ORIENTAL NUMISMATIC SOCIETY

Regional Secretaries General: Mr G P Hennequin

Europe: Dr H J van der Wiel Secretary General ١ Mc M R Broome

UK & Eire: Mr K W Wiggins: Newsletter Editors Mc 5 Goron & Mr H W Simmons America: Mr W B Warden, jr.

Annual Subscription £6.00; H Fl 25; FF 75; 10 dollars June - July 1985

From the Secretary-General

In the last few months we have seen the resignation of of our officers and the appointment of 5 new people. This is not particularly surprising as it is now 15 years since the Society was founded and there were only 2 resignations before this year. We are all most grateful to Craig Burns, Vic Brown and Michael Mitchiner for the enthusiasm and industry with which they promoted the cause of Oriental Numismatics. In the same breath, we welcome Bill Warden, our new American Regional Secretary, David Priestley, our new Treasurer, Stan Goron and Howard Simmons, joint editors of the Newsletter and Joe Cribb, who has the new post of Membership Secretary. Their new ideas will help to keep the Society alive and flourishing.

Now for the baa news! By the end of the financial year 1984/1985 we had very little money left. If it were not for a most generous donation by Bill Warden to cover the costs of relocating the US Region HQ we should be well into the red (many thanks indeed, Bill!). However مغ‎ remain solvent we must increase our annual subscriptions. So from lst July $1985 they will be £6.00, HF1 25.00, FF 75.00 and $10.00.$ Initial subscriptions will be 15% higher to cover the cost of the documentation. These amounts are still much lower than for other societies around the world and they represent good value for money, especially if members contribute interesting articles to the Newsletter and the Occasional Paper and Information Sheet series. Michael Broome Prom the Editors

This is the first Newsletter under the “new management”. We shall endeavour to maintain the high standard set by Dr Mitchiner. Our aim is to publish the Newsletter every two months and to include as wide a range of material as space permits. This is where you, the membership, come in. The success of the Newsletter and the ONS in general depends on your participation. We need a constant flow of articles and other items of interest. Manay of you will have coins in your collections which are unpublished or unusual or which

have an interesting story to tell. Why not write about them, or, if you do not feel confident enough to do so, send us details (with a photograph or rubbing) and we may be able to publish an article on your behalf. Stan Goron & Howard Simmons Notice to Members in the U.K. and Eire

There has been a slight reoryanisation in the administration of the UK and Eire section. As from lst April this year, Ken Wiggins (Regional Secretary) will run a bank account for

this section. This will lighten the load a little for the new Treasurer. All members in the UK and Eire section should pay their subscriptions direct to Mr Wiggins. The account for the section is no. 506762284 with Barclays Bank Ltd, High Street, Crowborough, East Sussex TN6 2PX. Members are reminded that their subscription is due annually in the month in which they Joined, or they may, if they prefer, pay at the beginning of the year. Generally, reminders will be sent out with the Newsletter or other publications, MISCELLANY The 32nd International Congress for Asian and North African Studies will be held in Hamburg from 25-30 August 1986. Please contact the editors for further details. The 10th International Numismatic Congress will take place in London from 8-12 September 1986. Any member wishing to present papers should contact the congress secretary, Dr. I. Carradice at the British Museum, London WC1B 326. The Nickle Arts Museum in Calgary, Canada will be putting on an exhibition of Bactrian, Indian and Persian coins from 14 May 1985, and the American Numismatic Society will be having one on Indian coinage from 12 September 1985 to 10 January 1986.

The Academy of Indian Numismatics and Sigillography Collectors and students of Indian coins and seals should be aware of the existence of the above organisation which is based at Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. Established in 1977, the Academy is a non-profit making organisation whose aims are to acquire, share and disseminate knowledge of Indian numismatics and sigillography by collecting and collating relevant data from within and without India. A journal is published annually and contains many interesting articles on Indian coins and seals of all periods, The Academy is also very active in organising seminars, lectures and exhibitions in India. It is a worthy organisation which deserves the support of those whose interest lies in Indian numismatics. Back copies of the Journal and further information regarding the Academy may be obtained from the Director, Dr. 5. K. Bhatt, 115 Kailash Park, Manorama Ganj, Indore, M.P. 452-001, India. Some recent publications

