ORIENTAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY

Secretary General Regional Secretaries Mr. - - Broome General Section: Mr. C. M. Webdale

Newsletter Editor Europe: Dr. H. J. van der Wiel Dr. M. B. Mitchiner

UK. and Eire: Mr. K. W. Wiggins Annual Subscription £3-00; 11.11. 12-00; 6-00 dollars North America: Mr. P. D. Hogan Newsletter number 64 February 1980 Members news

Dr. Hans Wilski writes -How to clean nickel coins? During the time of the Ottoman Empire nickel coins

were minted under the reigns of the last four sultans, namely Abdul Aziz, Abdul Hamid II, Mohammed V and Mohammed VI. Hence it follows that the collector of Ottoman coins is sometimes confronted with the

problem of how to clean these coins. Different experiments with chlorinated hydrocarbons and inorganic

acids have not lead to satisfactory results. Does anybody know a good method to clean nickel coins? Mr. W. Warden jr. has a number of coins for disposal, mainly Sassanian and other classical specimens. Many ONS members who have frequented the premises of Messrs. B. A. Seaby in London will have met Herbert Seaby who founded the firm over half a century ago and continued working until shortly before his death in December 1979.

Information sheet no. 21 on Hafsid coins of Tunisia is now being circulated to members. ONS meetings

London: a meeting is to be held on Saturday 8th. March at 2 pm in St. James’ Hall, 6 Gloucester Terrace, London W. 2. Arrangements will be along the same lines as previous meetings held there and further

details are available from Mr. Ken Wiggins. Rotterdam: a special meeting will be held on Saturday 10th. May at the Museum voor Volkenkunde

(Ethnological Museum), Willemskade 25, Rotterdam. The museum is open from 10.00 am., the meeting starts at 11.00 am. Special subjects: Tibetan and Nepalese coins, Dutch coinage in Ceylon. It is hoped that a good number of ONS members from Belgium, Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands will

be present. For further details please contact Dr. van der Wiel or Mr. Jan Lingen (back from India in March). By prior arrangement they may be able to arrange viewing of sections of the Museum’s coin collection. Members may also contact their regional secretary in case group travel can be arranged. This is the 10th. anniversary of the founding of the ONS. Forgeries of rare early Islamic Dinars

Pressure cast gold forgeries derived from two Omayyad dinars have recently been seen. They appear to

emanate from the Middle East and have appeared in both London and California: apparently from a vendor

who, having acquired two rare coins, wished to multiply his assets. These dinars belong to the rare issues that

include a mint name in their marginal legend. One type bears the mint name Al Andalus and is dated AH 110,

the other purports to have been minted in Ifriqiyah during AH 122.

When the ‘California’ and the ‘London’ specimens were examined side by side it was apparent that the ‘California’ coins were pressure casts made from the ‘London’ originals. A few minor scratches on the flan of

each original coin and a minor striking flaw on one coin were all faithfully reproduced on the forgeries. The

latter were good quality copies but some details, particularly of the Al Andalus specimen, deserve comment. The flan of this copy is flat on one side but slightly buckled (elevation and adjacent depression) on the other

side and whereas the original coin has parts of a pellet border at the edge, the edge of the copy has lost this

feature and is not so sharp. The coins are all now being examined at the forgeries bureau in London and have

also visited the British Museum. Anyone being offered similar coins may be advised to contact one of these bodies (Editor) A coin of the Sultanate of Sambak? by Ken Wiggins

I was interested to read the item by Raf van Laere in Newsletter 63 concerning some coins supposedly from

the Sultanate of Sambak in Borneo, as I possess some similar pieces. The coins illustrated by Mr. van Laere appear to be retrograde strikings’, whereas mine are conventional pieces, one of which is illustrated. My past enquiries failed to discover the origin of these coins so I hesitate to suggest an attribution, but can only add a little further information concerning them.

