Item number: A1613

Year: AD 221-227

Material: Bronze

Size: 25.5 x 25.4 x 1.7 mm

Weight: 3.85 g

Provenance: Da Chen Stamps and Coins Collection 2014

This is a “Taiping Hundred-Cash Coin” issued between AD 221 and AD 227 during the Three Kingdoms period by Shu Han, under the chancellorship of Zhuge Liang. The coin was minted to raise funds for the northern expeditions against Cao Wei and is composed of bronze.

The coin exhibits the typical square-holed design. On the obverse, the inscription “太平百錢” (Taiping Hundred-Cash) is engraved in seal script following a top-bottom-right-left sequence. The reverse features a wave-pattern motif composed of geometric arrow-like lines.

In AD 1980, during the reconstruction of a building, the Chengdu municipal government unearthed a hoard of Taiping Hundred-Cash coins along with a casting mould. Due to the scant historical records regarding these coins, early scholarly debates proposed three hypotheses attributing their issuance to Zhang Lu, Eastern Wu, or Shu Han. However, as more specimens were excavated across Sichuan, academic consensus ultimately established that these coins were issued by Shu Han.

The Taiping Hundred-Cash Coin, as its name suggests, was intended to be equivalent in value to one hundred Wu Zhu coins, which had been in circulation since the Eastern Han period. Among the Three Kingdoms, Shu Han had the smallest territory and population, yet it had to sustain multiple military campaigns against Cao Wei. To fund these wars, Chancellor Zhuge Liang resorted to issuing overvalued large-denomination coins, effectively extracting wealth from the populace. Most Taiping Hundred-Cash Coins weigh less than 1 gram, making them one of the lowest-quality square-holed coins in Chinese history.

In addition to being the circulation currency of Shu Han, scholars have also discovered Taiping Hundred-Cash Coins in the Yichang region of Hubei, along the middle and lower Yangtze River. These coins, believed to have been counterfeited by the Eastern Wu regime, feature inscriptions in both clerical script and regular script. Unlike the Shu Han version, which displays a wave-pattern motif on the reverse, the Eastern Wu imitations typically have a blank reverse.

物件編號: A1613

年代: 公元 221-227 年

材質: 青銅

尺寸: 25.5 x 25.4 x 1.7 mm

重量: 3.85 g

來源: 大城郵幣社 2014

這是一枚公元221至227年，三國時期由諸葛亮出任丞相的蜀漢，為了籌措北伐曹魏的軍費發行之「太平百錢」，材質為青銅。

錢幣外觀為典型的方孔錢，錢幣正面按照上、下、右、左的順序，依序以漢字篆書書法鐫刻「太平百錢」銘文。錢幣背面則有幾何箭頭線條組成的水波紋圖騰。

公元1980年，成都市政府在進行大樓整建時，於地底發現一批太平百錢的窖藏和一件鑄模。由於史籍對於太平百錢的紀載語焉不詳，起初學界提出張魯、孫吳和蜀漢三種假說，隨著四川一地有更多的實物出土，學界最終確立其為蜀漢發行的錢幣。

太平百錢如同其字面意義，一枚銅錢得以兌換東漢以來流通的一百枚五銖錢。蜀漢位居西南邊陲與同時代的曹魏和孫吳相比，其領土和人口最為稀少，然而為了支撐多次向曹魏發起的軍事行動，丞相諸葛亮以發行虛值大錢從民間掠取財富，多數的太平百錢重量甚至小於1公克，為中國歷史上品質最差的方孔錢之一。

太平百錢作為蜀漢的流通貨幣外，學者也有在長江中下游的湖北宜昌一帶，發現孫吳政權仿造的太平百錢，其字體為隸書和楷書並行，背面多維持空白不同於蜀漢出品的版本有水波紋作為裝飾。