Huachuanqian

The exact origins of the first appearance of Huachuanqian is difficult to determine as there are no written records that document them.[12] However, archeological evidence has determined that the earliest known cash coins with "flower" holes had the inscription Ban Liang (半兩) and could have been cast either during the Qin dynasty period or by the succeeding Han dynasty.[12] While these early contenders are quite well documented, other early examples of Huachuanqian include a number of types of Xin dynasty coinages, including Hou Quan (貨泉) cash coins and a variety of the Huo Bu (貨布) coin, a type of coinage produced during the reign of Emperor Wang Mang which resembled ancient Zhou dynasty period shovel- or spade shaped-money.[12] Huachuanqian with the inscription Wu Zhu (五銖) are thought to be exceptionally rare and cash coins with "flower holes" aren't commonly seen throughout the first half of the first millennium.[15] While the Huachuanqian is most closely associated with the establishment of the Tang dynasty where they became less rare, these earlier examples date 7 centuries before this occurred, meaning that they are much older than traditionally thought.[12]

By the early Tang dynasty period, the appearance of Huachuanqian was already commonly seen in general circulation.[12] Over time they would become more common as during the middle to later years of the Tang dynasty period, the Huachuanqian would circulate all over the various territories of the empire.[12] Chinese scholar Ding Fubao noted that the appearance of Huachuanqian was most closely associated with Kaiyuan Tongbao cash coins and those of the Northern Song period.[16]

In the periods subsequent to the Tang dynasty Huachuanqian would continue to be manufactured on fairly large numbers.[12] A significant amount of Huachuanqian could be found throughout the Song dynasty period.[12] Meanwhile the coinage produced by the Khitan-led Liao dynasty was largely based on the Northern Song dynasty coinage and likewise also feature a number of cash coins with "flower holes".[16][12] Song dynasty cash coins with "flower (rosette) holes" can be found in all calligraphic styles of writing including seal script, clerical script, regular script, running script, and grass script.[16][12] However, Huachuanqian would become less commonly seen during the reign of the Southern Song dynasty period Emperor Xiaozong.[12] The reason for this decline in the quantity of Huachuanqian can possibly be attributed to 2 major reforms to the designs of the currency that appeared during his reign.[12] Namely, until the year 1180 the Song dynasty produced "matched cash coins" (對錢, duì qián) which were cash coins with identical inscriptions written in different styles of Chinese calligraphy, after these coins were superseded by cash coins that included the year of production on their reverse sides the practice of casting cash coins with "flower holes" also seems to have drastically decreased.[12] This practice started during the 7th year of the production of the Chunxi Yuanbao (淳熙元寶), which was produced from 1174 until the year 1189.[12] This practice started with the traditional Chinese character "七" (7) appearing on the reverse sides of Chunxi Yuanbao cash coins in the year 1180, which was also the same year that the government of the Song dynasty abolished the issuance of "matched cash coins".[12] Due to this it is hypothesised that "flower holes" were added to Chinese cash coins to signify a year or period of the year or possibly a location where a cash coin was produced (see below).[12]

While the appearance of Huachuanqian saw an abrupt decline after Emperor Xiaozong ascended to the Chinese throne, Huachuanqian would continue to be produced, though now in drastically reduced quantities, during the subsequent dynasties.[12]

During the Ming dynasty period "flower holes" were still (rarely) recorded in Hongwu Tongbao (洪武通寶) and Yongle Tongbao (永樂通寶) cash coins, with the Chongzhen Tongbao (崇禎通寶) series being the last recorded known cash coins to have "flower holes".[12]

Centuries after their production many coin collectors regarded Huachuanqian as "rubbish" (垃圾品) coins and often mockingly referred to as "wild chrysanthemum" (野菊花) money.[17] It wasn't until the numismatic researcher Zhang Hongming (张宏明) reported on them in an article entitled "The history and origins of Flower Hole Coins" (花穿钱的时代与成因问题) in Chinese Numismatics (中国钱币) published in 1994 that collector interest in Huachuanqian grew causing the Chinese coin collecting community to value Huachuanqian more causing it to grew into its own specialised sub-field of Chinese numismatics.[18][17] The 4th issue of Chinese Numismatics the same year published a group of letters from readers, authors, and editors, after reading the response papers and letters, Zhang Hongming was deeply inspired to respond and expand his research into this field.[18] These articles filled a big gap in the study of Chinese Huachuanqian.[18]

