Beijing Ancient Coin Museum

Beijing Ancient Coin Museum

Beijing Ancient Coin Museum is located in Beijing North Second Ring Road, downstairs deshengmenjian. It is composed of two parts: Deshengmen archery tower and Zhenwu temple. It is a special museum for displaying coins, mainly for collection, exhibition and national coin trading activities. It was completed and opened in October 1993.

Development history

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The Museum of ancient coins is located in the rebuilt Zhenwu Temple of the Qing Dynasty. It displays the "series of Chinese ancient coins", from the earliest shell coins, cloth coins, ghost face coins, to the copper coins of the past dynasties, silver bills of the Qing Dynasty, and paper money of the Republic of China. Here you can learn that there are many kinds of coins in ancient China, such as knife shaped, square shaped, round shaped, and gold, silver, copper, pottery, and paper in texture. Moreover, each small coin is condensed with rich and profound cultural connotations, reflecting the social life and political changes at that time, and each change in the monetary system affects the process of history.

In addition, there is also an exchange market for ancient coins, where you can buy and exchange coins, and ask experts to identify the authenticity and quality of coins. The museum has become a place for coin lovers to engage in research, collection and exchange, and a window for people in Beijing to learn about coins and participate in coin collecting activities.

Historical evolution

Deshengmen archery tower is one of the two archery towers preserved in the inner city of Beijing in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Known as the military gate in history, it is an important gateway from the capital to the northern part of the Great Wall. In 1449 A.D., Yu Qian, a national hero, defended Beijing, and Deshengmen was the main battlefield; in 1664 A.D., Li Zicheng led the peasant army to enter Beijing. The arrow tower of Deshengmen is located on the high platform of the city. It is 31.9 meters high and seven rooms wide. It has a double eaves on the top of the mountain. It has a front building and a back building. It has four floors up and down and eighty-two arrow windows as shooting windows.

In August 1979, Deshengmen arrow tower was announced as a key cultural relic protection unit in Beijing. It was renovated in 1980 to welcome the guests.

In 1993, the Zhenwu temple was rebuilt in the Wengcheng of Deshengmen, and the Museum of ancient coins in Beijing was established. It is the only coin museum open to the outside world in Beijing. It is an ideal place for coin research, collection and exchange.

Collection

Bronze beast

The story of bronze: Poly Art Museum: the museum is invested by Poly Group. The bronze exhibits from Shang Dynasty to Tang Dynasty are the biggest feature of the museum. The museum also displays three national treasures of Yuanmingyuan, copper beast, which poly group bought back from Hong Kong. This film shows the beauty of shape, pattern and unique value of the exhibits.

These bronze animal heads were elaborately made by the craftsmen of the palace building office who served the emperor during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. The animal fur and other details were chiseled and forged one by one. They are clear and lifelike, showing a high level of craftsmanship. The designers are artists from Europe, such as Mr. Lang, so the modeling has many western artistic features and becomes a treasure of art that blends the eastern and Western cultures.

Among them, the bronze statue of tiger head is quite different from the traditional Chinese tiger. If it is not the word "Wang" on the forehead, everyone will mistake it for a lion. Experts say that only China respects the tiger as the king of all animals, so the combination of Chinese and Western meanings of this bronze statue is more typical.

The bronze animal head is made of special alloy copper for the palace, which contains many precious metals. It is the same as the copper crane displayed in the Palace Museum and the summer palace in Beijing. It is deep in color, pure in essence, and has gone through wind and rain without erosion.

At the same time, the 14 Buddhist statues of the northern and Southern Dynasties collected by the Poly Art Museum are no less valuable than the four bronze animal heads. They are the representative works of the peak period of Chinese Buddhist sculpture art.

Original shellfish

The original shellfish coin was produced in the Shang Dynasty 3000 years ago. It is the ancestor of the coin. It is a kind of shellfish currency processed from natural seashells. It was unearthed in Fuhao Tomb of Yin Ruins in Henan Province. The age is from the 19th century BC to the 16th century BC, more than 3500 years ago. The processed natural shell coins have grooves on one side. They are smooth and beautiful, small and exquisite, strong and wear-resistant, and easy to carry. This kind of sea coins are mainly produced in the East China Sea, South China Sea and other sea areas in China, reflecting the commercial exchanges of the Shang Dynasty.

Its emergence marked the development of social productive forces at that time. After the original barter stage, there are more and more commodities that can be exchanged. At this time, shell coins appeared and became the intermediary of commodity exchange.

Round square hole coin

The round square hole coin of the fourth Ming Dynasty in the Warring States period and the state of Yan, with a diameter of 29mm and a weight of 4.6g, is a kind of round coin with square hole of the fourth Ming Dynasty.

"Ming Si" coin is the largest in diameter and weight in Yan's square hole coin, and it is also the rarest coin in Yan's coin. It is listed as one of the treasures of ancient coins.

Currency of the Three Kingdoms

The history of Wei, Shu and Wu is called the Three Kingdoms. At that time, the currency system was complicated. In addition, the war was raging, and the historical records were not clear. Now, it is regarded as the currency of the Three Kingdoms period. It is difficult to distinguish the casting place and the casting time.

