Werner Burger, known for his research on Qing dynasty coins and his extensive collection of coins and library, died in Hong Kong on 15 November, aged 85.
Werner Burger (Chinese: 布威纳 Bu Weina) was born in Munich in 1936. He studied Chinese at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), graduating in 1962, with a thesis on Chinese money. According to an announcement by the Chinese Numismatic Museum in Beijing, Burger took 16 years to complete his PhD (instead of the usual 3-4 years), and 30 years to complete his volume Ch’ing Cash (2016) (link here).
In 1963 he went to China to teach German in Shanghai. When the school he was teaching at closed down, he was sent to be a sheep farmer. He moved to Hong Kong in 1965.
Burger’s publications include the following titles:
“Manchu Inscriptions on Chinese Cash Coins”, in American Numismatic Society Museum Notes XI (1964)
“Um Amuleto em Manchu”, in Boletim do Instituto Luís de Camµes (1969)
“Minting during the Qianlong Period: Comparing the Actual Coins with the Mint Reports”, in Christine Moll-Murata, Song Jianze and Hans Ulrich Vogel (eds.), Chinese Handicraft Regulations of the Qing Dynasty (2005)
Chinese section of Coins of the World 1750-1850, by W.D. Craig (1976)
Ch’ing cash until 1735, Mei Ya Publications, Taipei, 1976
Ch’ing Cash, University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 2016.
In 2017, as part of an Ancient Egypt and East Asia National Programme, National Museums of Scotland (NMS) began a review of East Asian collections in Scotland, supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund, delivered by the Museums Association. The completed review East Asian Collections in Scotland (2020) covers 36 organisations, and highlights some of the objects and stories of these collections. The review can be found online here, and can also be downloaded as a pdf (307 pages) here.
East Asian Collections in Scottish Museum (website and pdf)
The survey covers three countries: China, Japan and Korea, and all types of objects, including numismatic material. The types of objects are: (1) Works on Paper/Silk/Pith, (2) Metalwork, (3) Cloisonné and Glass, (4) Ceramics, (5) Lacquer, (6) Carved Ivory/Stone/Wood, (7) Textiles, Dress/Embroidery, (8) Fibre/Bamboo/Wooden Structures, (9) Numismatics, (10) Photography, (11) Miscellany. The inclusion of a separate section devoted to numismatics is a very welcome development, the initiative of Dr Qin CAO, now a curator at the NMS, and previously a Future Curator in Asian Numismatics at the British Museum and the Manchester Museum.
For convenience, I’ve pulled out the information relating to money and medals, and present it below:
The Collections
For further details of the collections and provenances, see the full report.
Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums
China: a small collection of Chinese coins (thought to have been in circulation in Japan); renminbi notes from the 1990s; 1 coin-sword formed by coins from the Xianfeng reign (1850-1861)
Japan: a range of Meiji-period (1868-1912) currency issued in the 1870s; a silver ichibu-gin (1837); a copper-alloy hyakumon (1835-1868)
Elgin Museum
China: 1-yuan banknote issued by the Farmers Bank of China, 1933; 2-yuan banknote
Japan: 3 medals (with documentation) donated by George Geddie – Order of the Rising Sun (1905), Order of the Sacred Treasure (1905), a medal from the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) – awarded for his participation in a battle that defeated the Russian Navy in 1905; 2 Japanese occupation notes (Malaya, 1-dollar and 100-dollar); Tenpō tsūhō coin from Fukugawa, 1835
Live Life Aberdeenshire Museums
China: 3 objects comprising cash coins tied to metal bars (19th century); 2 buyuan coins, Beijin/Jizhou; 3 coins from Hong Kong; 3 banknotes of the Central Bank of China
Japan: 3 Meiji-period coins, 1868-1912; 2 post-WWII banknotes; 4 Japanese occupation notes (Burma[Myanmar] and Malaya [Malaysia])
University of Aberdeen Museum
China: examples of rebel coinage; spade coins and knife coins dating from 500 BCE to the 20th century; cash coins of Guangdong and Fujian provinces; Peiyang Arsenal coins from Zhili; a 10-tael silver ingot; a coin-sword
