Chinese Cash: Identification and Price Guide

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Summary: JEN'S CHINESE CASH; BRIDGING THE GAP
Review: ...The eighties and nineties have seen an explosion of numismatic research and publishing in China, but largely without benefit to western collectors. Very little has been translated, and most of the collector oriented catalogs are for the Chinese market, with no western-language text, and often without a numbering system. Although several concordances and attempts at a comprehensive catalog have been started in the past 50 years by westerners, some of them reaching published form, the standard has remained Schjoth's 1912 catalog of his collection. Recently George Fisher published a very usefully enhanced photocopy version of Ding Fubao's 1940 catalog, the long-time standard among Chinese collectors, and a better work than Schjoth in every way though lacking in background information and sidelights such as calligraphy and weight varieties, and mother coins. When I learned that a new work, drawing on Chinese sources and authored by New York dealer and tireless ANS volunteer David Jen was already in press from Krause, I hoped that Chinese Cash: Identification and Price Guide would replace these works. Having examined it, I believe that it is more of a gap-filler and will help bring the western collector up to speed with his Oriental counterpart. It is not the ultimate Chinese cash catalog for the western collector. It will not replace Fisher's Ding, though the two books complement each other nicely and together make an excellent basic reference, rendering Schjoth largely obsolete. Jen's work alone is a fair choice for someone who is not collecting the series and wants just one reference, but anyone acquiring coins should have Ding and/or Schjoth as well. In a nutshell, this is a non-comprehensive type catalog with fairly good rubbing illustrations, a number system, transliterated legends and attributions by emperor, cross-reference to S and FD numbers, market prices in two grades and, incorporated into the catalog portion, the sort of historical information contained in Schjoth, but of greater depth and recency. There is an extensive listing of pre-production and pattern coins, special sections on calligraphy varieties and counterfeits, and a dynastic list. Some Central Asian series are represented. Pinyin is used throughout. Uniquely, this work explains the importance many types have to the Oriental collector, a perspective richer than that gained from any western work. My biggest problem with Jen is its lack of comprehensiveness. The author has tried " . . . not to encumber this book with material that can be found in other catalogs prepared carefully by western writers . . ." but the result has been to omit many commonly-found types that appear in both Schjoth and the amazingly comprehensive Ding. The catalog numbers tell the story. Fisher's Ding covers the field in 2708 entries; Jen in 1491, including numerous charms, and some exotic types Ding missed. For knives and spades, Ding has 341 entries, Jen only 57, but including 5 missed by Ding. This means that many of the city-named late spades are simply missing, and the highly varied Ming knife is essentially served by a single entry. The complex coinage of Shun Zhih, enlivened by the transition from Ming to Manchu rule, has been deeply studied by Werner Burger. Leaving aside calligraphy differences, 76 types emerge from his plates, of which Ding lists 71 and Schjoth 57; Jen only 42. Certainly it is hard to fault any work in this complex and under-researched field for omissions, but here the omissions seem completely arbitrary. Missing are many types commonly available for under $50, while extreme rarities, priced in the thousands of dollars, are found on nearly every page. The generous margins and loose layout of the plates give the work a comfortable look, but I can't help feeling that 341 full-sized pages could have been used to cover the field more thoroughly. In an attempt "to avoid a cluttering of material" Jen has divided his main catalog into two parts, what he calls mainstream issues, and "variants." Apparently the idea was to provide one or more pieces of each reign title in Section I to ease the task of the page-through attributer. I have been unable to discern any criteria, however, for what was put in each section, nor indeed to what was left out of both. An atrtribution guide such as R.B. White's, requiring perhaps 10 pages, would eliminate the need for page-throughs and be helpful to the casual user as well. Aside from the inconvenience of flipping back and forth between two sections is the numbering problem. The number sequence runs historically from #1 through #868, with Taiping and other Rebel coins, Xinjiang (Turkestan) and other outlying series adding up to #928, which is sensible enough. Then Section II begins all over again with knife and spade "variants" from #929 to #1491, forcing the user to interpose the two number runs to keep his listing or collection in historical order. This alone will dissuade many collectors from using Jen's numbers as their organizing thread, and most dealers and auctioneers from referencing the work in their listings. There is a fascinating section on calligraphy varieties. Jen attempts a breakdown of the Wu Zhu (Han) and Kai Yuan (Tang) types, which, along with the earlier Ban Liang, are conservative series just now yielding their secrets to a few dedicated researchers using published hoard finds. Most western collectors, however, will find these pages more tantalizing than useful. In simplified form, Jen recounts the fascinating evolution of these types with rubbings and calligraphy descriptions as aids. Roger Doo is gradually publishing much more detailed studies, some i