HELLRIGL, - & GABRISCH, K. Tibet. A philatelic & numismatic bibliography. $Santa Monica 1983. 76pp $14.00$ MILDENBERG, Leo. The Coinage of the Bar Kokhba War.Typos VI, ed. Schweizerische Numismatische Gesellschaft, Aarau 1985, 400pp, 44pl. SFr.230. ech Bahai ecieecongaae ay.و‎ von Munzen der spaten Kusanas. Munich 1983 NERCESSIAN, Y.T. Armenian “SA CTE Bibliography and Literature. Los Angeles 1984, Work in progress

Work is in hand on the following ONS Occasional Papers:

13th century Seljug dirhems with Paleologan countermarks; Umayyad dirhem weight standards; Hijri/Regnal Year combinations on Mughal coins.

We understand that Dr. Hermann Simon is working on the publication of volume 3 of Heinrich Nutzel’s catalogue of Oriental Coins (based on an original manuscript in the Munzkabinett

Berlin, DDR), and that at the Cabinet des Medailles, Paris, Gilles Hennequin’s Catalogue des _monnaies_ musulmanes de la Bibliotheque Nationale les Sel + leur successeurs (suite au catalogue de Lavoix) is ready for printing. Members intereste n Indian coinage will be pleased to know that Messrs Maheshwari and Wiggins are hard at work preparing a book on Maratha coinage and that Dr P.L. Gupta is similarly engaged ona Decennial Bibliography of Indian Numismatics,

Errata William 8. Warden, Jr. has drawn our attention to some printing errors in his article on

the coinage of Yazid.ط‎ Al-Muhallab (Newsletter 94-95(:-

the penultimate line of the first paragraph should read: “,..-mint signature HURA (Juzstan?)….”3 2. bibliography: the third item “L’Islam, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris 1983”, is a

phantom and a part repetition of the preceding item,. bibliography: last item should read..”Chronographia Islamica”.

THE CHINESE 1910 COINAGE AND THE VIENNA MINT by Richard Wright

Up until 1904 the Chinese coinage had been produced on a provincial basis. In 1905 a Central Mint was established at Tientsin, close to the capital, with the intention of

introducing a common coinage for the whole of China: the dies would be produced centrally, but the coins would be struck by the Central mint and a number of selected provincial or subsidiary mints, The scheme worked quite well for the copper coinage, the Tai-Ching 10 cash coins of 1905-1909, with a provincial character stamped in the centre, being well known, However, the Tai-Ching silver coinage did not fare so well.

Firstly, there was an experimental tael coinage in 1906 (K.934-7), followed by an experimental dollar coinage in 1907 (K.212-5), both struck in small quantities by the Central mint; and it was not until 1908 that an undated dollar, 20c and 10c coin (K.2168) were put into circulation in any quantity. It was at this stage that the Emperor, Kuang Hsu, died, which meant a change in the reign title on the coins to that of his successor, Hsuan T’ung.

Records show that the Central mint struck no silver coins in 1909, the opportunity presumably having been taken to plan a completely original coinage for the young emperor with the new denomination of $1, $1/2, $1/4 and 51/10 in silver, and 2 Fen, 1 Fen, 5 Li and 1 Li in copper (relating to the old style 20, 10, and 1 cash). The proposed introduction of this coinage was announced by proclamation on 24th May 1910. (1) (K.219- 222)

Kalgan Shih stated of the 1910 silver coins - ‘The Tientsin Central Mint prepared the designs, cast the dies, and struck the specimens’ (2). Kann also implied the dies were engraved by the head mint at Tientsin (3), although it is not quite clear whether he was referring to the 1910 or to the 1911 issues. Oka, who gave some useful details of dies where known, stated of the 1910 dollar just that it was struck at the Central Mint (4), while Woodward (5) was unambiguous in attributing the reverse die of the 1 Fen or 10 Cash

(it was common to both the 1910 and 1911 issue) to the Central Mint at Tientsin ‘when Mr. - Giorgi was chief designer’, Ros alone, in a tiny footnote (6), mentioned in passing that the dies for the copper coins had been produced in Austria.

