A CHINESE WORK ON NUMISMATICS. 475 



wu period, 1368-1398 A.D., the characters used being identical with 

 the exception that seven new characters are inserted in the inscription 

 which are transhited by Dr. Bushell, "Moulded in changed form in 

 the cyclical year chi moo" (A.D. 1639), and which Mr. Tomita, the 

 translator of Ch'iian Pu T'ung Chih, interprets as reading, " Cast anew 

 in the year of chi moo." Neither of these renderings is inconsistent 

 with the casting being a plate for printing notes. When we come to 

 the reading of the seals on the reverse of the casting, Dr. Bushell's 

 reading of the lower seal would at first glance seem to cut us off from 

 any choice between note and plate. He interprets that seal as reading, 

 "Seal of the Bureau for casting money notes." Mr. Tomita gives 

 the following reading for this seal: "Seal of the Bureau of the Cast 

 Treasure-Xote"; which is nearly equivalent. Refuge from the 

 apparent inference that the casting was a "money note" and not a 

 plate from which currency could be printed may perhaps be found 

 in different interpretations of these characters by students who shall 

 devote attention to their study. Meantime it would seem incredible 

 that any ruler should have attempted to supersede the convenient 

 and easily portable Chinese string of copper coins by an equivalent 

 weight, rectangular in form, with sharp corners and with delicate 

 inscriptions thereon in raised characters. Until this interpretation 

 shall be proved to be correct, believers in Chinese intelligence will, 

 harbor doubt of its possibility. 



Dr. Bushell was obviously impressed by the fact that the inscrip- 

 tions on the casting, while they indicated that they were made in 

 1639 still bore the characters which showed that the note or plate 

 was a reproduction of the design for a note in the days of Hung-wu, 

 (1368-1398). There were, however, precedents for double dates of 

 this sort. In the period Hsien-ching (1136-1141) of the Western 

 Liao, an emission called Great Liao Treasure notes was put forth with 

 an inscription stating that the Great Hsia Treasure note was issued 

 under imperial authority for the use of the people. In the days of the 

 Hsia dynasty, notes were emitted which were called Ta-Te Treasure 

 notes, and which bore the characters denoting that they were emitted 

 during the Yiian-te period (1119-1126). The name Ta-Te was 

 not adopted till nine years after the end of the Yiian-Te period. 

 It seems reasonable to suppose that in each of these instances, the 

 official having charge of the emission, in his effort to make use of a 

 note of previous issue as a model, neglected to correct his copy so as 

 to eliminate all the previous dates. A similar confusion in the case 

 of the casting may perhaps be explained the same way. The diffi- 



