Qianqian

In the year 916, Wang Shenzhi, King of the Min Kingdom began to make lead cash coins, and thereafter, lead coins were circulated along with the traditional copper-alloy coins.[18][19] This series of small lead coins bore the inscription Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寳) on their obverse sides and either had the character Min (閩), Fu (福), or Yin (殷), above the square central hole, on their reverse sides.[18] Some of these lead coins have a crescent below and/or a dot on the left of the square central hole.[18] These cash coins were minted in what is today Ninghua County, Sanming, Fujian after deposits of lead were discovered in the area.[18][20] These cash coins are collectively referred to as "Min Kaiyuan lead cash coins" (閩開元鉛錢, 闽开元铅钱) by modern Chinese numismatists, and thanks to archeological findings a larger number of variants have been uncovered than was first believed to exist.[21]

In the Kingdom of Min a single bronze Yonglong Tongbao (永隆通寳) was valued at 10 small cash coins and as much as 100 lead cash coins.[18]

The minister Gao Yu advised King Wumu of Chu to cast lead and iron cash coins at Changsha in 925, this was because of the abundance of lead and iron in the Hunan region.[22] 1 lead or iron cash coin was nominally worth 10 copper-alloy cash coins, though their region of circulation was largely confined to Changsha.[22] In Changsha the merchants would trade these coins which only benefited the government of the Kingdom of Chu.[22]

The small lead cash coins said to have been cast by this kingdom bore the Inscriptions Qianfeng Quanbao (乾封泉寶) and Qianyuan Zhongbao (乾元重寳), inscriptions previously used by the Tang dynasty for bronze cash coins.[22] Bronze cash coins with this same inscription dated to this period are sometimes attributed to have been produced during the reign of King Wumu, but their usage may have been as funerary items rather than as circulation currency.[22]

In the year 929, the government of the Chu Kingdom officially fixed the value of a lead cash coin as 1⁄100 of a bronze cash coin.[23] Later, in 962, the royal government issued a decree stipulating that lead cash coins should circulate in urban areas, while bronze cash coins should circulate in the countryside.[23] Those who did not obey this decree risked facing the death penalty.[23]

The Southern Tang Kingdom issued a lead version of the Tangguo Tongbao (唐國通寳), an inscription which was also used for bronze and iron cash coins.[24]

The Southern Han issued a number of lead cash coins during its existence.[25][26] The first series of lead cash coins attributed to this kingdom had the inscription Kaiping Yuanbao (開平元寳) and is attributed to the kingdom's founder, Liu Yin.[26][27] These cash coins were possible cast to commemorate a Liang dynasty period title.[26]

Another series of lead cash coins, that also had bronze equivalents, was the Qianheng Zhongbao (乾亨重寳).[26] Some of these contained the traditional Chinese character "Yong" (邕) on their reverse side.[28]

The "Yong" (邕) on the reverse side of these Qianheng Zhongbao cash coins is believed to mean that they were minted in Yongzhou, today's Nanning and its vicinity in Guangxi.[13] Liu Yu once named his eldest son Liu Yaoshu as "King of Yong" (邕王).[13] Other Qianheng Zhongbao cash coins have the character "Yi" (邑) on their reverse sides, which is said to refer to the capital city, what is today Guangzhou.[13] Wang Guizhen (王贵枕), a Guangdong numismatist, believes that Qianheng Zhongbao lead cash coins with the "Yi" character on their back may have been for the exclusive for Cantonese people prohibiting them from circulating outside of the city.[13]

One of the reasons why lead was used by the Southern Han for coinage is because iron and copper were used for the construction of statues and bells in Buddhist temples, as well as Buddhist pagodas.[13] It is also speculated by modern numismatists that the Southern Han government attempted to circulate lead and bronze cash coins at the same value, but that the market rejected this as copper is significantly more valuable than lead, with 1 bronze cash coin being worth 10 lead cash coins.[29][13] Government regulations of the Southern Han Kingdom also stipulated that mandarins should be paid in lead cash coins, and only ministers who were particularly favoured by the monarch were paid in bronze cash coins.[13]