Rating:
Summary: A companion volume, not the state-of-the-art
Review: David Jen, an American citizen who spent much of the 20th century living in China, is a volunteer assistant at the American Numsimatics Society, the world's leading insitute for the study and conservation of coins. As a paid employee of the ANS, I would like to stress that the ANS does not endorse this work directly, and the following are my own opinions.

Many collectors have primarily worked from one of four works in Western languages: the catalog of Terrien de Lacouperie, F. Schjoth, the George Fisher translation of the Ding Fubao collection, or the Arthur Coole series. Although there is much merit in all of these works, very few of them work with the economic history of China and are far more concerned with the aesthetics of the coins they collect. Primarily interest has centered on the spade and knife coinages during the Zhou period. Jen's work instead concentrates on coins that have a primary place within the economy, and key variants upon those coins. It is a much smaller catalog than the 6-volume Coole, which cannot be used easily, and I do not believe Mr Jen attempted to supplant the Ding Fubao or Schjoth catalogs.

However, I am distressed that none of the readers have noted that there are fine catalogs now in the Chinese and Japanese languages, which are truly most important. The 12-volume Daxi catalog, published by the Shanghai Museum, is the standard reference work for Asian numismatists, which far supplants the Ding Fubao or Schjoth. In addition, it appears that French is no longer a reference language for numismatists, because the fine work of Francois Thierry of the Bibliotheque National is completely omitted in reviews.

David Jen's book is a nice update to the Schjoth and "Fisher's Ding" catalogs for those who only read English, but anyone serious about Chinese coinage must read Chinese, and will instead use the Daxi. Thierry's many researches are important, and as his catalogs tend to represent hoards, are important for their economic significance. In sum, for the collector who only speaks English, this is a good supplement to the Schjoth and Fisher's Ding. In that sense it is an important addition to any numismatic library, but it does not supplant these earlier texts, nor do I think it was intended to do so. Serious scholars of Chinese numsimatic history may wish to use it for its variants of some Chinese coins, but their research is likely to be more profitable in working with the standard catalogs instead...

Rating:
Summary: Continuation of Jen Review
Review: Dear Review reviewer - my previously submitted review was edited to omit a note the the effect that only part of the review was posted, and included my email so that readers could obtain the rest. I saw nothing in your review guidelines to forbid this, so why was it omitted? Please have the courtesy to contact me at [e-mail] and explain how I may make it clear in this review that only part has been posted. Thank you.

Rating:
Summary: Continuation of Jen Review
Review: Dear Review reviewer - my previously submitted review was edited to omit a note the the effect that only part of the review was posted, and included my email so that readers could obtain the rest. I saw nothing in your review guidelines to forbid this, so why was it omitted? Please have the courtesy to contact me at [e-mail] and explain how I may make it clear in this review that only part has been posted. Thank you.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Step toward a Good Market Guide.
Review: The previous reviews make good points for the most part and no need to repeat them here. So I will add a few additional comments. I have been a serious collector of Chinese coins for a dozen years or so with much of one full year and a dozen other trips spent scouring the local markets and back alleys of China searching for coins.

A lack of comprehensiveness is endemic with anything Chinese, so too much can be made of Ren's omissions--it is after all an identification and pricing GUIDE. In the 1990s coins relatively common in Beijing may have been relative rarities in Chengdu, Urumuqi, Xian, Lanzhou, Datong, Shanghai, etc. This regional character of markets in China is indeed not only disappearing, but is leaping from regional to international which should result in a sorting out of rarity and price relative to a more coherent market demand.