Japan: approx. 50 coins, including a silver coin with the inscription yonbu gorin 四分五厘, awarded to a student who achieved first place in the highest degree in examinations
Korea: 1/4 yang coin, 1898
Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, Highlife Highland
China: coins
Black Watch Museum (Perth)
Japan: banknotes
Korea: banknotes issued by the Bank of Koea, 1952-1953
Fife Cultural Trust
China: a few examples of Hong Kong currency from 1866, 1875 and 1904; 2 coin swords
Japan: 1 silver ichi-bu-gin
Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Culture Perth and Kinross
Korea: 2 coin-shaped charms
The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum, Leisure and Culture Dundee
The Cairncross Collection: (approx. 755 coins and 65 amulets from Mr A Cairncross): c.40 coins from the Qin to Tang dynasties; c.230 coins of the Song dynasty; c.45 coins of the Ming dynasty; c.330 coins of the Qing dynasty; c.65 coin-shaped charms and imitations of early knife and spade money; 4 Japanese coins; coin sword; 40 unidentified coins
China: 6 coin swords (Cairncross Collection; Mr A. Jack, donated in 1932; Mrs J. Drummond, donated c.1968); a set of 8 solid metal weights (inscribed qian 錢, liang 兩, jin 斤, dan 擔)
Collection: 439 records for numismatic items, mainly Chinese, with only a few of these being Japanese. According to the records, these date from the 1st- 2nd century to the 18th century
China: coins (from Mr J. Kirkwood); coin swords (from Miss H.L. Moodie, Mr J. Kirkwood)
Japan: 2 Kanei tsuho coins
University of St Andrews Museums
China: a silver ingot; some cash coins
Japan: a coin from 1830-1844
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
George Forrest Collection: record of accounts kept by Zhao Chengzhang (GF’s “right-hand man”) for Forrest (1873-1932), who collected plants in China; steelyard-balance (diaocheng);
Glasgow Museums: Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, The Burrell Collection, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
China: 40 coins
Tibet: 1 silver coin
Low Parks Museum, South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture
Japan: a Tenpō Tsūhō 100-mon piece (1835-1870), a 1-shu piece (isshu gin 一朱銀) possibly from the Kaei period (1848-1854), and two Ae one-sen pieces (1885); a 10-yen note (1946); a 10-yen coin of post-WWII; a 10-cent Japanese Government note (printed in English); Japanese occupation notes (Singapore/Malaya; Burma, 1942)
The Dick Institute, East Ayrshire Leisure
China: 357 coins – cash coins, oval coins, coins of ‘unusual shape’ (possibly knife and spade coins), and coins from Hong Kong; 2 catalogues of ancient coins; coin swords; 8 porcelain coins [HW: perhaps Thai “pee”?]
Japan: a small collection of Japanese coins; Japanese occupation notes
The Hunterian, University of Glasgow
China: knife money (from A.C. Johnstone and James R. Lockie); cash coins; banknotes; 10-tael silver ingot from the Republican period (1912-1949)
Japan: several koban, 17th-18th centuries
The McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock
China: coin sword (from John S. Barclay)
Dumfries Museum, Dumfries and Galloway Council Arts and Museums Service
China: a small collection of coins, including spade money
Hawick Museum, Live Borders Museums, Galleries & Archives
China: 40 Chinese coins, incl. 16 cash coins, Fujian, 1662-1723; 1 spade money (huobu) [HW: probably spade-money issued by Wang Mang?]; 2 banknotes of the Farmers Bank of China (1-yuan, 5 yuan); 1 banknote of the Central Bank of China (10-dollars)
China: ‘Value of Cargo at Shanghai Dock’ 上海船頭貨價紙, document printed on silk, Shanghai, 1861 — “A ‘rectangle of light blue silk printed with black Japanese or Chinese characters’ was listed in Transactions of the Hawick Archaeological Society, dated 11 May 1875, as ‘Chinese newspaper printed on blue satin for the use of the Emperor’. This item was donated by Samuel Mossman who had been living in Shanghai and working for the North China Herald newspaper. The text has the title: Value of Cargo at Shanghai Dock (Shanghai chuantou huozhizhi 上海船頭貨值紙) and is dated the 16th day of the 10th month in 1861. This weekly publication lists the names of the ships’ captains and the ships expected to unload their cargo at the docks on the Huangpu river.”