The "Spring and Autumn of the Ten Kingdoms" mentions that the use of copper-alloy cash coins and lead cash coins inside and outside Guangzhou began in the year Dabao 5 (962) during the reign of Liu Yu.[13] Wang Yinjia (王蔭嘉 / 王荫嘉), a numismatist during the early Republic of China period, believed that "the economic policy of the Southern Han dynasty is bizarre and inexplicable", stating that "the lead cash coins in the city [Guangzhou] cannot go out of the city gate, disallowing the people from purchasing things outside, how can the public and private trade work? and how can the people make a living in the city, if the copper-alloy cash coins from outside cannot enter the city, how can the people in the city accumulate wealth?"[13] Wang Yinjia asked these questions to fellow numismatist Luo Bozhao (羅伯昭 / 罗伯昭), who wrote "The History of Money in the Southern Han Dynasty" (南漢錢史) in response.[13] The book explained that the use of two kinds of cash coins inside and outside Guangzhou was to drive out bad coins in market transactions.[13] Later numismatists believe that the reason lead cash coins were used in Guangzhou was for the same reason as in Ma Chu, to preserve the wealth of the territory by forcing outside merchants to use less valuable money to maximise the wealth being kept inside through trade with outsiders.[13]

In stark contrast to Qianheng Zhongbao lead cash coins, which are very frequently found in and around Guangzhou in the modern era to the point that between 1953 and 1985 over 250,000 lead cash coins with this inscription weighing 2000 catties were found, Kaiping Yuanbao lead cash coins are very rare in the world today with only sporadic discoveries occurring.[13] This may be the result of their deliberate destruction at the hands of Liu Yan who regarded the Later Liang as a "puppet court" (偽廷) and sought to erase it from history beginning with the eradication of the lead Kaiping Yuanbao cash coins.[13]

In China, both the people of the Southern Han dynasty and the businessmen who had trade relations with the Southern Han dynasty did not like lead cash coins. However, in some countries outside of China, lead cash coins were not only very popular, but even attracted large-scale imitation by the local people.[13] The Southern Han dynasty established business relations with Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Persia, and Arabia, though the city of Guangzhou was already an international trade hub in the prior Tang dynasty.[13] A number of trade vessels sent by the Southern Han to what is now Indonesia have been uncovered.[13]

Another interesting phenomenon is that Kaiping Yuanbao lead cash coins, which are rarely found in China, are often unearthed in Palembang, Indonesia.[13]

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period a number of small, poorly made, illiterately written lead cash coins circulated in the Southern Han and Chu area.[30] The origins of these cash coins remain unknown.[30] Chinese characters and inscriptions found on these crude coins are often reversed because the incompetent workmen had not mastered the art of engraving in negative to make the coin moulds.[30] Some specimens of these crude coins likewise have meaningless and nonsensical characters and inscriptions.[30]

These crude lead coins exhibit a great variety due to the incompetence of the workmen, in some instances the character "Kai" (開), as in "Kaiyuan Tongbao", appears to be a "Yong" (用).[30]

Due to their crudeness it is evident that these cash coins were not officially government issued coins, but privately produced coins likely made by merchants or the people.[30]

During the Bakumatsu the Sendai Domain produced lead cash coins using lead collected from the Hosokura mine.[48] The lead cash coins produced by the Sendai domain were square in shape and had the inscription Hosokura tō hyaku (細倉當百), the Hosokura tō hyaku is said to have been used to pay the salaries of craftsmen in the mine.[49] The reverse side of these cash coins contain a stylised character that is said to be the kaō of Fujiwara no Hidehira.[49] It seems almost certain that lead from the Hosokura mine was used, and the results of lead isotope ratio measurements support this.[48] During this same period the Sendai Domain circlated a square iron cash coin with the inscription Sendai Tsūhō (仙臺通寳).[50]

