? | Very rare "twenty-two years" edition |
The earliest mechanism silver coin in Zhejiang is the "Twenty-two Years" (1896) version of Guangxu Yuanbao Xiaoyang, with only one coin, four cents and seven cents. This is very rare. It was built by the Machinery Bureau built behind the National Security Temple in Hangzhou in the tenth year of Guangxu, and was once mistaken for the provincial system entrusted to him. Since the Second Opium War, China has embarked on the road of industrialization, in which the arms industry started the earliest. The so-called machinery bureau, manufacturing bureau or ordnance bureau are actually arsenals. However, due to the lack of coinage knowledge, mechanical equipment and technical level, the quality is poor and the productivity is low. In twenty-two years in Zhejiang, there were a lot of silver coins, mainly due to the mistakes in dragon face English. According to Geng Ai's Textual Research on Coins in China (Geng Pu), there are seven types of coins.
? According to historical records, in the 13th year of Guangxu, when money was scarce, Zhejiang used the Hangzhou Machinery Bureau to make "Guangxu Bao Tong" square hole coins, which were sent to the military department for examination together with the traditional coins. After Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the old-fashioned drumming and casting, the discussion on making money by machines was suspended. However, due to the lack of money, in 22-25 years, we also bought two kinds of small silver horns with denominations of 1 jiao and 7 jiao from Guangdong and Hubei provinces to solve the people's difficulties. The so-called "generation system from other provinces" came from this. In fact, the name of the province of origin is still engraved on the surface of the commissioned currency.
? | The elusive "Twenty-three Years" Edition |
After Guangdong province set up factories to make money with new machines, various places followed suit. In the 22nd year of Guangxu reign (1897 65438+ 10), Liao Shoufeng, the governor of Zhejiang province, bought a batch of special machines for coinage from Germany with permission, which arrived in July and August of the following year. Since then, Zhejiang Province has officially started to make coins in a new way. In addition to the mint, the ordered equipment also includes molds. According to the documents disclosed in German 20 1 1, these machines were made by Schuler, and the coins were carved by Otto Behr, with five denominations ranging from seven cents to six cents and three cents. It was delivered on January 26th in the 24th year of Guangxu (1February 8981June), including 60 original models, second original models and impressions, which were transferred to China by export agent Knape. In the early days, when the source was unknown, there were different opinions from Hangzhou Machinery Bureau and Anhui Province. Now the truth comes out.
According to the annual report of the customs, the production capacity of the new factory is 40 thousand pieces a day. However, due to dissatisfaction with the appearance of the coins, it was decided to make changes (Taiwan Province is a political envoy, in charge of the wealth of the province, from a second-class official position). The so-called dissatisfaction with its appearance should be twenty-four years of Guangxu, and the year marked on the currency surface does not match the reality, so it was abandoned. According to the content of the report, the author speculates that its scale is not large, and it may only buy one or two printing machines of different sizes.
In twenty-two years in Zhejiang, there were seven editions of "One Money, Four Points, Four Points, Seven Points and Two Points". This two-corner English is a wrong version. The provincial names above are separated by CHEHK and IANG, inverted a, and the chronological values below are missing the word "d"; On the back of a corner, the English word is inverted N. From the inscription, we can know that it is imitation of Guangdong silver, among which the words "treasure" and "powder" are the most obvious.
The original 77-page legend of Guangxu Yuanbao "Made in the 23rd Year of Zhejiang" collected by American Coin Collection Society (ANS) and Huang Zhang's Catalogue of China Silver Dollars and Silver Coins.
? In the twenty-third year of its existence, Yang Long series coins were all made in Germany and were cast with silver and copper, which was extremely rare. Take Geng Xu as an example, only one corner and two corners are included in the book. 197 1 Five-cent copper sample appeared in American auction, 1988 Hong Kong auction silver sample. 198 1 year, a one-dimensional map appeared in Huang Zhang's China Silver Dollar and Silver Coin Catalogue. Until 199 1, the auction of Goodman's collection saw another five-cent silver sample, and all denominations were complete.
