1899.] 
Section I.—Coins and Seals. 
9 
posite tlie apex of the central symbol (seen at the bottom of the figure 
in Plate I, 6) and then runs round from right to left. In the second 
variety it also commences opposite the apex, but runs in the opposite 
direction, from the left to the right. In the third variety it com¬ 
mences on the left of the central symbol, and runs round from the left 
to the right. The British Museum Catalogue, No. 1799a, presents a 
fourth variety, in which the legend runs from the right to the left, and 
commences on the right side of the central symbol. 
In all four varieties the legend is identical, as shown in the 
subjoined Woodcut No. 6 : — 
NO.6. 
1 2 3 4 5 6 
A portion of this legend was read by Dr. T. de Lncouperie, in the 
British Museum Catalogue, p. 394. I read the whole as follows :— 
tchung (1) Hang (2) sze (3) tchn (4) thing (5) tsien (6), i.e ., “ Weight 
(one) Liang (and) four Tchu (of) copper money.” 
The symbol which Dr. T. de Lacouperie reads yh ‘one’ does not 
occur in any of the coins of our collection, nor can I find it on the 
coin figured by him in the Catalogue, No. 1799<x. The 5th and 6th 
symbols were too indistinct ou his coin to be read by him. They are 
clear enough on some of our coins, and are those shown in the above 
Woodcut. No. 6 is the well-known sign for tsien or ‘ money ’ (British 
Museum Catalogue , p. xviii). No. 5 is a sign which I have not been 
able to find in Morrison’s dictionary, 3 the only one available to me; nor 
is it known to any of the Chinese Literati whom I could consult. I 
take it to be an old form of the symbol ^ t’ung ‘ copper ’ (see ibid., 
p. lxiv), made by omitting the long side-strokes of the upper 
quadrangle of its right-hand portion. A similar modification 
occurs in the old form of the symbol kuan (see ibid., p. 191), 
and in the old form A A of the symbol |^| Hang (see ibid., p. 300). 
The shorter legend is also identical on all the small coins, though 
the symbols are drawn in rather varying forms. This is not at all 
an uncommon practice, as an inspection of the British Museum Catalogue 
will at once show. The legend, with the varying forms of its symbols, 
8 A Dictionary of the Chinese Language in three Parts. By R. Morrison, D.D., 
1820. 
J. i. 6 
