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「鄂」字大清銅幣十文

大清銅幣，是清朝的一類機制銅幣，鑄造於光緒三十一年至宣統三年（1905年至1911年），材質可分為紅銅、黃銅和白銅三種，因正面珠圈鑄有「大清銅幣」字樣而得名。

歷史

光緒年間，由於制錢制度已瀕臨崩潰，很多官員提議鑄造新式銅元取代制錢，最終清政府同意李鴻章在廣州開鑄新式銅元。光緒二十六年（1900年），廣東造幣廠開鑄「光緒元寶」當十銅元，每枚重二錢，當制錢十文使用。由於銅元鑄幣利潤豐厚，福建、江蘇也隨之開始鑄造銅元。光緒二十七年（1901年），其他各省也相繼開始鑄造銅元，銅元迅速遍布全國。至光緒三十一年（1905年），已有17個省的22個錢局鑄造銅元，銅元發行量激增，而且部分錢局所鑄銅元重量、成色不足，加之私鑄銅元等現象的影響，導致銅元貶值。

光緒二十九年（1903年），由於各地銀元、銅元樣式、成色不一，有大臣會同戶部奏請整頓財政，設立鑄造銀錢總廠。光緒三十年（1904年），清政府決定設立戶部造幣總廠，統一鑄造銅元。總廠原本計劃設於北京，後因北京缺水、且距離開平煤礦較遠，改設於天津。時任直隸總督袁世凱隨即置地新建廠房，並向天津德商瑞記洋行定購美國強生公司的全套鑄幣機器。光緒三十一年（1905年）春，廠房竣工，機器陸續到廠安裝，五月初八（6月10日），開機始制「大清銅幣」銅元，成色為95%銅及5%鋅。同年（1905年）十一月，財政處向16省的20家造幣廠頒發造幣總廠銅元祖模，統一全國銅元形制，此後各省均鑄「大清銅幣」銅元，與總廠自鑄的區別為正面中心由省名簡稱。光緒三十二年（1906年），戶部易名度支部，造幣總廠亦改名為「度支部造幣總廠」。

Name

The name "Da-Qing Tongbi" (大清銅幣) can be translated as "Copper currency of the Great Qing" and was used to indicate that this series was supposed to be the standard coinage of the entire empire as opposed to provincial coinages.

The Qing dynasty had a bimetallic coinage system, and similar titles were also used for other standardised metal coinages such as the silver Da-Qing Yinbi (大清銀幣) and the gold Da-Qing Jinbi (大清金幣).

History

Due to a shortage of copper at the end of the Qing dynasty, the mint of Guangzhou, Guangdong began striking round copper coins without square holes in June 1900. Tóngyuán (銅元) or Tóngbǎn (銅板) and they were struck in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 30 wén. These struck coins were well received because of their higher quality compared to cast coins and their convenience in carriage, as well as their uniform weight and copper content compared to the less consistent alloys of cast Chinese coinage. As these coins were profitable to manufacture it did not take long before other provinces started making machine-struck cash coins too, and soon 20 bureaus were opened across China. As these coins became more common they eventually replaced the old cast coins as the main medium of exchange for small purchases among the Chinese people. The first of these provincial machine-struck copper-alloy coins had the inscription Guangxu Yuanbao (光緒元寶) and a weight of 7.46 grams. These early Cantonese milled coinage were inspired by copper coins from British Hong Kong. Due to the success of these Cantonese milled coins, the government of the province of Fujian started minting their own version of this coin in August of 1900.

From the year 1901 the provinces of Jiangsu, Hubei, Anhui, Zhejiang, Fengtian, Hunan, Beiyang Zhili, Sichuan, Jiangxi, Jilin, Shandong, Henan, Guangxi, and Yunnan had all begun to manufacture milled copper-alloy coins and distributed them nationwide. They became so became so popular that by the 31th year of the Guangxu Emperor (1906) they were being produced at 15 different bureaus in 12 provinces.

The government of the Qing dynasty established a modern coin factory at the Ministry of Revenue Mint (formerly the "Tianjin Silver Money General Mint") in Tianjin in the year 1903, the mint began to produce milled copper-alloy coins in 1905. At the same time, the government of the Qing dynasty ordered the entire country to produce the Da-Qing Tongbi coins to replace the former "Guangxu Yuanbao" and unified and standardised national currency system. The government of the Qing dynasty hoped to regain control of its currency system in order to also get more control over its own internal affairs. In the year 1906, the Ministry of Revenue had issued the "Regulations on the Rectification Law" (整頓圜法章程), and had merged 24 mints around China into only 9.

The Da-Qing Tongbi coins were initially issued in the denominations of 2 wén, 5 wén, 10 wén, and 20 wén with each of these denominations being based on their nominal value in traditional cash coins. The government of the Qing dynasty had produced an excessive amount of 10 wén Da-Qing Tongbi coins. In the year 1909, the government of the Qing dynasty had ordered the mints to suspend the production of the 10 wén copper coins and produce a smaller denomination brass coin to ease the pressure of the 10 wén Da-Qing Tongbi coins, but only the provincial mints of Hubei, Jiangning, and Henan complied. The government of the Qing dynasty had issued a new law on currency known as the "Currency Regulations" (幣制則例) in the year 1910 to regulate and standardise the entire Chinese national currency system. In the year 1911, the government of the Qing dynasty had issued the "Xuantong third year" series of copper-alloy coins, but these did not comply with the earlier set national regulations for coinages in China.

