100,000 ANCIENT COINS UNCOVERED IN JAPAN

[Roman Collector]

A ginormous hoard was found in in Maebashi City, Japan.

[Sol_Invictus]

The date range spanned by the coinage is astounding! Apparently the hoard contains Ban Liang coins from the second century BC all the way through Song dynasty coins from the 13th century AD!

[sand]

Interesting. It's interesting, that these coins were found in Japan, and not China. Here's another photo from the same article. In this photo, one can see, that the coins seem to have an interesting green patina, or a green and white patina, or an aqua and white patina, which is often seen on ancient Chinese bronze coins, and on ancient bronze coins in general. I wonder, what percentage of these coins, are Japanese, versus Chinese. The article says "a cache of over 100,000 ancient coins, some of which are of Chinese origin and are more than 2,000 years old". According to Hartill "Early Japanese Coins", Japan started minting its own coins at approximately 700 AD.

Edited November 20 by sand

[shanxi]

1 hour ago, sand said:

According to Hartill "Early Japanese Coins", Japan started minting its own coins at approximately 700 AD.

Yes, but during the chinese Southern Song Dynasty  (1127–1279) large amounts of chinese coins were importet again. 

[KenDorney]

39 minutes ago, shanxi said:

Yes, but during the chinese Southern Song Dynasty  (1127–1279) large amounts of chinese coins were importet again. 

Yep.  Song Dynasty coins were extensively exported, imitated and used all over the region.  The range of coinage here isnt surprising at all, though always uber cool.

[ominus1]

...thats a lotta cash! :P..

[Furryfrog02]

I need to know what that amount of coins could buy at the time.

[Finn235]

The really interesting thing about coins from the 11th-16th century found in Japan is that Japan didn't officially even use money at the time. They did begin issuing their own coinage in ~700 AD, but that only lasted a couple centuries until the entire economy imploded on itself due to corruption and mismanagement. Coins were not produced officially past 958, and all previous issues were demonetized in 987, and Japan reverted to using measures of rice, silk, and gold dust as money. Policy regarding coinage ranged from actively criminalizing use to unofficially authorizing "bita-sen" or imitations of Chinese coins. Chinese coins were also imported for local use, as was the case with this hoard.

Coinage wasn't officially reintroduced until the end of the 16th century, at which time 4,000 of the new Kanei Tsuho cash coins (mon) were equal to 1 gold Ryo or 4 silver Bu. 1 Ryo was fixed at 1 koku (180 litres, or about 330 pounds) of rice - considered to be one adult male's rations for a full year. These coins were probably valued similarly, so this hoard was probably equivalent to the wages of one peasant for 25 years!