Lot 3352

Description

China, Jiangsu Province, bronze tokens, c.mid 1930's for ten cents (4), one with mirror writing in English and characters 'for temporary circulation' and denomination 'yi jiao' (10 cents), rev. 1807 and place name on reverse (as Wang cf.Pl.31,19), others without English but similar but with numbers 728 (as Wang Pl.31, 21, this from Fangqian zhen from Huang Guo's Tongsheng store); 1856 (as Wang Pl.30, 11, this from Liangtai xiang and name Yin You ji), and 4364 on reverse (Wang -) a new type with obverse scene of lion and dragon in clouds; gaming counter for 20 (cents?). The last very fine, others extremely fine. (5)

The best reference to these tokens is by Helen Wang, Bronze Tokens of Jiangsu in Numismatic Chronicle 1997 (pp. 157-177). They were issued as tokens of value, mostly of ten cents value in the 1930's by various businesses in this province. The British Museum published their collection in this paper by Wang.