Imperial birthday coin Chia Ching (c. 1812)

[bgriff99]

This is Hartill 30.51 in his Qing Cash, exactly.   He says all types seem to be privately made, and this is.    Obverse top and bottom: the reign title Chia Ching.   Right-left replacing "tung pao":  'wan nian' ten thousand years.    Reverse 'Tzu Sun Chien Yi' (pinyin Zisun Qianyi) descendants beyond counting (literally sons grandsons one hundred million).

I suspect this and similar ones are charms for general purposes, which carry the current reign title to look like a coin, rather than specifically a tribute to a very unpopular emperor.    Only when getting to the Hsien Feng types (1851-61) is the wording specifically pro-Ching.

[Figleaf]

Reverse 'Tzu Sun Chien Yi' (pinyin Zisun Qianyi) descendants beyond counting (literally sons grandsons one hundred million).

Sexist by today's standards, but of course, the society of those days was sexist. I am struck that when empresses are mentioned, they are usually evil, having undue influence on the emperor, scheming with an equally evil eunuch or trying to get their undeserving, weak, skirt-clinging son named successor to the throne to the detriment of a noble, strong and deserving competitor. How did the empresses get the time to do embroidery?

Yes, a charm or whatever you want to call it, but wouldn't something like this "get lost" in a string of coins from time to time?

Peter

[bgriff99]

Yes, a charm or whatever you want to call it, but wouldn't something like this "get lost" in a string of coins from time to time?

Peter

I've found a few privately made poem cash in circulated material.   But those were virtually indistinguishable from regular ones.   I don't recall ever finding a true charm among bulk coins.   Although yes, play cash, and other oddities.

So consider that somebody had a nice poem cash set, perhaps a gift.   And spent them (20 pieces) as ordinary cash.   Or they were stolen and spent.   They would not be pulled from circulation because nobody spotted them, plus they had no individual interest unless perhaps with the Lohan obverse of Kang Hsi.
A charm however would be noticed, and rather quickly set aside.   Just as in our time people retain an obsolete coin as a curio.   Many people do it compulsively (ahem...)   A somewhat worn brown charm found by luck has more value than a new one purchased.

Re empresses, Cixi is said to have had a co-empress who was beautiful, educated, refined, good at embroidery and expected to take a leading role at court.   Cixi ground her into the dirt.   It is natural selection.   And Kuang Hsu was no skirt clinger.   She ground him into the dirt too.