The Yonezawa Domain issued lead cash coins known as Seisankyoku-ensen (生産局鉛銭), these were minted in the Dewa Province, probably sometime around 1866.[51] At this time, the Samurai class of this domain found their occupation gone, which caused great distress for many of them.[51] A society to aid and supervision these samurai was formed under the local government, and these heavy lead coins were issued to these samurai as a form of government sponsored aid.[51] These cash coins were either oval or square and had the inscription Ka-nihyaku (價二百) written in regular script, indicating that they had a nominal value of 200 mon.[51] The Inscription of this lead cash coin further includes 4 vertically written characters, on the right of the square central hole, indicating coin's weight in Japanese units reading Sanjūyon-monme (三十四匁, 34 monme).[51]

Research by the British Museum found that cash coins were always leaded, the usage of leaded copper was found to be present in both bronze and brass alloys.[56] Though the research indicated that the percentages of lead was remarkably lower in the brass alloys from the early 16th century onwards.[56] An analysis of the lead content in Chinese cash coins from history revealed that the lead content typically ranges from 10% to 20%, with the highest recorded lead percentage being found in 12th and 13th century bronze cash coins standing at 30% (which occurred during a time period of severe copper scarcity).[56] Meanwhile, the percentage of lead found in brass cash coins was on average 5%, typically ranging from 2% to 8%.[56][57] Cao Jin (曹晉), a researcher at the Department of Chinese and Korean Studies, Tübingen University, in her paper Mints and Minting in Late Imperial China: Technology, Organisation and Problems pointed out that there were mainly 2 reasons for this, one of which was economic and the other technical.[56] She noted that the addition of lead was cheaper than other metals such as tin, zinc, or using more copper as lead was relatively cheap compared to other metals.[56] Furthermore, she noted that the technical reason was because of the fact that the addition of lead to copper-alloys boosted the fluidity of the melt, which facilitated the manufacturing process and qualitatively helped to improve the result.[56] Cao Jin further argued that a lower percentage of lead during later periods can be attributed to the fact that only 3% lead is needed in a copper-alloy for a desired level of fluidity, concluding that the presence of high percentages of lead can mostly be attributed to economic reasons for the earlier cash coins and for technical reasons during later periods when copper scarcity was less of an issue.[56]

Lead was used for the mintage of Japanese cash coins, this lead was sometimes domestically supplied and sometimes imported.[58] During the ancient period until around the 8th century the lead was mostly collected from the Naganobori mine and its neighbouring mines in the Nagato Province.[58] A limited quantity of lead was also collected from the Buzen Province, although it was rarely used.[58] During the medieval period the majority of lead came from China, while Chinese lead was mostly used until the 14th century, Japanese lead would supersede its usage and Chinese lead would almost completely disappear, though small amounts of non-Chinese foreign lead would also be used.[58] During the Edo period. Japanese lead was mostly used, in the latter half of the 17th century most lead used in the alloys of cash coins came from the Taishu mine on Tsushima island.[58] A century later lead would be supplied from multiple places across Japan and eventually the mints would come to depend on the Tōhoku region to supply the lead used in the production of cash coins.[58]

• Hartill = Cast Chinese Coins by David Hartill. Trafford, United Kingdom: Trafford Publishing. September 22, 2005. ISBN 978-1412054669.
• FD = Fisher's Ding (丁), George A. Fisher's copy of Ding Fubao's (丁福保) original work catalogue, 1980, 251 pages.
• Schjøth = "Chinese Currency, Currency of the Far East – A Comprehensive Text Chou Dynasty, 1122 B.C.–255 B.C. Through Ch'ing Dynasty 1644 A.D.–1911 A.D." by Fredrik Schjøth and Virgil Hancock, Oslow, Norway, 1929.
• Hartill-Qing = Qing Cash (清代貨幣) by David Hartill, Royal Numismatic Society (2003).
• Krause = C.L. Krause and C. Mishler, Standard Catalog of World Coins, Krause Publications, 1979.