The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

130 H. A. KAMSDEN.
different series, where each individual coin approxi-
mately maintained its own standard, it may also
be that they were issued at different periods, if not
in different localities. Anyhow, the times of their issue
could not have been widely separated, as the workman-
ship, manner of writing the inscriptions, metal, &c.,
show little variation in all the groups.
It has been suggested that these small inscribed
pieces of copper were only weights, and had no connexion
with currency, the square-shaped issues, and
specially Nos. 11-12 with the hole edgewise, lending
strength to this theory. On the other hand, the
evidence from the circular specimens with a round
central hole for stringing them together, would more
than counterbalance the foregoing consideration, since
no more faithful representation of the early round
coins of ancient China could be found than the one
figured over No. 1. Again, should they
have been
merely weight-measures,
account satisfactorily for the great difference in their
it would be difficult to
actual weights, which in such a case would be more
uniform, the more so when it is considered that the
process by which they were made lent itself to a certain
degree of accuracy. Experience with the early round
coins of ancient China, besides, teaches us that the
value inscription may at the beginning have been the
actual weight, but as time went on this indication
became merely a nominal legend. In the latest issues
the weight was almost infinitesimal, and bore no recog-
nized relation to the original weight.
In conclusion, I will remark that the square coins
of Lin-tzu with an incised inscription, which is the
rarest of the two shapes, have already been imitated.