User:Donald Trung/Balhae cash coins sources


 * https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/919639388
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 20:32, 4 October 2019 (UTC).


 * https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/919639537
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 20:32, 4 October 2019 (UTC).

Song Dynasty book

 * http://mall.cnki.net/magazine/Article/ZGQB200203013.htm


 * www.zhongguoguoqing.cn/info/1046/2068.htm

Geonwon Jungbo cash coins
The first cash coins that were allegedly minted in Korea occurred under the reign of King Seongjong in the year Seongjong 15 (996 AD). It bore the inscription "Geonwon Jungbo" (乾元重寶, 건원중보) on its obverse and "Dongguk" (東國, 동국), which could be translated as "the country of the East", on its reverse. This series of cash coins bore the same inscription as the Tang dynasty Qianyuan Zhongbao (乾元重寶) cash coins, but the text "Dongguk" was added to its reverse to indicate that the coin was from a country east of China. The Geonwon Jungbo were manufactured in both bronze and iron.

The attribution of the Geonwon Jungbo to Seongjong is controversial. This is because no ancient Korean historical references mention this series of cash coins and the Geonwon Jungbo did not appear in any coin catalogues until the year 1938 when a Japanese coin catalogue named East Asian Money (東亞錢志) volume 15 attributed it as being an early Korean issue. After its initial attribution notable Chinese numismatist Ding Fubao quoted this book in one of his works in 1940. It is speculated by some Chinese numismatists that the attribution of this series of cash coins to Goryeo may be because of cash coins with similar inscriptions being listed in the "Qian Zhi", a Chinese coin catalogue published in the year 1149 (Shaoxing 19) during the Southern Song dynasty as this catalogue listed not only Chinese cash coins but also Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Southeast Asian coins.

Because of where these cash coins are usually found in the modern era and due to the lack of historical records, it is sometimes attributed to the ancient Korean kingdom of Balhae. But no historical records exist from Balhae in regard to its coinage so the exact origins of the Geonwon Jungbo remain a mystery. Because of these findings many mainstream Chinese numismatists do not attribute the Geonwon Jungbo to Goryeo. Other arguments set forth is that "Dongguk" is an abbreviation for "Haidong Shengguo" (海東盛國), one of the names of Balhae, the fact that Balhae was a major exporter of copper to the Tang dynasty and had a very prosperous economy and a developed culture, this meant that Balhae might have issued its own coinage as it had an extremely well developed copper melting industry, furthermore Balhae used the same calendar as the Tang dynasty so when the Tang dynasty entered the Qianyuan era Balhae entered the Geonwon era.

During its heyday Balhae was complete imitation of the Tang dynasty with its Three Departments and Six Ministries system, Balhae was strongly influenced by the Tang on political, economic, cultural, and military levels and the country was commonly referred to as "Dongguk" because of its geographical location. Meanwhile, it is very unlikely that Goryeo would’ve adopted the Tang dynasty Qianyuan Zhongbao inscription as by its time this series of cash coins came to be associated with the inflation and political instability of the late Tang period.

Another hypothesis claims that the Geonwon Jungbo were either a commemorative issue or a military issue akin to the much later Qianlong Tongbao cash coins issued during the Battle of Ngọc Hồi-Đống Đa campaign which had the characters "安南" (Annam) inscribed on its reverse.

In the modern era these cash coins are mostly unearthed in the Chinese province of Liaoning and North Korea. Some of them being unearthed in the city of Kaiyuan, Liaoning. The iron cash coins are more commonly found than the bronze ones. Currently only 10 pieces of the Geonwon Jungbo are known to exist making it an extremely valued object among East Asian coin collectors.

Related (content) expansions

 * User:Donald Trung/Korean yang (兩) + Moneta-Coins expansion.

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