Japan: 1 hansatsu of the Edo-period (c.1603-1868) for 1 monme of silver 銀壱匁; 21 Japanese coins, incl a copy of a coin from 1100 CE; 2 Japanese occupation notes (10 rupees, 10 dollars)
Korea: 1 banknote, 10 jeon, 1962
NOTE: The review specifically covered East Asian collections in museums. There may also be numismatic collections in libraries: for example, the collection of Theophilus Siegfried Bayer (1694-1738) in the Special Collections and Archives of the University of Glasgow Library. Bayer was perhaps the first European to take Chinese numismatics seriously – see my earlier post about his collection. If you know of any other East Asian numismatic collections in Scotland, please leave a comment below.
This was the title of my paper at the Art, Materiality and Representation conference, held in London, June 2018. The participants were all people who work in museums or places with Asian collections – and how they have reconsidered the collections, displays, interpretations, etc, bearing in mind changing attitudes and changing audiences. The proceedings of the conference (11 papers) have just been published online, open-access, and links to the contents are given below:
The Yale University Art Gallery’s Department of Numismatics houses well over 120,000 objects of numismatic and para-numismatic material representative of international traditions and cultures from more than two millennia. While the majority of objects are coins, medals, and paper currencies, the Collection also houses fine and decorative arts objects, printing plates, dies, books, and documents related to commerce traditions. One such decorative arts object is this large framed display containing 33 replicas of Edo (Tokugawa)-period (1603-1868) Japanese coins.
The Howard F. Bowker Collection in the National Numismatic Museum, at the Smithsonian, has been digitized and is available on the NNM online collection – here’s the weblink (search for “Howard F Bowker”). (more…)
While in Glasgow, I also learned of three Chinese silver ingots in the collection of The Hunterian. The ingots can be viewed online – with several images per ingot – on The Hunterian website: (more…)
Edward Francis Southan Newman (1873-1937) (鈕滿) was born in Hong Kong, and spent most of his life in China. Coole’s Bibliography (1967) lists Newman’s article “Ancient Chinese Coins” in the China Journal of Science and Arts, vol.1, no.4 (July 1923). Ian Gill, Frank Newman’s grandson, has published a couple of articles on his family history (May 2016 and Oct 2017), and in September 2017, WEI Chunyang (Victor Wei) published a piece on the Newman Family of Yantai, which drew attention to Newman’s coin collecting, in particular his acquisition of a very rare Guo bao jin kui zhi wan 国宝金匮直万 piece, now said to be in the National Museum of China collection. Many thanks for Ian Gill for his help in the preparation of this piece. (more…)
LAI Yu-chih：”Casting the Territory: A Study of Two Cabinets of Coins from the Qianlong Period in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg”, Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Vol. 101 (2018), pp.1-62. (more…)
Nicholas Lua Swee Yang, a student volunteer, has been helping me with the East Asian paper money collection this spring, most recently on the Japanese Occupation Money (also known as Japanese Invasion Money). One note [CIB,EA.208] particularly caught his attention, and inspired him to research it further and write this post. (more…)
Thai porcelain tokens (pee) are found in many collections, often just one or two pieces, and sometimes more. These are known by various terms, including the following (for more, see the bibliography below): (more…)
Chinese Money Matters 