, imitated Song Huizong's "thin gold style", and was good at poetry. He was known as one of the "emperors who know music and rhythm". Like Huizong of the Song Dynasty, he had excellent literary and artistic taste and a tendency towards aesthetics. Naturally, he had very high requirements for the coins he minted. Inadvertently, he became a good coin minter.
The unique coins of Jin Zhangzong are represented by "Taihe Chongbao". The money inscriptions are the jade-reinforced seal script that appeared in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, which is greatly different from the iron wire seal script used when Wang Mang minted coins. Both are wonderful, it's hard to distinguish between them. Its brushwork is smooth and beautiful yet solemn and elegant. It is said that it was written by Dang Huaiying, a famous writer and calligrapher in the Jin Dynasty.
"Taihe Chongbao" has all the characteristics of a good coin. Not only is the money inscription beautiful, but it is also well-cast and has clear outlines. It can also compete with later machine-made coins.
The Taihe Tongbao regular script Qianwen produced by Jin Zhangzong still has the legacy of Song Huizong's propaganda and politics, and is also a fine product.
Nine-fold seal script from the Northern Song Dynasty. The two Song Dynasties were the most complex period in the history of Chinese coins. The nine-fold seal "Emperor Song Tongbao", or "Nine-fold Emperor Song", should be a kind of reward money, with exquisite casting and very small quantity.
Therefore, later generations will call the coins minted by the new Wang Mang, Song Huizong and Jin Zhangzong, the nine-fold seal script of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the four dynasties the "Four Wonders of Coins", which should be well deserved.