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Stephen Album Rare Coins
Auction 26  15-17 September 2016
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Lot 594

Starting price: 2200 USD
Price realized: 4250 USD
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XIN: Wang Mang, 7-23 AD, AE gold key money, H-9.12, yi dao ping wu qian (One Knife worth five thousand) with the words yi dao written in gold inlay, minor encrustation, VF to EF, RR. At that time 5000 Wu Shu was equal to 1/2 cattie of gold. A cattie weighed about 120 grams, so these knives were valued at about 60 grams (2 ounces) of pure gold. We have not been able to find a relative value for gold in ancient China, but in the same time frame in the Roman Empire, two ounces of gold would have been at least a year's wages to an average citizen, thus the problem with this issue. It was fiat currency with a named value very high, but with little intrinsic value.

Estimate: 2,500-3,500 USD
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