#collectionupdate – Page 2 – Numismatic Exploits

Of Shahs and Gorkhas

A coin this month from a country I have very few pieces from will be the topic this time. Once again we step to Asia, but this time a small country sandwiched between two others who both have had multiple articles on here talking about them. That country, although small, has managed to keep it’s independence despite many wars with both India and China, and a war against the British Empire. Famous for producing some of the worlds most ferocious and stalwart fighting men. I am of course, speaking about Nepal.

A small copper coin roughly 23mm in diameter it is around the same size as a British 10 pence piece, or an American quarter. It dates from the year 1892, and was minted during the reign of King Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah. Valued at 1 paisa, it is the smallest denomination available in circulation at the time.

On the obverse of the coin are a pair of feet with crossed kukris (a blade synonymous with the Nepalese Ghurkha) beneath then. These are surrounded with letters written in Nagari script spelling out the kings name.

The reverse shows a stylised trishul, a trident like weapon, which is one of the principally used symbols within Hinduism; and the favoured weapon of the Hindu god Shiva. Surrounding the trishul is more Nagari script showing the name of the Nepalese prime minister, the date, and the name of the country.

King Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah during his reign was nothing more than a puppet ruler. Much of the power held within the kingdom of Nepal during this period was held by the prime minister which was made a hereditary position after a coup de tat in 1847. This position would be held by the Rana dynasty until 1951 when a revolution caused power to be returned to the king when a new constitution was written.

Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah would reign as king until 1911 when he died under suspicious circumstances. It is suspected he was poisoned, but no evidence was found to make it clear who had done it. He was succeeded by his only son, Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah, at the age of 5.

Invasion and Occupation

A rather sad looking banknote has made it’s way into my collection this month. It has clearly seen better days, with many small rips and tears into it. The note itself is Japanese in origin, but was for use in Hong Kong during WWII.

Japan was notorious for issuing it’s own currency to the territories it occupied during WWII. Many of them forced to use the Military Yen.

The military yen was very similar in design to yen issued by the Bank of Japan except for large red text declaring that it was military issue and not official Japanese currency. The military issues were not backed by gold or silver, thus they could not be exchanged for the official Japanese yen issued by the central bank. The forcing of local populations to use the military yen officially allowed the Japanese to dominate the local economies of the territories it had occupied.

Hong Kong was captured by the Japanese on December 25th 1941. The following day the Japanese authorities decreed that Hong Kong was to use the military yen as it’s official currency. The official exchange rate between the Hong Kong dollar and the new military yen was set at 2 to 1, however, by October 1942 it had risen to 4 to 1. The use of the Hong Kong dollar was outlawed.

By 1944 the Japanese military was becoming more desperate in the war effort and would mass print more military yen banknotes to put into supply within Hong Kong. This quickly resulted in hyperinflation, and food rationing became a daily norm for much of the population.

When Japan surrendered unconditionally in 1945 and Hong Kong was returned to British authority many of the military yen banknotes were seized. At the time it was roughly estimated 1.9 billion banknotes were seized by British military authorities, and just prior to Japan’s surrender a further 700 million banknotes had been intentionally destroyed.

In September 1945, the Japanese Ministry of Finance declared that all military yen were to be null and void reducing them to worthless pieces of paper. The people of Hong Kong were left in absolute poverty at a stroke. Attempts for redress of these actions happened throughout much of the 20th century, with a court case finally being heard in 1993. The people of Hong Kong sued the Japanese government for the money that was lost due to the voiding of the military yen. A verdict was given in 1999 ruling against those seeking redress citing the Treaty of San Francisco as one of the reasons to deny compensation.

Death and Taxes

Another month and another new coin to add to my collection. March, this time, sees an addition from my own country. A small silver coin from the 14th century.

The coin is quite small, measuring just 14mm in diameter and o.5mm thick. A halfpenny from the reign of Edward III. On the obverse is a forward facing bust of Edward with the legend EDWARDUS REX surrounding it. On the reverse is a long cross with three pellets in each quarter. The legend surrounding the cross says CIVITAS LONDON, which denotes that the coin itself was struck at the mint in London.

As there is no date on the coin, it will have be assumed to have been minted sometime during his reign of 1327-77. A reign which was seen as relatively stable compared to the chaotic and unorthodox reign of his father Edward II.