The metal of my coins appears to be a mixture of brass and copper, or some similar alloy. The flans have obviously been cast and the edges afterwards smoothed with a file. On the obverse the letters in the

square are plainly: HC+/VOC/CHO. There are traces of an Arabic inscription outside the square. The

square design resembles the obverse of the gold ducats of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht and Westfrisia; which

were struck for use in the Indies. My coins are all dated AH 1247. The Arabic inscription above this date on the reverse is puzzling: any denomination, if the coins are from Borneo, is likely to be a Kapang, a Stiver or

a Doit, but none of these can be read in Arabic on the coins. Possibly it is the name of the place where the

coins were issued. One of my pieces was found in Ceylon in 1946.

Erratum: the illustrations of Mr. van Laere’s coins were unfortun (2) y

لل‎ ately rendered the wrong way round; so they should appear the same as Mr. Wiggins’ coin illustrated here.

ا ااا ل ‏eC

A 1933 Sun Yat-sen Dollar die variety by R. N. J. Wright

The Central Mint at Shanghai, first projected in 1921, was resurrected by the Nationalists to coin the new standard dollar for the country. The production of this, the Sun Yat-sen ‘Junk’ silver dollar dated 21st. Year (1932: Y. 344), was delayed and the coins were actually struck between March and June 1933. The design on the reverse of the coins was of a junk, with three birds flying overhead, symbolising Sun Yat-sen’s three principles, and the Kuomintang ‘sun’ lurking in one corner. The first and only batch to enter circulation met with immediate criticism, as China was by then reeling both from the loss of Manchuria (the Three Eastern Provinces) and from the Japanese aggression at Shanghai, and the symbols were misinterpreted as being either

the Three Eastern Provinces flying away while the sun set over China, or three bombers emanating from the ‘rising sun’ of Japan; or a combination of either. The issue was withdrawn and the design amended by

removing the offending symbols, thus simplifying the design enormously. The next issue (Y. 345) dated

22nd. Year (1933) was struck in quantity between June 1933 and May 1934, and a further batch, up-dated 23rd. Year (1934), was minted from May 1934 to December 1935, when production of silver dollars ceased. In 1949, when hyperinflation caused by the civil war forced a return to silver, these Sun Yat-sen dollars were re-struck in the United States at Denver, San Francisco and Philadelphia mints, and in China at the Taipeh (Taiwan), Chengtu (Szechuan) and Canton (Kwangtung) mints. All these re-strikes were apparently from 1934 dated dies.

The standard of production maintained by the Central Mint was extremely high, and although some 147 © million dollars of the three dates were struck over the period 1933 - 1935, there are few varieties to be found

amongst the currency issues. Kann lists only trial pieces, or patterns in base metal, in addition to the currency

issues for the 1932 and 1933 dated coins, and some minor varieties for the 1934 dated issue which may be the result of the 1949 re-striking. However, the point that appears to have been overlooked is that there were, in fact, two distinct reverse dies employed for the 1933 dated coins: one of these was the ‘cleaned up’ reverse die from the ill fated 1932 dated issue, which was then superseded by a new reverse die, subsequently to be used throughout the 1934 dated issue. The most obvious differences between these two dies, referred to in this article as the ‘1932’ and ‘1934’ dies, are centred on the halyards (2 or 3 ropes), sheets (1 or 2 ropes) and the

base of the anchor of the junk (on or above the horizon), and are shown in the blown up portions of the

accompanying sketch. (For the nautically uninitiated, halyards are the ropes holding the sail up to the top of the mast, while sheets are the ropes controlling the lower back end of the sail).

As numbers of each type of the 1933 dated coins seem to be evenly divided, no rarity value can be ascribed to the one or the other.

Bibliography: - Kann, Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Coins,

USA, 1966 - B. Coole, Coins in China’s History, USA, € “1934!

(2 halyards) “1932!

(3 halyards) “1934! “1932!

Two early Chinese soft metal ‘Seed’ (‘Mother’) cash by Michael Mitchiner: Although the method by which cash coins have been cast in the Far East for many hundreds of years has been

subject to some local variation’, the basic technique appears to have evolved very little. The first step in coin production was to engrave a model of the proposed new coin issue in bronze: the ‘Seed’ or ‘Mother’ cash. The next step was to reproduce the new design of the bronze seed cash as a group of soft metal secondary

seed cash. After re-touching the designs these soft metal seed cash were then used to impress the clay moulds in which the standard currency cash were later to be cast. When pouring channels had been pressed in the clay moulds the final stage was to cast therein a ‘tree’ of the cash coins destined for circulation as currency.

