Rare Si Zhu cash, ca.175-136 BC (?), temp. Wen Di (180-157 BC) and his successors, Western Han dynasty, China

Si Zhu (“4-zhu”) / Blank, no rims. 13mm, 2.2 grams. Hartill 13.65; Gratzer/Fishman A14.7.

Rare round type (almost all these 4-zhu coins are square). Higher quality and heavy, very rare this nice, though it is encrusted in heavy green patina. Very nice and attractive for these, much nicer than most (these coins were cast in soft copper in north-eastern China, most of them are found with much corrosion or wear). 

The very strange unorthodox 3- and 4-zhu coins were known in the past from only a few different specimens, but recently many new varieties had been discovered. However, they are among the most poorly understood ancient Chinese coins. Most are denominated at four zhu (with a nominal zhu equal to about 0.7 grams, this would make the coins weigh ~2.8 grams), though a few three-zhu coins are known as well. All these coins are very odd – they are mostly square, with the inscriptions in incuse, looking radically different from the normal ancient Chinese coins. A few of the coins are round, but they are still very odd-looking and unusual. Some coins were cast with a hole, some coins were cast without a hole which was later drilled in. The inscription is also unusual, as the character zhu 銖 is always written without the jin 金 radical, as zhu 朱.

The inscriptions always show the denomination, sometimes with added characters. The added characters usually list locales which cannot be identified. However, the find-spots of most of the types are known, and these circulation areas (and the named locales) were spread over a huge area in the modern provinces of Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Anhui, Shanxi and Jiangxi (see the map below). A few other inscriptions name official titles (probably of the persons in charge of the casting) and a few legends are still unidentified.