This is a Jiajing Tongbao small cash coin first cast in AD 1527, the sixth year of the Jiajing reign, by the Ming Emperor Shizong, Zhu Houcong, who issued it under his reign title.
The coin follows the traditional Sinosphere form of a round coin with a central square hole. The obverse bears the inscription “嘉靖通寶” (Jiajing Tongbao), read vertically from top to bottom and right to left. In the character jia (嘉), the “艹” radical is broader than usual, a variant referred to as “wide grass.” In the character tong (通), the strokes of the “辶” radical extend to touch both the rim and the inner hole, known as “broad-running tong.” In the character bao (寶), the vertical axis of the “貝” radical is noticeably shifted to the right of the central axis of the whole character, a form described as “right-shifted bei.” The calligraphy of the inscription is stiff and lacks modulation, suggesting that this specimen may be a jiao dao qian (“engraved knife coin”)—a coin recast from a repaired mould whose characters had been re-engraved to correct unclear lines. It was possibly produced from recycled official material or privately copied.
The reverse is plain and uninscribed, with the inner rim slightly raised at the four corners, forming faint “cut marks.”
During the reign of Emperor Shizong of the Ming (AD 1522–1566), excessive issuance of baochao paper notes and shortages of metallic currency caused increasing disorder in the monetary system. The private casting of coins, already widespread since the Zhengde period, became even more rampant under Jiajing, particularly in the coastal and southwestern provinces. In Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Yunnan, large-scale private minting flourished, and these coins were even exported to Jiaozhi (Vietnam) and Guangxi. Government prohibitions repeatedly failed to stop the practice. In AD 1524, the third year of the reign, the government fixed the exchange rate at seventy wen of good coins or one hundred and forty wen of inferior coins per qian of silver, but six years later, the market was almost entirely flooded with privately cast coinage.
The coins produced at the time were of generally poor quality. Owing to a shortage of copper, large amounts of lead, tin, and iron were added to the alloy, resulting in thin, dull, and irregular coins. Private coins were even worse, commonly made of lead–copper alloys, or entirely of lead or iron, with some fashioned by cutting iron sheets into coin shapes. These coins were light, brittle, and crudely made, with blurred inscriptions and off-centre holes, and possessed little intrinsic or exchange value. In popular usage, inferior coins were known by names such as “倒三錢,” “倒四錢,” and “折六錢,” meaning that their real worth was only one-third, one-quarter, or one-sixth of a standard coin. Later, even more debased types known as “倒九” and “倒十” appeared.
The Jiajing Tongbao was first officially minted in AD 1527, marking the Ming government’s first large-scale use of brass smelting technology in coinage. Its initial composition was 90.9 per cent brass and 9.1 per cent tin, with each coin weighing 1.2 qian. By AD 1563, the composition was altered to nine parts copper and one part tin, and the weight increased slightly to 1.3 qian. Contemporary records mention a variety of Jiajing coin types, including those known as “golden reverse,” “fire lacquer,” and “lathed edge.” The so-called “golden reverse” coins likely acquired their name either from their fine craftsmanship and bright yellow hue or from being refined brass recast four times. “Fire lacquer” coins were said either to have been darkened by heating or chemically blackened, possibly representing twice-refined brass. “Lathed edge” coins were produced with turned edges using a lathe; this technique was later abandoned as too costly, and coins were thereafter filed by hand, producing coarser rims.
In AD 1544, the twenty-third year of the reign, the government issued large-denomination coins modelled after the Hongwu standard. These included four types valued at two, three, five, and ten wen, with thirty thousand pieces of each stored in the imperial treasury. A few such coins survive today but are extremely rare; their reverses often bear inscriptions recording their weight.
Although official minting technology improved during the Jiajing period, production remained limited due to copper shortages, poor alloy quality, and high costs. Official coins could not compete with the overwhelming volume of privately cast issues. As a result, good-quality coins gradually disappeared from circulation, and the monetary system fell into disorder. By the later years of the reign, one liang of silver exchanged for several thousand wen of copper, as copper coins—especially privately cast ones—lost value. Silver increasingly replaced copper as the principal medium of exchange.
In AD 1554, the government attempted to restore monetary order by classifying coins into three grades. High-quality coins such as Jiajing and Hongwu issues, as well as other well-preserved older types, were to be valued at seven wen per silver fen; medium-quality coins at ten wen per fen; and inferior coins at fourteen to twenty-one wen per fen, with damaged coins prohibited. The policy, however, proved short-lived, as both officials and commoners continued to trade at market rates. By the end of the reign, copper coins were used only for petty transactions, while silver had become the primary currency throughout the empire.
Emperor Shizong of the Ming, personal name Zhu Houcong, reigned from AD 1521 to 1566 and was a cousin of the previous emperor, Wuzong. In AD 1521, upon the death of Wuzong, who left no heir, the Minister of Rites, Yang Tinghe, escorted Zhu Houcong to the throne, where he adopted the reign title Jiajing. Intelligent and learned in his youth, he valued Confucian orthodoxy and initially sought to reduce the power of eunuchs and the imperial clans, restoring civil authority and achieving a brief period of political order. The subsequent “Rites Controversy” over imperial ancestral titles, in which he insisted on posthumously honouring his biological father rather than his adoptive one, led to bitter conflict with his ministers and lasting factional strife. In his later years, he became deeply devoted to Taoism and alchemy, rarely attending court, and entrusted state affairs to the Grand Secretariat and eunuchs. The Yan family dominated government for more than two decades, corruption spread widely, and the state weakened. During his reign, Mongol incursions from the north and Japanese piracy in the south repeatedly threatened the empire, though generals such as Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang were appointed to strengthen defences. The emperor’s religious zeal led him to conduct elaborate Taoist rituals, build altars, and seek elixirs of immortality, consuming vast resources. In declining health and increasingly reclusive in his later years, he neglected government entirely. He died in AD 1567 at the age of sixty and was posthumously honoured as Emperor Gong, with the temple name Shizong.
