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Coins of China’s yijiao and America’s one cent
Do you know something about the coins of P. R. China and USA? Do you know the similarities and differences of them? Do you know the meaning of the design in coins? Do you think that the design can reflect the nation’s culture? I think it is easy to answer when you compare them. Now, let us read the yijiao coin of China (“yijiao” for short) and one-cent coin of USA (“one cent” for short) carefully.
The first eye set on these two coins tells us that they are different in colors: one cent is copper-colored, while yijiao silvery white. In fact, yijiao is made of aluminium alloy, and one-cent alloy of zinc and copper. So they have different weights: yijiao weighs about 1.5 grams and one cent 2.5 grams. And one cent is about 82% as valuable as yijiao. But they both are circle in shape and 19 millimeters in diameter.
In design, they have something similar: it contains main device, inscription, symbolic date and denomination. They both have symbols on the obverse, and denomination and inscription of issue authority on the reverse. And neither of them have gears at the edge.
However, the differences are obvious. One cent has the portrait of Lincoln, who is a famous president of US, in the middle; and the inscription of “in god we trust”, which is very innocuous and, really, not particularly religious, but is on every piece of money issued by the US government, on the top; and the motto of “liberty”, which reminds people who live in a country that has freedom, on the middle left; and the symbolic number “1984” as the mint date and the mint mark “D” as the mint location Denver, on the down right, on the obverse. But yijiao is a bit simpler in design. On the obverse, it has orchid, which is the Chinese traditional, famous flower, both its leaves and blossoms, large and striking in the middle; and the inscription of Chinese pinyin “Zhongguo Renmin Yinhang” (the People’s Bank of China), on the top. On the reverse, one cent has Lincoln Memorial Building in the middle, making it the first and only coin to have the same person on both sides in US; and the motto \"E pluribus unum\" (\"Out of many, one\"), which tells people that lots of people joined together to form US, above the building; and the inscription of “United States of America” on the top and “one cent”, the exact amount of money it is worth, on the bottom. And yijiao has the big Arabic number “1” in the middle of the reverse, together with the pinyin “yijiao” and the Chinese character “jiao” on each side, telling its exact value, and six characters meant “the People’s Bank of China” as the inscription on the top; and the mint date “2000” on the bottom.
Every nation has its own traditional culture in mint coins. This is only one case of that. And when we use money, we strengthen our cultural identity, though we do not wake up to that often. |
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