Edward’s reign is notable for several significant military events. The first, which led to the others, was the start of the series of conflicts which would eventually be known as the Hundred Years War, starting in 1337 and lasting until 1453. During Edward’s reign this conflict would lead to two English victories against the French which would pass into national legend. The battles of Crecy, and Poitiers, and siege and capture of Calais would lead to a favourable outcome for England in the first phase of the war and eventually led to the Treaty of Bretigny in 1360. The treaty gave England large territorial gains in France, whilst Edward would renounce the English claim to the French throne. The treaty would break down by 1369, and France would declare war against England once again.

Domestically, Edwards reign would also see the first wave of the Black Death to hit England in 1348. This would eventually kill off 40-60% of England’s population at the time. It would slow down and disappear by December 1349, but would return again in the 1360’s causing another 20% of the population to fall victim. The Black Death would again return in intermittent phases throughout the 14th and 15th centuries on a local or national scale. The effects would be less severe than the first few waves, and the last recorded outbreak was the Great Plague of London 1665-66. This would be ended with the events of the Great Fire in 1666.

From Terrible to Great

After a brief month long hiatus I am back to writing updates to my coin collection. This time it is two very small coins from the frosty lands of Russia.

Both coins are known as ‘wire money’ due to the way they are created. A strand of silver wire is cut into pieces and then beaten flat with the design to be imprinted. A method inherited from the Tartar overlords of the Golden Horde who controlled much of Russia during it’s early history. Russian peoples would adopt the same practice in the 1360’s, imitating the Mongol coins, before eventually designing their own.

Both coins I acquired come from infamous rulers of Russia. The coin on the left dates from the mid to late 16th century and comes from the reign of Ivan IV, more commonly known as Ivan the Terrible. The coin on the right dates from the late 17th century from the reign of Peter I, again, more well known as Peter the Great. Both of these rulers have much history dedicated to them, and I could write a very long post detailing everything about it. However, since this is a blog aimed more towards numismatics, I instead would like to focus more on the history of wire money itself.

During the early reign of Ivan IV (1530’s) Russian coinage was reformed. Coins weighing just over half a gram were minted in Novgorod, and would feature a horse and rider wielding a spear. These coins were known as kopeks and that is what is shown in the pictures here.

Sadly the coin dating from Ivan IV’s reign is badly struck, so you can only just see the spear and front of the horse. In Russian, the word “spear” is similarly close to the word “Kopek”, and it is often assumed that is how the coin got it’s name. However this etymology is often disputed. Modern Russian coins feature an updated version of the rider carrying a spear, continuing the tradition.

Whilst Novgorod was minting kopeks, in Moscow a smaller coin was minted which was valued as half a kopek. These coins were called ‘denga’, the plural of which is ‘dengi’ and is the word that is still used today in Russia to refer to money.

Originally the amount of dengi in circulation was much higher than that of kopeks, but by the reign of Peter I it had flipped. This was due mainly to heavy devaluation of the coinage, with silver kopeks dropping in weight to just over a quarter of a gram by 1717 when it was discontinued. It would be replaced under Peter I’s coin reforms by the Rouble. Becoming, at the time, one of the most advanced monetary systems in Europe based on the decimal system.

Kopeks however, would still be minted during this period, but no longer out of precious metals. In fact, the kopek would continue to exist until 2009 when minting for circulation would finally cease. By the time of it’s final year the value of a kopek had diminished so much it would roughly equate to 1/60th of an American cent.

Getting the measure

We are returning to Russia again this month and with something slightly different from the norm. Now in the picture above we see a perfect copper replica of the Russian half-poltinnik which originally was minted in silver during the reign of Czar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676). However, it is not a forgery. It is actually a coin weight used to measure the quality of the afore-mentioned half-poltinnik.

Coin weights themselves were often made of a variety of materials, ranging from metals to glass. Most often bore an inscription of the coin they were supposed to represent, or were straight up copies like the one I have acquired.

Not limited to the medieval period, the history of coin weights date back to ancient Ptolemaic and Byzantine times, and there is significant evidence that they were also used in ancient China.

(The inscription reads: “Czar and Grand Prince Feodor Alexeyevich of all Rus”)

This coin weight was minted during a period of monetary reform in Russia. In the middle of the 17th century there was signs of a strengthening of monetary currency, growth of the Russian internal market, reinforcement of Russian state power, and the annexation of the Ukraine in 1654 made monetary reform a necessity. These reforms were carried out in 1654 with the aim of introducing a new set of small and large denomination coins to replace the silver wire kopecks previously in circulation. Inspiration was drawn from Western currencies, with the new silver Rouble taking it’s ideas from the West European thaler. Many of the new silver roubles were made by simply counter-marking existing thalers (or other coins of the same weight and value). Half-poltinniks were made by simply cutting these Western thalers into quarters.

