Item number: A696

Year: AD 1735-1796

Material: Brass

Size: 25.4 x 25.4 x 0.9 mm

Weight: 3.85 g

Manufactured by: Bao Fu Bureau

Provenance:

1.Noonans 2022

2. D. L. F. Sealy Collection

This is a “Qianlong Tongbao” coin issued during the reign of the sixth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong (AD 1735–1796), by the Bao Fu Bureau established in Fujian Province. It has the characteristic appearance of a square-holed coin.

The outer rim, inner rim, and central square hole of the coin are clearly defined. The inner rim on the obverse side is engraved with the four Chinese characters “乾隆通寶” (Qianlong Tongbao), while the reverse side features the Manchu inscription “ᠪᠣᠣ ᡶᡠ” (Bao Fu).

In the first year of the Qianlong reign (AD 1736), the “Qianlong Tongbao” coin retained a weight of 1 Mace 2 Candareens. Due to the initial adoption of a deflationary fiscal policy, the government closed the Bao Ji Bureau and Bao Gong Bureau in the fourth year of Qianlong (AD 1739), while also reducing the number of minting offices in various provinces, including Zhejiang, Fujian, and Yunnan.

In the early Qianlong period, silver was relatively inexpensive while copper coins were costly, with the exchange rate at times dropping below 700 copper coins per tael of silver, despite the official Qing standard of “one thousand copper coins to one tael of silver.” Although the government minted large quantities of copper coins to stabilize prices, circulation and supply still fell short of market demand. This created incentives for practices such as hoarding copper coins or illegally minting and selling them. However, despite the extensive scale of private minting, it did not significantly disrupt the silver-to-copper exchange rate; rather, it helped address the shortage of official coinage and eased trade difficulties for merchants and commoners. Consequently, during the early Qianlong period, private minting was not strictly suppressed. It was only in the latter part of Qianlong’s reign, once copper coin prices had stabilized, that the government began reclaiming privately minted small coins from the market in favor of official currency.

物件編號: A696

年代: 公元 1735-1796 年

材質: 黃銅

尺寸: 25.4 x 25.4 x 0.9 mm

重量: 3.85 g

製造地: 寶福局

來源:

1.諾南斯 2022

2. 大衛.萊斯利.福布斯.西利舊藏

這是清朝第六任皇乾隆在位期間(公元1735至1796年)，由福建地方所設立「寶福局」發行之「乾隆通寶」，其外觀為方孔錢。

錢幣的外廓、內廓和中央的方孔清晰。正面的內廓鐫刻漢字「乾隆通寶」四字，背面的為滿文「ᠪᠣᠣ ᡶᡠ」（寶福）二字。

乾隆元年(西元1736年)「乾隆通寶」，重量仍為一錢二分，因初期財政政策採用通貨緊縮的做法，因此於乾隆4年（西元1739年）先後封閉了寶濟局、寶鞏局，剪裁浙江、福建、雲南等省多處府。

乾隆前期銀賤錢貴，一兩銀錢可兌換的銅錢數量有時甚至低於700枚銅錢(清朝明定「每錢一千，值銀一兩」)。即使政府大量鑄造銅錢，想平抑價格，但銅錢流通與數量仍不夠市場需求。在利益的驅使下，出現囤積銅錢、或者私鑄販運等情形。不過儘管私鑄規模龐大，並未嚴重影響銀錢的價比，反而彌補官錢不足造成商民貿易的困擾。因此，乾隆朝前期即便有私鑄的情形，仍未嚴加打擊，直到統治後期錢價穩定後，開始已官鑄制錢收繳市場上私人小錢。