? According to the information disclosed by Germany Baihe Factory 20 1 1, 42 pieces of silver and copper coin molds from Anhui, Fengtian, Zhejiang, Heilongjiang, Xinjiang and other provinces were also sorted out in the warehouse of the factory. Among them, "Made in Zhejiang Province in the Twenty-third Year" has more positive master molds and negative impressions, and all the other four denominations except two corners. If you want to know more readers, please read my book Illustrating Modern Mechanism Coins in China published last year, pages 16 to 29, or China Coins published in Beijing, No.2 of 20 13, Textual Research on the Origin and Development of Coin Patterns in Five Provinces in Late Qing Dynasty and No.4 of 20 16.
? | Failed Weibei Edition |
? The literal coin model of "23 years old" was abandoned and re-carved. The new model adopted the font "Weibei" commonly known in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and was written by Shaoxing calligrapher Tao in the late Qing Dynasty. Because the word "Bao" comes from "Er", it is also called "Bauer". Presumably, in order to avoid the trouble of marking the year again, the word year was deleted from the new model. It is a time-consuming job to re-carve coin molds, so that casting didn't begin until January of the 25th year of Guangxu (1March 899). At this time, it has been half a year since the machine was transported to Zhejiang Silver Circle Bureau.
The early Weibei edition was mistaken for the twenty-eighth year of Guangxu (1902), among which Geng Xu edition was included. It is understood that the two corners of Weibei were collected by the British Museum in 190 1 year, but the information flow in that year was not as good as today, so it is little known. Moreover, because seven cents and two cents are very rare, they are even regarded as sample coins for trial production. In fact, the 20th issue of "Spring Coin" published by Wang Yinjia in the1940s pointed out: "I saw a lot when I was young, and it's as good as new, and I can still remember it vividly ... Bo Ge said that I tried to cast a role, and my colleagues agreed with me, but I didn't take Popo for granted, but I didn't believe it at that time." This statement was immediately echoed by editor Zheng Jiaxiang. "I saw the same thing, but I am not alone." In the 26th issue, Jiang took out a set of original sandalwood baskets left by his father's family, which was engraved with a postscript: "At the turn of Guangxu's political reform, Zhejiang set up the Silver Circle Bureau. What is the reality?" Those who have loved will stop one thing at a time, and those who know will cherish it ... "'Guangxu Reform Movement', that is, when the Zhejiang Silver Circle Bureau opened casting in the first month of the previous twenty-five years, was the correct year for making Zhejiang Weibei silver coins.
The output of Weibei silver coins is unknown and there is not much circulation. It is also mentioned in the Catalogue of Chinese Silver Coins and Silver Coins edited by Huang Zhang: "This coin was cast in 1902 and sent to Shanghai Banking Association for permission to circulate. Shanghai is the center of national finance. After testing, the association thinks that the silver content is not up to standard and should be discounted for circulation. The negotiation failed. The Zhejiang authorities would rather recover the meltdown, and ignore what has been circulated, so there is very little circulation in the market. " After Jiang produced the original boxed copy, the postscript of Cha Wei's copy coincided with the setting time of the bureau. The Shanghai Banking Association mentioned in another book began in 19 15 (in the fourth year of the Republic of China) and was formally established in 19 18 (in the seventh year of the Republic of China). I think I'm looking for the wrong person. The author speculates that it may be an earlier money office. As far as the content is concerned, Wang () and Zhang Si have the same view, so the discussion of the failure of Weibei version should be correct, but the expression of its production date is wrong.
The positive and negative impressions of Zhejiang Guangxu Yuanbao in "Twenty-three Years" retained by Otto Bachel Factory, pictures of Kunke Company.
Keep the punching of "Bitter and Flat, One Money Four Points, Four Points" and the sample of Zhejiang No.2 Silver in the 23rd year. Save the blank name, so that you can save the cost and time of engraving when receiving orders from different places. Note that the word "Li" is missing in the lower right, which is also the same feature of silver coins in Anhui, Fengtian, Zhejiang and Heilongjiang provinces.
Later, the Qing court set up too many bureaus in various provinces. In April of the same year, except for licensing, it was ordered to stop casting silver coins. In July, Zhejiang Bureau ordered to stop work, and in September, the equipment was dismantled and transported to Beijing to prepare for "Beijing Bureau". According to the customs report in the 24th year of Guangxu, Zhejiang Yuan Yin Bureau hired German technicians to take charge of the factory in the autumn after the machine was set up. The report of the following year recorded that foreign experts had been transferred to Nanjing a few months before the machine moved.