However, there was much public mistrust over this new coinage due in part to unfamiliarity and the way the coins were issued to the population. Thus, just a year later in 1655, the reforms were abandoned. This was shortly followed by a mass striking of new copper coins using the old denga and kopeck system, with many of the designs modelled on the old familiar silver wire kopecks.

Ironically the mass striking of the new coins led to inflation quite quickly, and with the sharp rising of prices, the economy in disruption, the Copper Riot of 1662 happened in Moscow. This led to the eventual nullification of all copper coins in 1663 and would not see a reintroduction until much later.

Daikokuten pays a visit

Back in early 2018 I had a two week long trip to Japan. Whilst there I managed to pick up a wide variety of different types of coins and banknotes to add to my collection. Within the post I wrote at the time I mentioned that I added a unique Japanese banknote called a Hansatsu to my collection (the post can be found here). The Hansatsu I acquired back then it turns out was on the small side of what was produced in Japan at the time. This month I have managed to acquire another Hansatsu note, one which dwarfs the size of the ones I got during my trip.

The Hansatsu itself measures 19.5cm tall and 4.7cm wide. It dates from the mid 18th century and was made from thick card stock. The feel of it is very similar to rough cardboard. The value of the banknote is 1 silver momne, and was produced in Amagasaki Han which is now a part of modern day Hyogo Prefecture.

The Han system is the historical term for the estate of the Daimyo who were powerful Japanese feudal lords. Differing from Western style of feudalism, the Japanese feudal domain was based on projected annual income rather than geographical size. The value of the Han itself was based on the Kokuda system, which determined how much rice could be produced for one person for one year. This unit of measurement was called a ‘koku’ and would form the basis of taxation for each Han. The value obviously varied from Han to Han, with the richest Han in the Edo period being the Kanazawa Han owned by the Tokugawa Shogunate. The value of which was estimated to be just over 1 million koku in 1690.

On the front of the Hansatsu, a large figure takes prominence at the top. This figure is the Japanese god Daikokuten, one of the seven Japanese gods of fortune within the Buddhist faith. As the value of much of Japan was tied to the production of rice, Daikokuten is often depicted on Hansatsu sat astride several rice bails. Furthermore, this is reinforced, as Daikokuten is also one of the deities tied to agriculture. As mentioned in my previous blog post, he is also tied to wealth, good fortune, and happiness, which has led him to be a popular God amongst the Japanese.

The price of war

A fairly short post this month. Mainly because I got something I have already talked about before. In this post I wrote back in 2017 I talked about my favourite numismatic material I like to collect. Well this month I got myself several notgeld coins to add to my collection.

Two of them are 5 pfennig coins, and the other is 10 pfennig. They were made in two different towns within Germany, with the coins from Düren being of boring design. Both coins feature the value of the coin, and the city name on both faces. The last coin, a 5 pfennig, was made in Bonn and shows a design of one of the bridges which stretch over the Rhine in the city. Both cities are found in the Rhine area of Germany, although Bonn actually straddles the river. The 5 pfennig coins seem to be made from iron, whilst the 10 is made from zinc.

The coins date from the last few years of WWI, when war critical supplies are running low within Germany. As explained in my linked blog post, notgeld were issued by local administrations to help bridge the void left by a failing central government at the time. Although most forms of notgeld often seen are in the form of banknotes, as you can see coins were also issued.

The Khanate Can-can

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After last months trip to China we are heading back further west this month. This time to the Ilkhanid Khanate.

From the pictures you can see I got my hands on three silver coins from the Ilkhanid Khanate this month. All three are hammered coins, and date from the mid-14th century. Minted under the Sultan Abu Sa’id Khan, he reigned the Ilkhanate from 1316 until 1335.

The Ilkhanid Khanate primarily occupied the region what we now call Iran, Azerbaijan, and most of Turkey, but it’s borders at it’s peak also stretched into Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Pakistan, and parts of Tajikistan. The first Khan of the Ilkhanate was Hulagu Khan, who was the great grandson of Genghis Khan, and brother of Kublai Khan.

The Ilkhanate itself was not a stable entity, and would spend the majority of it’s existence fighting conflicts outside and inside itself. The first 50 years after it’s founding would see the Ilkhanate at constant odds with the Golden Horde and the Mamluks.

