Item number: A1715

Year: AD 214-238

Material: Iron

Size: 25.3 x 25.4 x 0.6 mm

Weight: 2.05 g

Provenance: Da Chen Stamps and Coins Collection 2014

This is a ‘Zhibai Wuzhu’ coin issued during the Three Kingdoms period by Liu Bei, posthumously known as Emperor Zhaolie of Shu-Han.

The obverse of the coin is heavily worn, but the inscription should read ‘Zhi Bai Wu Zhu’ in a paired, readable format. The character ‘Wu’ is discernible on the right side, and faint horizontal strokes of the character ‘Zhi’ are visible at the top. The outer rim and inner border remain intact, while the reverse is smooth and uninscribed.

In the nineteenth year of the Jian’an era (AD 214), Liu Bei rebelled against Liu Zhang and laid siege to Chengdu. The army faced a shortage of supplies, resulting in widespread looting by the troops. Liu Ba proposed minting large-denomination coins to exchange for smaller ones to alleviate the shortage, leading to the creation of the ‘Zhibai Wuzhu’. The coin weighed approximately twice as much as a standard Wuzhu coin, with ‘Zhi Bai’ indicating an official exchange rate of one coin to one hundred units of value. However, this coin type continued to be issued extensively and became a crucial tool for the Shu-Han regime in extracting financial resources from the Sichuan region.

Although Shu-Han enjoyed internal stability, prolonged military campaigns placed immense strain on its resources. This inflationary pressure resulted in a gradual decrease in the weight of the copper ‘Zhibai Wuzhu’ from over six grams to approximately 2.5 grams. In the later years of the regime, iron versions of the ‘Zhibai Wuzhu’ appeared, likely due to the exhaustion of copper ore deposits. In the first year of the Yanxi era (AD 238), Liu Shan, the later emperor of Shu-Han, attempted to stabilise the currency by abolishing the ‘Zhibai Wuzhu’ and replacing it with the ‘Zhibai Qian’.

Liu Bei declared himself emperor in AD 221, one year after Cao Pi usurped the Han dynasty. He named his regime ‘Han’, known to historians as ‘Shu-Han’. Liu Bei died in AD 223, and his son Liu Shan succeeded him. In AD 263, Shu-Han was conquered and ceased to exist.

The ‘Zhibai Wuzhu’ coins have been discovered across all Three Kingdoms territories, possibly due to the popularity of Sichuan brocade and the state’s monopoly over state-run enterprises, which may have granted the coin a quasi-reserve status. Iron ‘Zhibai Wuzhu’ coins are comparatively rare and are most frequently recovered from underwater archaeological sites along the Jialing River.

物件編號: A1715

年代: 公元 214-238 年

材質: 鐵

尺寸: 25.3 x 25.4 x 0.6 mm

重量: 2.05 g

來源: 大城郵幣社 2014

這是一枚三國時期，蜀漢昭烈帝劉備所創之直百五銖。

錢幣正面磨耗嚴重，但應為「直百五銖」對讀。錢幣右側可見幣文「五」，上側可見「直」些許橫劃。外輪內廓俱全，錢背光素無文。

建安十九年(公元214年)，劉備叛劉璋，進圍成都，軍用不足，以致士卒縱掠。劉巴進言，鑄大錢兌小錢以充軍用，於是鑄直百五銖，錢重約當時五銖的兩倍，「直百」即以一換百之意。然而直白五銖此後長期發行，便成為了蜀漢政權聚斂川蜀財賦的工具。蜀漢雖然內部穩定，但長年征戰，所耗尤鉅，直百五銖亦不斷通貨膨脹，銅製直百五銖重量由六公克以上，減至2.5公克左右。政權晚期更出現了鐵製直百五銖，可能與銅礦陸續枯竭有關。蜀後主於延熙元年(公元238年)嘗試穩定幣值，罷直百五銖，改行「直百錢」。

劉備於曹丕代漢後次年(公元221年)稱帝，國號漢，史稱蜀漢。於公元223年逝世，子劉禪登基。公元263年，蜀漢滅亡。

直百五銖於三國時代各國全境皆有出土，這可能是因為蜀錦的風靡，加以蜀國對官營事業的壟斷，使得直百錢形同有某種「準備金」。鐵質直百五銖則較罕見，多出現於嘉陵江的水下考古中。