ANOTHER MEDIEVAL CHINESE COIN FOUND IN ENGLAND

A previous post discussed a find of a Northern Song dynasty Chinese coin from England whose context suggested that it may have been a genuine ancient loss from the medieval period, along with a variety of textual and archaeological evidence for contact between England and East Asia in the Middle Ages. The following post returns briefly to this question, noting the recent discovery of a second Northern Song dynasty coin from England.

The coin in question was issued between 1008 and 1016 during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song dynasty and was found at Buriton, Hampshire, around 9 miles from the coast. As was the case with the other eleventh-century Chinese coin discussed here previously, the coin doesn't seem to be part of a 'suspicious' grouping of finds or deposited curated collection, and the field that it was recovered from has also produced a handful of medieval- and immediately post-medieval finds. These include a coin of King John minted at London in 1205–7, a medieval cut farthing of perhaps 1180–1247, two fragments of one or more medieval or early post-medieval vessels, and two mid-sixteenth-century coins. As such, it seems credible that this coin too could have been a medieval-era loss, and in this context it is worth noting that such Northern Song coins might quite credibly have arrived at any point up to perhaps the late fourteenth century, given that they continued to circulate in significant numbers well into that era.

Looking more generally, the fact that we now have two, rather than one, eleventh-century Northern Song dynasty coins from England, both recovered from what seem to be medieval to early modern sites, adds weight to the case for considering them genuinely ancient losses. Interestingly, this find was also made only around 20 miles away from the only confirmed medieval imported Chinese pottery from England, a sherd of blue-and-white porcelain from a small cup or bowl that was found in a late fourteenth-century context at Lower Brook Street, Winchester. As to the wider context for these coins, the evidence for the presence of people who had, or who may have, travelled from East Asia in England during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was surveyed in the previous post, as was the evidence for people from Britain and Ireland in East Asia then. However, it is worth additionally drawing attention here to the 'global' distribution of medieval Chinese pottery and coins west of India, as mapped below, which demonstrates that finds of Chinese pottery and, to a lesser extent, coins outside of East Asia are by no means unknown.

To read the complete article, see:
Another eleventh-century medieval Chinese coin found in England (https://www.caitlingreen.org/2020/12/another-medieval-chinese-coin-from-england.html)

A Chinese coin found in a Hampshire field suggests that medieval trade between England and the Far East was more extensive than previously thought, a historian has said.

The copper alloy "cash" coin of the Northern Song dynasty dates from 1008-1016, but is of a type that remained in wide circulation in China for several hundred years.

The coin was found by a detectorist near Petersfield and about 20 miles from the only other Chinese artefact from medieval England: a shard of blue and white porcelain from a small cup or bowl, which could be placed in Winchester in the 14th century.

To read the complete article (subscription required), see:
Chinese coin hints at vast medieval trade route (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/chinese-coin-hints-at-vast-medieval-trade-route-z9hq8rb20)

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