1.5 tons of ancient coins discovered in north China Source: Xinhua,
China
A cellar containing 1.5 tons
of ancient coins, including some 2,000-year-old ones, have
been discovered by a villager in Changzi County, north China's
Shanxi Province.
The man in Qianwanhu village discovered the
cellar with some 10,000 coins, ranging from 3 cm to 1 cm in
diameter, on Aug. 23 when he was digging a channel to place
pipes for tap water, said Li Lin, an official of the Changzi
Center of Cultural Heritage and Tourism.
The "money cellar" was 1.5 meters
under the earth, with coins being piled orderly into a cuboid
of 1.3 meters long, 0.65 meter wide and one meter high, Li
said.
Most of the coins were made during the Northern
Song Dynasty (960-1127) with the remainders made during Han
Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) and Tang Dynasty (618-907), Li said.
Many coins were in good condition, and characters
on the surface were still legible, while some others were
rusty. The largest coin is 3 cm in diameter and the smallest
is one cm, Li said.
Archaeologists said the coins were there for
three reasons: the coins were liege lords' private wealth;
or they were buried by ancient Chinese private banks during
war; or they belonged to rich people who buried them during
war but had forgotten.
The coins have been sent to local cultural
relics authorities.