The process has been described in more detail by de Villaret? in his monograph on Japanese coinage: Les monnaies de cuivre étaient fondues dans des moules de sable; cette matiére maintenue, pendant les operations diverses du moulage, dans des caisses en bois renforcées par des armatures de métal, bronze ou fer.

Le 7100616 de la monnaie future était gravé sur bronze en relief, par l’artiste 711011614176. Apres approbation du souverain, ce type était utilisé pour exécuter, en étain, un certain nombre d’exemplaires de la piéce nouvelle. Ces premiers spécimens, soigneusement et facilement retouchés au burin, servaient enfin a faire les empreintes en vue des moulages deéfinitifs.

Voici comment on opérait généralement pour cette préparation des moules. Les modeéles de zinc étaient placés par lignes paralléles, distantes de quelques centimetres, sur la surface bien dressée, [0771166 par le sable

de l’une des coquilles. La seconde coquille était ensuite placée sur la premiere, une légére pression suffisait pour faire penétrer les piéces de zinc dans le sable, en y dessinant leur forme. La position relative des deux parties du moule reperée exactement, celles-ci étaient séparées, et les 7100615 de zinc retirés de leurs alvéoles.

Pour permettre la coulée, les différentes empreintes étaient alors réunies, par un canal oblique, a un autre plus large, creusé a égale distance de deux rangées d’alvéoles. Ces canaux médians aboutissaient a l’extérieur. Les deux parties du moule étaient de nouveau reunies et soigneusement repérées, les canaux médians débouchant dans une méme rigole destinée a recevoir le métal en fusion qui garnissait ainsi toutes les cavités ménagées dans le sable.

Apres complet refroidissement, les moules étaient brisés, et le métal, 069096 soigneusement du sable qui l’enveloppait, présentait alors l’apparence d’une branche munie de ses feuilles, ces dernieres figurées par les monnaies elles-mémes. Cette premiére operation terminée, les piéces étaient détachées une a une, ebarbées et régularisées a la lime, parfois au burin.

La premiere coulée de chaque émission était conservée, apres avoir été soigneusement retouchée, pour rester comme le type de la nouvelle monnaie courante. Un usage a peu pres constant voulait aussi qu’a chaque coulée, on fondit des médailles portant des priéres boudhiques ou autres symboles religieux.

The two coins presented here are cash of the T’ang dynasty (AD 618 - 907): well made and in good style. But for their metal they would pass as early K’ai - yuan specimens made during the period of Kao Tsu (618 - 626) and his immediate successors. These cash are, however, made of Tin (or possibly zinc)* and this would seem to place them in the category of secondary seed cash.

T’ang dynasty (618 - 907)	period of Kao Tsu (618 - 626) and his	immediate successors
Tin	‘Seed’	cash weighing 5.67 & 6.45 gm.
Obv. K’ai yuan t’ung pao	Rev.	nail mark
The process described here would not be applicable, for	instance, to cases in which bronze (eg. sometimes in China)	or stone (eg. in Malaya) moulds were used for casting.	Tin ‘Seed’ cash weighing 5.67 & 6.45 gm. Obv. K’ai yuan t’ung pao Rev. nail mark

The process described here would not be applicable, for instance, to cases in which bronze (eg. sometimes in China) or stone (eg. in Malaya) moulds were used for casting.

de Villaret, Numismatique Japonaise, Revue Numismatique

1892, 125 - 147, 217 - 240 and 369 - 412: vide 217f.

There is a recorded issue of tin cash during the T’ang period, but virtually no other cash of such metal were placed into

general circulation in China: apart from some mid19th. century issues. By way of contrast soft metal (lead, zinc, tin) cash have been used for normal currency purposes in Provincial Japan, in Vietnam and in the Malay-Indonesian

region.