Afternoon.
2:30 p.m.
Panting heavily, Dong Xuebin carried a huge bag of weighty copper coins back to Jiangong Hospital. After entering the Orthopedics Ward, he flung the large bag beside his hospital bed under the astonished gazes of the old man with the broken bone and his son. With a clatter, the coins jostled together, producing a pleasant sound.
The old man said in surprise, "Young man, what are you doing?"
Exhausted, Dong Xuebin smiled and sat down on the bed. "I bought some Ancient Coins."
The old man's son said, "Good lord, but you didn't have to buy this many, did you?"
"Heh, just messing around, just messing around." Seeing the man's Samsung laptop on the Bedside Table, Dong Xuebin hesitated for a moment before asking with an embarrassed smile, "Big Brother, I saw you using your laptop to surf the internet yesterday. That was a 3G wireless card, right? Um, if you don't need the laptop for the moment, could you lend it to me?"
The man was quite generous and pushed the laptop over. "Sure, use it however you like."
"Oh, thank you so much."
"Don't mention it. While I was away, your aunt helped my dad pour water and wash his meal containers plenty of times. I haven't even thanked her yet."
Afraid the nurses and doctors would gossip, Dong Xuebin did not dare dump the coins out in the open. Instead, he spread them out in the dead corner between the bed and the wall, rummaged through them with his hands, and roughly counted them. Then he deeply appreciated the saying that no merchant was honest. What fourteen hundred copper coins? This pile did not even reach a thousand. The coins were simply too small to count easily, which was why he had been fooled. Well, forget it. It was still unclear who had gotten the worse end of the deal.
Dong Xuebin turned on the laptop, connected to the internet, and began searching online for the names printed on the coins.
He knew nothing about antique appraisal. The internet was all he could rely on.
Five minutes...
Ten minutes...
Twenty minutes...
He would never have known without looking. There were simply too many varieties in this pile of coins.
There were Chongning Heavy Treasure coins, Kaiyuan Tongbao, Xuanhe Tongbao, iron coins, and copper coins. The sight made his head spin.
Dong Xuebin steadied himself. While cramming a little knowledge from several collector websites and coin-and-banknote forums, he began eliminating coins from the pile one by one. Some types with obvious characteristics were easy enough to identify, such as Tang Dynasty Kaiyuan Tongbao and Northern Song Xuanhe Tongbao. Those were worth only a few yuan on the market, and their wholesale price was probably less than one yuan. They had no collectible value.
Dong Xuebin picked out the worthless copper coins one by one and tossed them into another bag, keeping them separate.
One coin...
Ten coins...
Fifty coins...
It was an extremely tedious task and a severe test of patience.
He picked through them for the entire afternoon. Then the meal cart rumbled to the doorway, and dinner arrived.
Dong Xuebin took advantage of mealtime to rest a little. As soon as he had finished eating, he resumed sorting.
Three hundred and thirty coins...
Three hundred and fifty coins...
Four hundred and ten coins...
Good lord, by the end, he had eliminated more than five hundred worthless copper coins, leaving fewer than three hundred behind.
At seven-thirty that evening, Qu Yunxuan called and said she still had some urgent matters at work to handle, so she would not come over that night. She would visit him the next morning. Dong Xuebin told her to focus on her work and that she did not need to come the next day either, but Aunt Xuan would not listen. After giving him a few reminders, she hung up.
The old man's son was not leaving that night. He was staying to keep watch, mainly because it was inconvenient for the old man to use the bathroom. Dong Xuebin asked for his permission, and the man generously said again that he could use the laptop as he pleased and need not worry about internet fees, since his workplace reimbursed them. Dong Xuebin hurriedly thanked him, thinking that he should buy a laptop himself someday. It was convenient everywhere.
Dong Xuebin was the sort of person who could not keep things on his mind. He planned to stay up all night and appraise this entire pile of coins, or he would not be able to sleep peacefully.
Thus, the sorting continued...
Five hundred and eighty coins...
Six hundred and fifty coins...
Six hundred and seventy coins...
However, the remaining coins were not so easy to eliminate. Take Chongning Heavy Treasure, for example. This kind of copper coin came in countless varieties—floral holes, split inscriptions, stars on the obverse, stars and moon patterns on the reverse—and their prices differed greatly. Some were worth thousands, some hundreds, and some only a few yuan. It was difficult for anyone not specializing in this field to tell them apart.
Search, then. Search slowly.
Mm, this was a Qing Dynasty coin. There were too many in existence. Pass.
Oh, that one had a chipped corner and far too much rust. Even if it was genuine, it would not be worth much. Pass.
Another three hours passed like that, yet he still found nothing.
Then, at one in the morning, just as Dong Xuebin was yawning nonstop and preparing to give up, a rust-covered copper coin caught his eye. This ancient coin was called Jiading Yuanbao. After checking online, he found that its price also varied wildly. Different eras and minting sizes meant vastly different prices. At first, Dong Xuebin did not think much of it. He held the Jiading Yuanbao in his hand and compared it against sample photos and written descriptions online. This one was not right, that one did not match, and neither did the other.
After searching for a long while, he still did not find a single coin identical to his.
He switched websites and continued searching. He searched and searched, and suddenly, Dong Xuebin clicked on information for an auction lot.
Southern Song Dynasty, Jiading Yuanbao Zheshi, minted in 1208. Square hole, diameter 54 millimeters.
Judging from the sample image, its color, lettering, diameter, and overall feel were almost exactly the same as his Jiading Yuanbao. The only difference was that the auctioned coin was in superb condition with barely any rust, while Dong Xuebin's Jiading Yuanbao was somewhat more heavily rusted.
Dong Xuebin casually shifted his gaze to the lot's final sale price, and then... he froze.
Starting price: 30,000 RMB.
Final price: 62,000 RMB.
Holy crap, it was that expensive?
It had to be.
The coin Cheng had his eye on had definitely been this one.
Dong Xuebin took an excited deep breath and stared wide-eyed at the price, far beyond anything he had expected. Joy surged through him. He had thought he might only luck into something worth eight or ten thousand yuan. Who would have thought it was worth more than sixty thousand? Uh, no, no. Auction prices were definitely inflated because they included commissions and taxes. Its actual value would be somewhat lower. Damn, it might even be fake. Counterfeit coins were everywhere these days. Still, probably not. Cheng's character might be poor, but his eye for coin appraisal was publicly recognized.
Suppressing his delight for the moment, Dong Xuebin checked the final small pile of coins online one by one.
They were all worth one or two yuan. There was nothing else worth noticing.
After packing several hundred junk coins into a bag and shoving it beneath the bed, Dong Xuebin carefully held the Jiading Yuanbao in his hands, liking it more the longer he looked at it. Cheng had bought nine coins yesterday, but that had probably been a little trick to avoid drawing attention. In reality, this Jiading Yuanbao was likely the only one that had interested him.
Haha, he was going to make money.
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