Four Chinese characters Qian Yuan Tong Bao / No legend, double rim. 25mm, 2.73 grams. Issued in 759-762 AD. Hartill 14.110. SKU T476-47618

These coins with a double rim on the reverse were first issues is 759 AD and initially weighed around 16 grams. Rapid counterfeiting led to the production of numerous small coins and mass executions of the counterfeiters. The coins were quickly devalued to 30, then to 2 cash and were finally discontinued in 762 AD. This is a late crude private issue, weighing about the same as one cash.

The Tang Dynasty, with its capital at Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), the most populous city in the world at the time, is generally regarded as a high point in Chinese civilization - a golden age of cosmopolitan culture. Its territory, acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers, was greater than that of the Han period, and it rivalled that of the later Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. In 907 the Tang Dynasty was ended when Zhu Wen, now a military governor, deposed the last emperor of Tang, Emperor Ai of Tang, and took the throne for himself (known posthumously as Emperor Taizu of Later Liang).

This coin is unconditionally guaranteed to be authentic.