Item number: A1126

Year: AD 1263

Material: Bronze

Size: 29.7 x 30.0 x 1.5 mm

Weight: 6.35 g

Provenance:

1. Noonans 2022

2. D. L. F. Sealy Collection

This is a bronze coin minted during the Southern Song Dynasty under the reign of the fifth emperor, Emperor Lizong. The coin bears the inscription “Jingding Yuanbao,” corresponding to the last era name used by Emperor Lizong, Zhao Yun, during his forty-year reign. Throughout his reign, Emperor Lizong adopted a total of eight era names.

The coin is of the typical square-holed design. Due to its age, the surface has suffered damage and corrosion, but the inscription remains barely legible. On the obverse side, the four Chinese characters “Jingding Yuanbao” are engraved in regular script, arranged sequentially from top to bottom, right to left. The reverse side features a somewhat unclear year mark “Four” at the top, indicating that the coin was minted in the 4th year of the Jingding era (AD 1263).

During the reign of Emperor Lizong of the Song Dynasty, he successfully allied with the Mongols to jointly defeat and destroy the Jin Dynasty in the 1st year of the Duanping era (AD 1234). However, in the aftermath, the Southern Song was left to face the continued Mongol invasions alone. After Kublai Khan eventually conquered the Southern Song, his Tibetan monk subordinate, Yang Lianzhenjia, desecrated Emperor Lizong’s tomb, Yongmu Mausoleum, and took his skull to create a Kapala bowl, a ritual object in Tibetan Buddhism.

It was not until the founding of the Ming Dynasty by Zhu Yuanzhang, who expelled the Mongols, that Emperor Lizong’s skull was reburied with imperial honours in Nanjing. Later, it was relocated to its original resting place at Yongmu Mausoleum in Lin’an.

During the Song Dynasty, in addition to bronze coins, one notable feature was the widespread circulation of iron coins, a phenomenon rarely seen in other dynasties. This practise arose primarily for two reasons: first, the domestic shortage of copper resources; and second, the need to prevent copper coins from flowing into the hands of northern rival states, such as the Western Xia, Liao, and Jin. As a result, the Song court initially began minting iron coins, and later introduced early forms of paper money, such as Jiaozi and Huizi, as alternative currency.

物件編號: A1126

年代: 公元 1263 年

材質: 青銅

尺寸: 29.7 x 30.0 x 1.5 mm

重量: 6.35 g

來源:

1. 諾南斯 2022

2. 大衛.萊斯利.福布斯.西利舊藏

這是南宋的第五任皇帝宋理宗，以在位期間的最後一個年號所鑄造的「景定元寶」，材質為青銅。宋理宗趙昀在位四十年間，曾先後使用過八個年號。

錢幣形制為典型的方孔錢。由於年代久遠，錢幣的表面已有毀損和侵蝕，但尚能勉強辨別其文字。錢幣正面按上、下、右、左的順序，以楷書書法鐫刻漢字「景定元寶」四字。錢幣背面的上方，則有一個不甚清晰的「四」記年符號，代表這枚錢幣於景定四年(公元1262年)鑄造。

宋理宗在位期間，於端平元年(公元1234年)成功聯合蒙古夾擊消滅金朝，但後續南宋被迫單獨面對蒙古持續的入侵。忽必烈後續成功消滅南宋以後，麾下西藏僧人楊璉真珈盜掘安葬宋理宗的永穆陵，取其頭顱作為藏傳佛教的法器「嘎巴拉碗」。直到朱元璋驅逐蒙古人建立明朝以後，方才以帝王禮葬將宋理宗的頭顱安葬於南京，後遷葬至臨安的永穆陵舊址。

兩宋時期的錢幣以青銅為材料外，其特色尚有大規模的鐵幣流通，為其他朝代少見的現象。之所以如此，一來是國內的銅礦資源缺乏；二來是防止銅錢流入競爭對手，諸如西夏、遼和金等北方政權，使得兩宋朝廷先是鑄造鐵錢，後來更出現紙幣雛形的「交子、會子」作為貨幣。