The production cycle of Zhejiang Weibei silver coins is very short. According to the memory of Zheng Jiaxiang, a famous spring scientist in old Shanghai, the Mexican eagle ocean prevailed at that time, and businessmen lacked confidence in this new Yang Long, so they were unpopular in the market and needed a discount when trading. From this point of view, it is not surprising that Weibei silver coins are marked with color printing. At present, except for a small number of cents, semicircles and circles are rare, and products that are good are even rarer, especially those that are not in circulation.
When the Weibei version of Yanglong was cast, the front writing mold was a new sculpture, but the dragon face still used the mold provided by Germany. However, because "Made in Twenty-three Years" is extremely rare, there is also a lack of high-definition big picture comparison in the early years; Because the dragon pattern is similar to Anhui, it was mistakenly made by Anqing Mint in Zhejiang, Fengtian and Heilongjiang, such as Selected Gold and Silver Coins in Modern China published by Hongxi Art Museum. Today's disclosure of Lily Factory archives can clarify past misunderstandings.
? | Long Yin Treasure in Regular Script Edition |
There is also a kind of inscription "Zhejiang regular script" made in Zhejiang Province, which is extremely rare. Due to the lack of domestic documents, the early Tibetan scholars have different opinions on its origin and age. It was not until the early 1970s that the files disclosed abroad pointed out that after Zhejiang Province was invited to set up a new bureau to make coins and was approved, it bought machines and five sets of coins of one yuan, two horns, one horn, five horns and ten coppers from Birmingham Mint in the 28th year of Guangxu, England, and delivered them all in that year. When the archives were excavated, there were three kinds of coins in stock in the factory, namely one yuan, twenty cents and ten cents. The origin of Zhejiang regular script edition, so far the dust has settled.
The best Wei Beiyuan, NGCMS66, has the highest evaluation score. Hai Ruide (HA) was auctioned in Hong Kong from June 2065438 to June 2008, and finally sold for nearly 440,000 US dollars, about 2.88 million yuan.
? However, after the Zhejiang Bureau started construction the following year, no silver coins were issued. What is the reason? Clues can be seen from the annual report of the customs at that time. According to "A Brief History of Foreign Trade in Hangzhou" in that year, "In April, Hangzhou Copper Circle Bureau cast ten copper coins, and one machine rose to 120,000 copper coins. At first, one dollar per eagle can be exchanged for 100 copper coins to make people enjoy it. Then it was reduced to RMB 100, and later it was known that there were still illegal shipments to Shanghai. Because the market price there is only 84 yuan, it dropped to 90 yuan in July. " In the past, people used copper coins as the main trading medium. Due to the shortage of coinage at this time, silver coins depreciated relatively, resulting in the so-called "silver is cheap and money is expensive." The profit of making copper coins is three times that of silver coins, so factories compete to produce copper coins. In his report, H.B.Morse, the tax official who was in charge of compiling the general table of trade at the customs registration office at that time, recorded that "all factories have no time to cast silver dollars, that is, they are rushing to cast copper dollars". Mars worked in China Customs for 35 years and became a famous sinologist in the west after retirement. He also collects China coins, some of which are in the British Museum in London.
Zhejiang regular script edition is the last set of Dragon Silver provided by Birmingham Mint to China, and it is also the only set completed in the 20th century and operated by Allen Wynn, a famous British artist who carved 73 reverse editions. Due to the serious shortage of money at that time, it was more profitable to produce copper coins, and silver coins were left out in the cold or even shelved because there was enough eagle ocean available. The untimely birth is the reason why the regular script version was not released, and only a very small amount of silver, copper and gold coins were left in the original factory. Among them, seven coins and two silver samples are the most precious, and only three are known in the world, which is lower than the two famous silver coins in Hunan and Shaanxi. In addition to the original book directly from the archives of Birmingham factory (History of Birmingham Mint by Sweeney, page 1 17) which is publicly displayed in the British Museum, the private part is only one of the old collections of Taipei Hongxi Art Museum and the famous Mr. Liu Gai, which can be described as the top treasure of Long Yin in Qing Dynasty.