Design

The designs of the Da-Qing Tongbi coins is similar to that of the Guangxu Yuanbao coins, the inscription Da-Qing Tongbi written in large Traditional Chinese characters occupied the centre part of the obverse side of the coin. In the very centre of the coin, between the Da-Qing Tongbi characters, was one or two small Chinese characters indicating the provincial mint where the coin was manufactured.

Near the top of the rim of the coin, the inscription Da-Qing Tongbi was again written down, but this time it was written using the Manchu script, as Manchu was the language of the ruling class of the Qing dynasty. Near the right and left sides of the outer rim were two characters representing the "Ministry of the Interior and Finance", which was later replaced by the "Ministry of Revenue and Expenditure" (戶部). At the bottom the 10 wén Da-Qing Tongbi coins contained the inscription "文十錢制當" written from right to left indicating its nominal value.

The reverse side of the Da-Qing Tongbi coin, like the Guangxu Yuanbao provincial coinages, also had the design of a Chinese dragon on it, but these dragons have much fewer variations in comparison to those on the Guangxu Yuanbao milled coins because of the imperial governments efforts in standarising designs. Near the upper part of the outer rim were the Traditional Chinese characters Guangxu Nianzao (造年緒光) written from right to left, which could be translated into English as "minted during the Guangxu years". Near the lower part of the outer rim was the text, written in English, "Tai-Ching-Ti-Kuo Copper Coin". Machine-struck Da-Qing Tongbi coins would continue to be produced during the reign of the Xuantong Emperor. The Da-Qing Tongbi coins of this period had the text Xuantong Nianzao (造年統宣) written from right to left, meaning "minted during the Xuantong years", inscribed near the upper part of the outer rim on the reverse side of the coins to indicate the era of mintage.

Mint marks

Mint marks of the Da-Qing Tongbi coins
Mint mark	Province	Image
皖	Anhui
閩	Fujian
粵	Guangdong
汴	Henan
鄂	Hubei
湘	Hunan
甯	Jiangnan
蘇	Jiangsu
贛	Jiangxi
吉	Jilin
奉	Fengtian
鎮	Qingjiang
東	Shandong
川	Sichuan
雲	Yunnan
滇	Yunnan
滇川	Yunnan-Sichuan
浙	Zhejiang
直	Zhili

Years

Years on the Da-Qing Tongbi coins
Chinese calendar	Gregorian calendar
巳乙	1906
午丙	1907
未丁	1908
申戊	1909
酉己	1910
戌庚	1911

面額

大清銅幣的不同面額
面額	圖例
一文
二文
五文
十文
二十文

Contemporary counterfeit Da-Qing Tongbi coins

Not long after these new copper coins were introduced, black market counterfeit versions of the 10 wén appeared, illegal mints or "private mints" (局私) opened all over China and started producing more coins than the Qing government's set quotas allowed there to be circulating on the market. Both Chinese and foreigners soon started producing struck cash coins of inferior quality often with traces of the Korean 5 fun coins they were overstruck on, or with characters and symbols not found on official government issued coins. Joseon began minting modern-style machine-struck copper-alloy coins in 1892, which was 8 years before the Qing dynasty did so in China. These coins were often minted by Korean businessmen and former Japanese Samurai (specifically Rōnin) looking to make a profit on exchanging the low value copper coins into silver dollars as a single Chinese silver dollar had the purchasing power of 1000 Korean fun. The majority of the counterfeit coins bear the inscription that they were minted in either Zhejiang province or Shandong province, but they circulated all over the coastal regions of China. Because the hand-operated presses used by the counterfeiters did not exert enough pressure on the coins to sufficiently obliterate the inscriptions and symbols on the Korean 5 fun coins, the counterfeit Qing dynasty 10 wén coins made using this method would usually exhibit a combination of both the Chinese Da-Qing Tongbi and Korean 5 fun designs. For example there can still be traces of a wreath surrounding the dragon or minor traces of the original Korean inscription.

資料

• Dai Zhiqiang (戴志強), ed. (2008). Zhongguo qianbi shoucang jianshang quanji (中國錢幣收藏鑒賞全集) (Changchun: Jilin chuban jituan). (in Mandarin Chinese).
• Nei Menggu qianbi yanjiu hui (內蒙古錢幣研究會), Zhongguo qianbi bianjibu (《中國錢幣》編輯部), ed. (1992); Cai Mingxin 蔡明信 (transl.). Zhongguo guchao tuji (Beijing: Zhongguo jinrong chubanshe). (in Mandarin Chinese).
• 彭信威 (1954 [2007]). Zhongguo huobi shi (中國貨幣史) (Shanghai: Qunlian chubanshe), 580-581, 597-605. (in Mandarin Chinese).
• Xie Tianyu (謝天宇), ed. (2005). Zhongguo qianbi shoucang yu jianshang quanshu (中國錢幣收藏與鑒賞全書) (Tianjin: Tianjin guji chubanshe), Vol. 2, 508. (in Mandarin Chinese).
• Zhou Fazeng (周發增), Chen Longtao (陳隆濤), Qi Jixiang (齊吉祥), ed. (1998). Zhongguo gudai zhengzhi zhidu shi cidian (中國古代政治制度史辭典) (Beijing: Shoudu shifan daxue chubanshe), 372, 375, 380, 381, 382. (in Mandarin Chinese).

外部連結

• 大清銅幣網