Actually, the contract for the design and dies must have been offered in Europe, as the Birmingham Mint has in its files a letter dated 24th June 1910 addressed to the Chinese Ambassador in London, summarising the Mint’s previous dealings with the Chinese provinces,

and referring to the ‘new coinage’: but Dr. Karl Schulz of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has confirmed that it was in fact the Vienna Mint which produced the master dies for the $1, 51/2, 51/4 and 51/10 coins, 35 well as those for the copper coins, and that the original tools are still retained by the Mint. Those responsible for the execution of the dies were Rudolf Neuberger, Adolf Hofmann and Josef Prinz. The master dies were then despatched to China - presumably to Tientsin where the working dies were stamped and some coins actually struck for circulation. How many coins were struck of each denomination is something of a mystery as mintage figures for that period are obscure; only one figure, that for 1,410,000 pieces of the unusual denomination of 25c or 51/4 Stand out (7). In any event the coins, with one exception, had hardly entered circulation, if at all, before the issue was shelved,

In 1911, Luigi Giorgi, the newly engaged chief engraver at the Tientsin mint, was busy on fresh designs for more conventional dollar, 50c, 20c and 10c coins (K.223-230), while the denominations of the copper coins were being modified back to the original 20, 10 and 5 cash. The redgesigned 1911 10 cash (¥.27) was then circulated widely, but the $1/2 (K.220) was the sole coin of the original 1910 issue to enter circulation in any quantity.

The Vienaa Aint presumably struck some trial pieces, as specimens of the $1 and 2 Fen

coins are on display in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Also Dr. C.T. Wang, then Chief Superintendent of the Imperial Chinese Mint, made several visits to the Royal Mint in London in October 1910 and presented one of the 1910 dollar coins. From the timing it would appear that the coin had originated from Vienna rather than Tientsin,

Beferences: (K. - ) coin numbers from E. Kann, Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Coins

USA 6.

»1[ 8. Kann, The Currencies of China, Shanghai 1926, p.320 (2) Kalgan Shih, tramslation of Modern Coins of China, Shanghai, 1949, p.14 (3) 8. Kann, ibid., ¢.320 (4) - Oka, Silver Crowns of the Far East, Tokyo 1966, p.14 (5) A.M.Woodward, The minted ten-cash coins of China, reprinted USA 1971, p.48 i6) Dr. G. Ros, Coins of the Republic of China Journal of the N. China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1917, p.142 (7) 8. Kann, Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Coins, p.467.

MORE ON NASIR-UD-DIN MOHAMMED by Stan Goron

In my article on the unusual Jehangirnagar rupee of the Mughal emperor, Mohammed Shah, published in ONS Newsletter 92/93, I mentioned the existence of similar coins struck at Burhanpur, Dr Becker of West Germany has kindly sent me a photograph of a mohur of this type struck at Burhanpur. Although Whitehead published a mohur of this type, these coins are sufficiently rare for it to be worth publishing this second example.

a BD” ar ve =p oo” eee $=,$ [os ore ee er? لك‎ aw gn وين‎ 1 < 4 ee 5 مم‎: <y 9-0 ea Ps a sa fe Obverse Reverse

سب بر ويئناهر سزكه مدا ‏yS

demmahoM	hahS
sulaJ	tanamiam‏sunam
daB	hahS izahG
hanaS‏dhA
nid~du-risaN	l1~ubA htaF
abirud‏ruraS-su-raD
akkiS	karabuM‏rupnahruB

The legends are arranged differently from those on the Jehangirnagar coin, and the obverse

One includes the phrase ‘sikka mubarak’ (auspicious coin) that seems to be lacking on the earlier specimen unless it is completely off the flan. Note also the very prominent position of the laqab (Nasir-ud-din) and the kunya (Abu-1 Fath). The coin weighs 10.97 grams,

In my previous article I said that Whitehead may well have been mistaken in his reading of

the lagab as Nasir-ud-din on the Burhanpur coin (rather than Nagir-ud-din). Another look at the illustration has revealed that the nun is joined directly to the sad without any alef. Hence the lagab on the Burhanpur issue is in fact Nasir or Nasir-ud-din. I am Still not convinced that there is a ya in the word, however, I have therefore read the lagab on the present coins as yo (Nasc Or Nasir).