The traditional explanation as to why a small number of cash coins have "flower holes" is due to the fact that early cash coins were produced using clay, stone, or bronze coin moulds.[12][19] Cash coins were typically cast, contrasted to Western Eurasian coins which were typically hammered.[20][21][12] Historians still debate when the "stack casting" method was first used, some believe that it originated during the Warring States period while others than it started sometime during the Western Han dynasty period by commoners.[19][22] Ancient Chinese texts reporting on the appearance and circulation of cash coins with "flower (rosette) holes" traditionally concluded that their creation was the result of the 2 halves of the coin mould accidentally being shifted during the production process of the ancient Chinese casting method.[12] The casting process in these early moulds worked in a way that two mould-sections were placed together, then the core of the mould was placed into the top area, then the bronze smiths would pour molten metal into an opening that was formed by a cavity that was located in its centre.[23][24][25] This explanation claims that during the pouring of molten metal into the coin mould the top and bottom halves of the coin mould would rotate or shift changing the way that the central square hole would end up creating the hexagonal or octagonal hole typically of these coins.[12]

A number of Chinese and Taiwanese numismatists and numismatic publications over the years have proposed this hypothesis, including the Concise Dictionary of Ancient Coins (簡明古錢辭典) published in 1988[26] and the book Practical knowledge of Chinese coins (中國錢幣實用知識圖說) published in 1989.[27] However, this hypothesis has been heavily scrutinised by numismatists afterwards. For example, numismatic researcher Gary Ashkenazy of the PrimalTrek website notes that this traditional explanation is problematic as a mould shift wouldn't just shift the orientation of the central hole, but it would shift everything including the Chinese characters and any other symbols that were present on the obverse side of the cash coin.[12] Gary Ashkenazy notes that as all symbols and inscriptions found on cash coins with "flower holes" tend to be as crisp and distinct as their ordinary square holed counterparts, debunking this traditional hypothesis as being "obviously inadequate".[12] Numismatic researcher Zhang Hongming also notes these issues with this common hypothesis, further noting that cash coins which were cast with errors are known as "wrong money" (錯範錢, 错范钱) and don't typically resemble Huachuanqian.[28]

Furthermore, all 8 sides of the "flower hole" and all 6 sides of the "turtle shell hole" are typically contained within the border of the cash coin's inner rim, which surrounds the hole in the middle of the coin.[12] This means that Huachuanqian cannot have been created as the result of either a mould or sand tray shift, because then the inner rim's inside which surrounds the actual hole would likely also feature more sides if this hypothesis was correct.[12] Finally, the issue with this hypothesis is the fact that 4 "additional" sides form a standard-sized square would merely be rotated about 45 degrees from the primary square central hole rather than create the effect we see in Huachuanqian.[12]

Cash coins with "flower holes" became more common with the introduction of the Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶) during the reign of Emperor Gaozu of the Tang dynasty.[29][12] During the Tang dynasty the "stack casting" with clay moulds was slowly phased out in favour of the "sand casting method" (翻砂法), this new methodology of coin casting used mother coins (母錢) allowing for a consistent design to be used when mass-producing cash coins.[30][12]

Using this method, it isn't possible for a mould to shift as there was no longer a hard mould that could shift as was the case in the earlier casting method, meaning that "flower holes" could under no circumstances have been created during the casting process and were most likely created by hand after they were already cast.[12]

As the "flower holes" present in the Huachuanqian could not have been caused by an error at any time in the manufacturing process, it is reasoned that they were likely created sometime after the cash coins were already extracted from the coin moulds.[12][28] Following the removal of the cash coins from their moulds, the coins would appear as if they were "leaves" of a "coin tree" (錢樹) where they had to be broken off, all excess copper-alloy had to be manually chiseled or filed off from the central holes.[12][28] This is because the cash coins were still connected to each other by the channel-like "branches" that permitted the molten metal to be flown throughout the coin mould.[12][28] The rod used during this post-removal chiseling process was square so that once the cash coins, with their square holes in the middle, were stacked onto the rod the coins could no longer rotate.[12][28] The coin mint workers could then use a file to remove any metal excess sprue (stubs) leftover around the rims that were made during the casting process, making sure that in the result the outer rims of the cash coins were round.[12][28]

It is suspected that the "flower holes" and "turtle shell holes" were produced during chiseling process, presumably while the employee of the manufacturing mint was doing the final details of the cash coins.[12][28] As manually filing and chiseling cash coins was both an additional expense as well as time-consuming it is likely that the creation of "flower holes" and "turtle shell holes" was ordered by the manufacturer.[12][28]

While the possibility exists that a small number of Huachuanqian were indeed the accidental creation of casting errors by mint workers using chisels to clear excess metal that had flown into the central hole area during coin casting process.[12][28] However, as the quality of Tang and Song dynasty coinages was quite high it's unlikely that the supervisors would have allowed for a large number of these variant coins to be produced, pass quality control or be allowed to enter circulation.[31][12]