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Scarce 'Muguo hand' or 'Zhuguo hand' variety of the Liao and Northern Song dynasty cash coins received its name from the rare Liao dynasty pair of coins with legends mu guo yuan bao
and zhu guo yuan bao
.
The 'Zhuguo/Muguo hand' styles of cash coins have next definitive signs (greatest thanks to Gilbert Tan for this information):
- calligraphy:
similar to Northern Song and Liao coins but
with characters mostly touching the inner square
rim ('jie guo'). On some occasions, Tang Dynasty and Southern
Tang coins also were found with this style.
- manufacturing technique:
- the reverse inner square rim is very nice ('bei xi guo'), neat and sharp at the corners (similar to Hua 821-2);
- coin is thinner and lighter in weight (always);
- coin is generally smaller in size;
- coin have a larger central square hole - 'guang chuan' (but not always).
There are suggestions that Norther Song coins of the 'muguo hand' style really were manufactured in the region of Liao Dynasty.
Currently I have information about next coins with described above style:
legend
| 'muguo hand'
| style
|
| usual coin
|
diam.,
mm
| sq. hole,
mm
| weight,
g
| ref.
| diam.,
mm
| sq. hole,
mm
| weight,
g
| ref.
|
mu guo yuan bao
Liao
|
21.3
|
6.8
|
1.48
|
charm.ru,
D3101
|
|
|
|
|
|
zhu guo yuan bao
Liao
|
22.2
|
6.7
|
1.38
|
charm.ru,
D3102
|
|
|
|
|
|
zhong xi tong bao
1032-1054 a.d.
Liao
|
23.3
|
6.7
|
1.70
|
charm.ru
|
- style of the Hua 821-2;
- the reverse inner square rim
- style of writing of the Bao character;
- the manufacturing technique peculiarity (thin flan so coin is thinner than normal Liao) |
23.3
24.2
23.2
24.7
22.3 |
6.8
5.8
6.4
6.4
5.9 |
|
Hua 818-1
Hua 818-2
Hua 818-3
Hua 818-4
Hua 819-1
|
da kang tong bao
1075-1084 a.d.
Liao
|
22.3
|
7.0
|
|
Hua 821-2
|
|
22.9
23.1
|
6.3
6.0
|
3.15
|
Hua 821-1
charm.ru
|
da an yuan bao
1085-1094 a.d.
Liao
'long an' variety |
21.6
20.7 |
6.1
7.0 |
2.01
|
charm.ru
Hua 824-3 |
|
22.6
23.5
23.1 |
6.1
6.2
6.2 |
2.47
3.07 |
Hua 824-2
charm.ru
charm.ru |
|
|
|
jing de yuan bao
1004-1007 a.d.
N.Song
|
|
|
|
WH
|
|
23.2-24.0
|
5.7-6.0
|
|
Hua 436-2
Hua 427-1
|
tian sheng yuan bao
1023-1032 a.d.
N.Song
|
22.2
|
6.6
|
2.20
|
charm.ru
|
style of the D3101 (see the reverse central square hole style)
|
24.7
23.2
|
7.6
6.4
|
|
Hua 438-1
Hua 438-3
|
huang song tong bao
1039 a.d.
N.Song
|
23.7
|
6.6
|
1.67
|
charm.ru
|
a very
special variety with large-head "tong" character - style of the iron cash coin Hua 446-6 |
23.3
|
6.5
|
|
Hua 443-2
|
zhi he tong bao
1054-1055 a.d.
N.Song
|
|
|
|
GT
|
the central square rim of the front and back
are exceptionally nice
|
24.3
23.1 |
7.3
6.7 |
|
Hua 453-2
Hua 453-5 |
jia you yuan bao
1056-1063 a.d.
N.Song
|
24.0
|
7.4
|
2.60
|
charm.ru
|
|
24.3
|
5.6
|
|
Hua 458-3 |
zhi ping tong bao
1064-1067 a.d.
N.Song
|
22.6
|
7.4
|
1.87
|
charm.ru
|
style of D3101
|
23.6
|
7.1
|
|
Hua 462-2
|
xi ning yuan bao
1068-1077 a.d.
N.Song
|
|
|
|
IM
|
|
23.1
22.6 |
5.6
7.0 |
|
Hua 465-5
464-6 |
Notes:
- In the case of reference to Hua Guanpu's catalog coin sizes were measured by rubbings.
- Hua Guanpu's book have not global index of coins, so reference number means page number and coin serial number on a page (from left to right, from top to bottom).
- GT - Gilbert Tan <chinese_cash@yahoo.com>, WH - William Hill <numics@sina.com>, IM - "On Liao's Coins", Inner Mongolian Numismatic Society's journal, "Numismatics Volume of Inner Mongolian Finance Study", No.86., pp.7-23.
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