User:Donald Trung/Shengbao (聖寶)

Original draft


The currency of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom consisted of Chinese cash coins and paper money, although the paper money produced by the Taiping rebels was unlikely to have been in large numbers as they are rare today. The first cash coins of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were issued in the year 1853 in the capital of Tianjing (present day Nanjing). The cash coins of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom should not be confused with the Taiping Tongbao (太平通寳) which was issued during the Northern Song dynasty between the years 976 and 997, or with any other contemporary rebel coinage that also bear this inscription.

Most cash coins issued by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were made from bronze with a smaller quantity being made from either iron or lead. Taiping rebellion cash coins made from either gold or silver are also known to exist but are extremely rare. The reason why the Shengbao tend to be very diverse is because the central government of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had allowed local power-holders within their realm to produce their own cash coins within their jurisdiction.

History


In 1850 the Taiping Rebellion was started by the head of the God worshippers Hong Xiuquan who founded the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, this rebellion lasted until 1864. Despite its brief existence the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is known to have cast a number of different cash coins and varieties of them the denominations of all Shengbao notably weren’t written down on the cash coins and had to be deduced by weight which made it an inconvenience for the people, some varieties of Shengbao are extremely rare such as a variant of the Taiping Shengbao with the inscription written as "太平聖宝" (using the simplified Chinese character "") instead of the more conventional "太平聖寶". However as Taiping rebellion era cash coins are very popular with coin collectors a large quantity of Taiping Rebellion cash coins as well as "fantasy" cash coins (杜撰) exist, "fantasy coins" refer to supposed varieties of Shengbao that have never actually existed.

Although very little documentation exists about the coinage manufactured by the Taiping rebels, it is known that in June 1853 the occupying Taiping rebels ordered copper workers in Tianjing with the skills to cast coins to open new furnaces for the production of cash coins with the inscription Tianguo Shengbao that were reported to be "the size of foreign coins" (Mexican pesos), these coins were reported to be of very poor workmanship and their production was quickly discontinued and although no coins fitting this description are extend it is known that Taiping rebels in other areas and provinces did cast coinage.

Cash coins with the inscription Taiping Tianguo (太平天囯) on the obverse and the Chinese characters Shengbao (聖寶) on the reverse are known to have been cast with inscriptions written in "Song period-style script" (方體宋子), regular script (楷書), and Yinqiwen (隱起文), the latter of which refers to a type of Chinese cash coin which de to their manufacturing process have characters that display an unevenness in the height of the strokes of the Hanzi characters which cause some strokes to rise a bit higher than others. Among the rares varieties of Shengbao cash coins include a Tianguo Taiping (天囯太平) cash coin which has its inscription written in "Song period-style script" with the Shengbao (聖寶) characters on the reverse side of the coin written in a vertical position which is referred to as zhí dú (直讀) or a "2 wén-sized" (折二) Tianguo Shengbao (天囯聖寶) cash coin with the characters Taiping (太平) written in a vertical manner on its reverse side.

Among the more common types of Shengbao are three types of cash coins, one was a Taiping Tianguo (太平天囯) written in regular script which had the characters Shengbao (聖寶) on their reverse and were issued in the denominations 1 wén (which were known as "Xiaoping", 小平, and weighed 3 grams), 5 wén (5 grams), 10 wén (8 grams), 50 wén (12 grams), and 100 wén (31 grams). These coins typically have wide rims which were excellently polished and were based on the Xianfeng era coinage produced at the Suzhou mint. The second type of common Shengbao originate from Hengyang, Hunan and are heavier than the first type but generally have a lower amount of copper in their alloy, their inscriptions are written in Song period-style script, have less accurately polished rims, and were issued in denominations of 1 wén, 10 wén, 50 wén, and 100 wén. The third type was also Hunanese in origin and bore the same inscription as the aforementioned coins written in regular script but the words Shengbao (聖寶) were written horizontally from right-to-left around the square center hole on the reverse, the Chinese characters of these cash coins were not protruding from the surface as high as those of the other types of Shengbao. These coins were issued in the denominations of 1 wén, 10 wén, 50 wén, and 100 wén.

List of cash coins issued by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
The following cash coins are known to have been cast by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:

Redirects

 * 1) REDIRECT Shengbao


 * 1) Currency of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
 * 2) Currency of the Taiping Kingdom.
 * 3) Coinage of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
 * 4) Coinage of the Taiping Kingdom.
 * 5) Coins of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
 * 6) Coins of the Taiping Kingdom.
 * 7) Cash coins of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
 * 8) Cash coins of the Taiping Kingdom.
 * 9) Shengpao.
 * 10) Sheng Bao.
 * 11) Sheng Pao.
 * 12) Taiping rebellion currency.
 * 13) Taiping rebellion coinage.
 * 14) Taiping rebellion coin.
 * 15) Taiping rebellion coins.
 * 16) Taiping Rebellion currency.
 * 17) Taiping Rebellion coinage.
 * 18) Taiping Rebellion coin.
 * 19) Taiping Rebellion coins.
 * 20) Taiping Kingdom currency.
 * 21) Taiping Kingdom coinage.
 * 22) Taiping Kingdom coin.
 * 23) Taiping Kingdom coins.
 * 24) Taiping currency.
 * 25) Taiping coinage.
 * 26) Taiping coin.
 * 27) Taiping coins.
 * 28) Holy treasure.
 * 29) Holy Treasure.
 * 30) 圣宝.
 * 31) 聖寶.
 * 32) Shèngbǎo.

Standard reference templates

 * August 2018.