NEW BOOKS: CHOPMARKED COINS IN SPANISH AND ITALIAN

Chopmarked Coins in Italian and Spanish

Colin Gullberg’s book, Chopmarked Coins – A History, is now available in Spanish and Italian editions on Amazon. Translations were done by Dr. Guido Peli.

Chopmarks are a fascinating yet little understood area of Chinese numismatics. The economic history of China in the much of the Qing dynasty and early Republican periods is largely a history of Latin American silver. Chinese farmers paid taxes with Spanish American silver, trade was carried out with Spanish American silver, and when the silver started to dry up Chinese society faced famine, unrest and revolution.

The only evidence of the millions of reales that flowed from Spain’s lands in the Americas to China is the coins and the chopmarks they bear. These marks, applied by private bankers (or ‘shroffs’), are a little studied area of numismatics. Almost nothing has been written on them, little research has been carried out, and few collectors collect them.

Nevertheless, chopmarks are a fascinating area of numismatics. No two coins are the same, the number and variety of chops and the different coins that saw circulation in the Far East seems endless. The history behind the period involves much of the world – but especially Mexico and Peru, the two biggest contributors of silver for much of the Qing dynasty.

Mr. Gullberg wrote what is only the second book ever written on the subject. He is also the editor and president of the Chopmark Collectors Club (CCC). The original print run of the English edition was limited to 500 copies, which are almost completely sold out. Dr. Guido Peli is a long –time collector and is a native of Italy, but has lived in Lima, Peru for many years. It was he who saw the need for editions in other languages and he has done an excellent job of translating the original English text into Italian and Spanish in an attempt to reach a larger collector audience. The Spanish edition in particular should find a large readership as many of the coins that were sent to China during the period originated in Latin America. Both books are available in Kindle (electronic) and paper (print-on- demand) versions. You don’t need to own a Kindle to read the e-version; it can run on any computer.

If the subject of chopmarks interests you then you should join the CCC – the Chopmark Collectors Club. The CCC is a club that is run for collectors, dealers, and other interested individuals. The English-language newsletter, Chopmark News, covers research in the field. A free sample copy can be obtained by emailing chopmarknews@gmail.com .

To order the Italian edition, see: https://www.amazon.es/MONETE-CONTROMARCHE- CINESI-dargento- Italian- ebook/dp/B07B4KBDC9/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522554094&sr=8-1&keywords=Colin+Gullberg

To order the Spanish edition, see: https://www.amazon.es/Historia-Monedas- Resellos-Chinos- monedas/dp/1980352399/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522554094&sr=8-2&keywords=Colin+Gullberg

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NEW BOOK: CHOPMARKED COINS - A HISTORY (http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n27a03.html)
BOOK REVIEW: CHOPMARKED COINS: A HISTORY (http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n35a07.html)

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