Ren's price guide is a very useful attempt to reconcile a coin's value to this rapidly approaching, more integrated international market. Rather than being "most useful only for the gullible", as an earlier reviewer unkindly suggested, I find it quite useful, thoughtful and honestly advanced with its assumptions and rationale clearly stated. Having followed the China, US and internet markets I think it is a very reasonable evaluation effort. I would differ in opinion here and there but that's what makes a market and Chinese price guides are by no means uniform either. I think Ren's valuations will be looked on as very conservative as the collector community expands and disposable income increases in Asia.

I do think a next edition should collapse sections 1 and 2 into a single section. I would also ask Mr. Ren to throw another 100 (you pick a number) pages into the book to cover some of the more common Schjoth type omissions and add a bit more informative text. A very good job will be an even better one.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Step toward a Good Market Guide.
Review: The previous reviews make good points for the most part and no need to repeat them here. So I will add a few additional comments. I have been a serious collector of Chinese coins for a dozen years or so with much of one full year and a dozen other trips spent scouring the local markets and back alleys of China searching for coins.

A lack of comprehensiveness is endemic with anything Chinese, so too much can be made of Ren's omissions--it is after all an identification and pricing GUIDE. In the 1990s coins relatively common in Beijing may have been relative rarities in Chengdu, Urumuqi, Xian, Lanzhou, Datong, Shanghai, etc. This regional character of markets in China is indeed not only disappearing, but is leaping from regional to international which should result in a sorting out of rarity and price relative to a more coherent market demand.

Ren's price guide is a very useful attempt to reconcile a coin's value to this rapidly approaching, more integrated international market. Rather than being "most useful only for the gullible", as an earlier reviewer unkindly suggested, I find it quite useful, thoughtful and honestly advanced with its assumptions and rationale clearly stated. Having followed the China, US and internet markets I think it is a very reasonable evaluation effort. I would differ in opinion here and there but that's what makes a market and Chinese price guides are by no means uniform either. I think Ren's valuations will be looked on as very conservative as the collector community expands and disposable income increases in Asia.

I do think a next edition should collapse sections 1 and 2 into a single section. I would also ask Mr. Ren to throw another 100 (you pick a number) pages into the book to cover some of the more common Schjoth type omissions and add a bit more informative text. A very good job will be an even better one.

Rating:
Summary: Chinese Cash: Identification and Price Guide.
Review: This is a welcome addition to the Chinese cash collector's library. However, it is not as comprehensive, well organized or coherent as I hoped it would be. There are quite a few typos(especially concerning the catalog numbers) that I noticed after just a few minutes of browsing through the book. There are omissions, oddly enough, of some of the more common coins Schjoth listed, and a few of the the illustrations (although rubbings, which is good) tend to be a little "hazy". The layout of the book is somewhat confusing, and I don't think it will be an easy book for a "brand new collector" to use. There is no true "index" per se,and the section on identifying counterfeits is not all that helpful. The emphasis seems to be more on the rare and seldom seen coins, which I suppose is OK, but the beginner will have to do alot of "wading" through illustrations to identify what he has(if indeed his coin is listed). One item that I consider a MAJOR defect is this: There is no mention whatsoever(that I saw) in the entire book, concerning the fact that the countries of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam[Annam] also issued cash coins of similar appearance. This could be a potential major stumbling block for a beginning collector who has(for instance) come across a common Kanei Tsuho Japanese cash coin or similar item, and cannot find any illustration or mention of it. (One of the things I like so much about Schjoth's book is the fact that he tried to list most of the more commonly encountered coins from the "other" oriental cash-issuing countries.) Over all, this is certainly worth the money, and it contains quite a lot of information that is not in the other books, but it is not the new "Chinese Cash standard reference" that I think some of us collectors were hoping for after reading the advance reviews.

Rating:
Summary: Best Chinese coin book!
Review: Very very very very good but does not tell alot about counterfeit