339, Lot: 523. Estimate $100. Sold for $60. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CHINA, Northern Sòng dynasty. Zhézōng. AD 1085-1100. FE 5 Wén (33.5mm, 13.08 g). Cast AD 1094-1097. Shao Sheng Yuan Bao in zhuànshū Hànzì (seal script) characters / Blank. Yan 486; Hartill 16.304. VF, well-preserved with minimal rust. An attractive iron coin.

From the J.P. Righetti Collection.

The Sòng dynasty is considered by many to be a high point in Chinese history and culture. Rising from the fragmented Ten Kingdoms in 960, the early Sòng emperors revived the country from the deprivations caused by the decline of the Táng. The new emperor relaxed economic controls to create a population boom, which was successfully managed by increases in agricultural yields that were not possible in the military climate of the previous period. This growth led to a general flowering of culture, and the arts and sciences both flourished under the Sòng. Major innovations of the era include the earliest military uses of gunpowder and the further development of both the magnetic compass and moveable type printing. The population increase also led to an increase in the size and prestige of the Confucian bureaucracy. These scholars pondered the past in their spare time, pioneering the field of archaeology, with many becoming antiquarians and coin collectors. Some of the earliest numismatic books were produced in China at this time.

This renaissance was reflected in the coinage as well. Sòng mints produced enormous quantities of cash, as many as 800,000 strings per year (Hartill p. 125) at some mints. With an average of a thousand cash per string, one mint would have produced as many as 800 million cash. These cash even circulated beyond the borders, becoming the de facto trade currency of East Asia and inspiring copies to be made as late as the 18th century in Japan. The system of bronze cash was also supplemented by iron coins in the northern, copper-poor provinces, and by paper money, to ease the burden of carrying the aforementioned iron coins.

Unfortunately, mounting external and internal pressure eventually began to disrupt the Sòng. These problems came to a head when, in 1127, the nomadic Jin attacked from the north. In the chaos of the invasion, the philosopher-emperor Huīzōng abdicated to his son. Both were captured and demoted by the conquerors. Yet the majority of the court managed to flee from the capital of Kāifēng, and consolidated their hold south of the Huái River, surviving as the Southern Sòng dynasty. Both the Sòng and the Jin were ultimately eliminated when Khublai Khan conquered China in 1279.