User:Donald Trung/World's oldest coin factory (2021)

This page serves as "the editing history" of the English Wikipedia articles "List of coin hoards in China" and "Spade Money" and is preserved for attribution.
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_coin_hoards_in_China&type=revision&diff=1046682414&oldid=1045576799 & https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spade_money&type=revision&diff=1046684074&oldid=1037802775 ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 23:20, 26 September 2021 (UTC).

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In 2021 a paper was published about an old mint that was discovered at an archeological site in Henan Province, through radiocarbon-dating the spade money found there was attributed to be created between 640 BCE and no later than 550 BCE making it possibly the world's oldest known mint. Meaning that it is possible that the earliest known coinage was invented by the Chinese and not the Lydians as is commonly believed.

"Spade money" expansion (Guanzhuang Mint)
Two spade coins and a dozen moulds were discovered at the Guanzhuang Mint, these were attributed to have been produced between 640 BCE and no later than 550 BCE, which according to Hao Zhao, an archaeologist at Zhengzhou University, in an article phnlished in Antiquity makes it the world's oldest known mint.

The walled and moated city of Guanzhuang itself (in present-day Henan Province) was established around 800 BCE, and its foundry, where bronze was cast and beaten into ritual vessels, weapons, and tools, opened around the year 770 BCE. Hao Zhao claimed that bit wasn’t for another 150 years that workers at the Guanzhuang foundry would also begin to mint spade coins outside the inner city's southern gate. Zhao stated that while other research has dated coins from the Kingdom of Lydia (a historical country in present-day Turkey) to have been created as early as 630 BCE, he notes that the earliest mint known to have produced Lydian coins dates to sometime between 575 BCE and 550 BCE, which (if true) makes the Guanzhang Mint the world's oldest known mint.

Bill Maurer, a professor of anthropology at the University of California Irvine and director of the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion, noted that the completeness of the find gives weight to the assertions made in Antiquity. Mauer stated that usually coins tend to be found “bundled together and completely lacking any of the original context of their production or their use,” while in this case the entire mint as well as used casts were found. Mauer further noted that an entire foundry, which is full of carbon residue associated with the production of the item itself, was discovered lending more weight to the accuracy of the radiocarbon-dating proving the authenticity of the assertions made by the Zhao and other researchers.

Criticism of Guanzhuang being the site of the world's oldest mint hypothesis
George Selgin, director of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute, says while he notes that it is an impressive find, "It doesn't change our basic understanding of when the first coins were produced. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that China did it first." saying that the find doesn't necessarily prove that the Chinese invented money before the Lydians did.

Guanzhuang Mint
Two spade coins and a dozen moulds were discovered at the Guanzhuang Mint, these were attributed to have been produced between 640 BCE and no later than 550 BCE, which according to Hao Zhao, an archaeologist at Zhengzhou University, in an article phnlished in Antiquity makes it the world's oldest known mint.

The walled and moated city of Guanzhuang itself (in present-day Henan Province) was established around 800 BCE, and its foundry, where bronze was cast and beaten into ritual vessels, weapons, and tools, opened around the year 770 BCE. Excavations occurred between the years 2015 and 2019. Hao Zhao claimed that it wasn’t for another 150 years that workers at the Guanzhuang foundry would also begin to mint spade coins outside the inner city's southern gate. Zhao stated that while other research has dated coins from the Kingdom of Lydia (a historical country in present-day Turkey) to have been created as early as 630 BCE, he notes that the earliest mint known to have produced Lydian coins dates to sometime between 575 BCE and 550 BCE, which (if true) makes the Guanzhang Mint the world's oldest known mint. Meanwhile the proposed date of 650–500 BCE (based on ceramic typology) for the minting remains from the foundries at the Xintian and Xinzheng sites remains conjectural and has never been confirmed by radiocarbon-dating, but the radiocarbon-dating for the Guanzhuang Mint was more conclusive strengthening the hypothesis that the Chinese invented money rather than the Lydians.

The minting techniques that were employed at the Guanzhuang Mint are characterised by a number of things which indicate that the production of spade money wasn't a small-scale, sporadic experiment, but rather a well-planned and organised process such as batch production and standardisation, and quality control.

Bill Maurer, a professor of anthropology at the University of California Irvine and director of the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion, noted that the completeness of the find gives weight to the assertions made in Antiquity. Mauer stated that usually coins tend to be found “bundled together and completely lacking any of the original context of their production or their use,” while in this case the entire mint as well as used casts were found. Mauer further noted that an entire foundry, which is full of carbon residue associated with the production of the item itself, was discovered lending more weight to the accuracy of the radiocarbon-dating proving the authenticity of the assertions made by the Zhao and other researchers.

Criticism of Guanzhuang being the site of the world's oldest known mint hypothesis
George Selgin, director of the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives at the Cato Institute, says while he notes that it is an impressive find, "It doesn't change our basic understanding of when the first coins were produced. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that China did it first." saying that the find doesn't necessarily prove that the Chinese invented money before the Lydians did.

Usually recurring sources

 * December 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * November 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * October 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * September 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * August 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * July 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * June 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * May 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * April 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * February 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * February 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * January 2021.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * December 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * October 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * November 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * September 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * August 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.








 * July 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.






 * June 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.






 * May 2020.




 * No longer needed as I've imported THE ENTIRE WEBSITE, except for ancient Chinese piggy banks.






 * April 2020.










 * March 2020.






 * February 2020.






 * January 2020.






 * December 2019.





To use














Sources to use

 * https://api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/history/article/worlds-oldest-coin-factory-discovered-in-china?__twitter_impression=true
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 21:47, 26 September 2021 (UTC).
 * ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 21:47, 26 September 2021 (UTC).


 * https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/worlds-oldest-coin-factory-discovered-in-china?cmpid=int_org=ngp::int_mc=website::int_src=ngp::int_cmp=amp::int_add=amp_readtherest


 * https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/radiocarbondating-an-early-minting-site-the-emergence-of-standardised-coinage-in-china/178ECC2B245A017BF684BE1EFC732BD1