XIAN FENG TONG BAO (咸豐通寶)

XIAN FENG TONG BAO—the coin issued by the ninth Emperor of Qing Dynasty (咸豐通寶)
By Learner
May 10, 2009

The ninth Emperor reign was from 1850 to 1861 titled as Xian Feng. In year 1852, the Taiping armies launched the northern expedition and approached to Beijing. The Qing regime was tottering under the domestic troubles and the foreign invasion. At that time, he appointed the Minister Su Shun(Chinese;肅順) and other courtiers to rescue the finance. Meanwhile, he had to rely on Zeng Guofan (chinese;曾國藩) and other landlord armed forces to put down the Taiping rebels. In year 1858, UK and France launched the Second Opium War and captured Guangzhou. In year 1859, the Da Gu Battery near Tianjin was been take over. After the Anglo-French expedition attacked Beijing in 1860 (10th year), he had to sign a few unequal treaties with Russia, USA, UK and France etc. He died of an illness in his summer capital at Re-he in 1861 at the age of only 30. Form above, it making me feel sad that weak country will be bullied by stronger without any reason. I think is just a real world.

XIAN FENG TONG BAO was issued by this period (1831~1861). Due to Tai Ping Tian Guo (the Tai-ping Rebellion) broke out in the early stage of Xian Feng, the Qing government met a serious difficulty on finance and economy, and had to issue high-value coins to make up the expenditure. It causing there are various styles and values of coins by using different metals include copper, iron and lead made the coinage chaotic. Due to this background, the coins collection for the Xian Feng is most interesting of the Qing coins.