During the Three Kingdoms period, the money system in different regions was different;

Wei De Wu Zhu

In addition to the five baht of Shu, there is another five baht of Zhibai

Wu has five hundred big springs, one thousand big springs, two thousand big springs and five thousand big springs.

In addition, Taiping Baiqian and Dingping Baiqian were also cast by Yizhou governor YUELIAN and Dingping Baiqian might also be cast by Shu.

Currency of Jin Dynasty

There is not a word about the coinage of money in the Western Jin Dynasty in the historical books. At that time, it mainly used five baht money. When the Western Jin Dynasty unified China, the Treasury was substantial and the national strength was strong. Therefore, in addition to using the old money of the Han Dynasty, we should cast money by ourselves. Today, it is not easy to say goodbye to Zhu in Wei and Jin Dynasties.

At the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, after the rebellion of the eight kings, the ethnic minorities did their own things, and many of them made their own money.

Li te and li Liu, the leaders of the Ba nationality, founded the Han Dynasty in Sichuan and cast "Hanxing", which is the first currency named after the year in Chinese history.

Shile replaced the Hun slaves to establish the former Zhao and established himself as the king, which was known as the later Zhao in history, and cast "Fenghuo".

The former Liang Zhang rail cast "Liang Zao Xin Quan".

Currency of the southern and Northern Dynasties

In the Southern Dynasties, it was very popular to cut the old five baht into small coins, which were made privately. In the seventh year of Yuanjia (430 AD), Emperor Wen of the Song Dynasty cast four Bahts. After that, it was changed to Xiaojian Sizhu. The characters of this spring are delicate, and the style of seal script is flying. It looks like dancing sleeves, which is very beautiful. In 465 ad, Yongguang was once cast again. A few months later, Jinghe was changed and Jinghe was cast again.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty, there were mainly two kinds of five baht, wheel and non wheel, among which the non wheel was called "female coin". After Liang Yuan emperor moved his capital to Jiangling, he changed the "two pillars and five Bahts" of Dangshi, and Liang Jing emperor changed the "four pillars and five Bahts" of Dangshi in the second year of Taiping. During the reign of emperor Chen Wen, in order to boycott small coins and cast large-scale five baht, Emperor Chen Xuan cast Taihe five baht. The spring seal script is well proportioned and magnificent, and the production is excellent, ranking the champion of spring products in the Southern Dynasty. The wuzhu of Yongan in the Western Wei Dynasty, the Wanguo of Yongtong in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the great cloth of the five elements and the buquan of buquan are commonly known as the "Sanpin of the Northern Zhou Dynasty". The calligraphy is exquisite and the foundry is excellent. It is another peak of money casting after Wang Mang.

Currency of Sui and Tang Dynasties

After the reign of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, the Sui five baht was the unified legal tender. The word "Five" on the left of the Sui five baht was more than the word "fierce", which was common in small samples.

In the early Tang Dynasty, the old coins of the Sui Dynasty were still used. In 621 ad, Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty ordered the abolishment of the five baht and the casting of the yuan Tongbao, which ended the history of the two baht currencies in China and entered the Baowen system.

The four character Qian Wen of "Kaiyuan Tongbao" was written by the calligrapher Ouyang Xun. The writing is dignified and dignified, showing the prosperous and peaceful style of the Tang Dynasty.

"Kaiyuan Tongbao" was coined in Tang Dynasty for more than 200 years. It has a stable price comparison and little change. It is still used in the late Qing Dynasty. It is also one of the oldest coins. The amount of Kaiyuan coins is huge. Today, it is widely spread and has many editions.

During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty (the first year of Qianfeng (666 AD)), due to the increasing extravagance and military expenditure, Qianfeng Quanbao was recast, one for ten. However, it was rejected by the merchants, and was forced to stop casting a year later, so it was rarely handed down.

In the rebellion of an and Shi, Shi Siming cast Shun Tian according to the eastern capital, and got a lot of money. As the saying goes, "it's easy to get along with heaven, but hard to get one.".

After the an Shi rebellion, the economy of the Tang Dynasty was seriously damaged. In order to pay for the military expenditure, Emperor suzong of the Tang Dynasty made a new treasure of the Qianyuan Dynasty in the first year of the Qianyuan Dynasty, one for ten, then one for five, one for three, and finally one for one. This is the beginning of the treasure money in Qian Wen. Qian yuan coins were cast from suzong to the end of Tang Dynasty, so they spread widely and had a complicated format.

Dali Yuanbao was cast in the reign of emperor zongdali of Tang Dynasty (766-779 AD), and jianzhongtongbao was cast in the reign of emperor Dezong of Tang Dynasty (780-783 AD). These two springs are often unearthed in Xinjiang.

In the fifth year of Huichang (845), Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty cut down the Buddhist temples in the world and collected copper materials from the abandoned temples to cast money. Li Shen, the governor of Yangzhou, added the word "Chang" after the new money to mark the year. There are 23 kinds of furnaces in each state, such as Chang, Jing, Luo, Yi, Jing, Xiang, LAN, Yue, Xuan, Hong, Tan, Yan, run, e, Ping, Xing, Liang, Guang, Zi, Fu, GUI, Dan and Yong.

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