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During it’s brief existence, the Ilkhanate would convert to Islam in 1295, but the majority of the Khans, and eventually, Sultans took little to no effort at all to proselytise the new religion. In fact, Christianity, Buddhism, and even Shamanism would be tolerated. However, despite the Ilkhanate’s conversion to Islam it would maintain hostile relationships with many of it’s neighbours.

In 1316 Abu Sa’id Khan would succeed to the throne, and immediately would foster rebellions within the Khanate in 1318. He would also subsequently be invaded by the Golden horde. Stability was eventually hard fought and won, but it was soon proven fragile as an outbreak of the Black Death in the 1330’s ravaged the Khanate. Abu Sa’id and his sons would die of the Plague in 1335. He was followed by a very quick succession of succeeding Khans until 1338. ‘Little’ Hassan who survived this quick succession would prove to be the final Khan of the Ilkhanate when it was finally overrun and conquered by Jani Beg of the Golden Horde in 1357.

Cash in hand

Back in January during my usual aims for the year I mentioned that I would like to pursue attaining more Asian coins for my collection. Well this month I have finally achieved what I set myself. Grabbing myself 12 Chinese cash coins to add to my growing hoard.

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The first four coins from the group I have were identified by the person I purchased them from. From the pictures, going from left to right, they are in date order.

1st – Dating from the Emperor Jiaqing of the Qing dynasty, this coin was cast from between 1796-1820.

2nd – Another coin from the Emperor Jiaqing, and dating from the same period as the first. This coin however is known as a Boo Jin.

3rd – From the Emperor Daoguang of the Qing dynasty, this coin was cast between 1821-45

4th – From the Emperor Puyi (also known as Xuantong) who was the last emperor of China. This coin was struck around 1908-09.

The other coins I acquired sadly are difficult to identify. Mainly because I have no idea how to translate the Chinese characters on the coins themselves.

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I did however learn a few new things about Chinese cash coins during my attempts at researching them. They were first made during the 4th century BC, and were in use continuously until their final casting in the first year of the Republic of China in 1912. During this period the design remained pretty much the same, with the round shape and square hole most of us known them for. This meant that many coins which had been struck during the Northern Song Dynasty (AD960-1279) were equally valid and in circulation up until the early 20th century!

Finally, despite the majority of the cash coins being manufactured through the process of casting. During the latter periods of the Chinese Empire, it was also known for several of the coins to be machine milled similar to most coins are today. Two of which can be seen in the bottom row of the last set of pictures above. You can easily tell them apart from the ones which have been created via casting due to the crisper edges and lettering.

Hungry, Hungry, Hungarians

A new blog post finally after a month absence due to some difficulty in getting some new additions to my collection. Particularly due to the vents happening globally right now. However, this month I have managed to attain some new medieval coins to add to my display case. SDC13418

From the picture you can see two small silver coins from the Kingdom of Hungary. Both were minted under the King Sigismund I, who ruled Hungary from 1387 – 1437. There are no actual dates on the coins themselves, so the closest I can get is the reign of Sigismund himself. The coin on the left is a Dinar and weighs 0.17g, whilst the coin on the right is a Parvus and weighs just a measly 0.23g. You may also notice that the coins are quite small, especially when put in comparison to a penny. The dinar measures 13.5mm and the parvus is 11mm. Both are roughly 1mm thick.

Now Sigismund was not just the ruler of Hungary, but was also the King of Croatia (which was incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary at this time), King of Germany, King of Bohemia, King of Italy, and Holy Roman Emperor. But since the coins I got this month are from Hungary, I will just discuss a little history in regards to that part of his life.

Sigismund became king of Hungary in 1387 when his betrothed, Mary, on the death of her father, became Queen of Hungary. His kingship of Hungary was not peaceful, as he would spend the first nine years after his coronation in a ceaseless struggle to keep hold of the title as the Kingdom itself was very unstable.

Much of the struggle came from trying arrest power back from the local elite who had been administering much of Hungary. Sigismund had paid over much of the power the Kingship held to the local nobility to keep them loyal when he ascended the throne. The restoration of the authority of the central administration took decades of work. The bulk of the nation headed by the House of Garai was with him; but in the southern provinces between the Sava and the Drava rivers, the Horvathys with the support of King Tvrtko I of Bosnia, Mary’s maternal uncle, proclaimed as their king Ladislaus, King of Naples, son of the murdered Charles II of Hungary. It was not until 1395, that the pressure from these nobles had been suppressed

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