1046-771 BC - Very rare! Large clay mortuary "bridge money", Western Zhou dynasty (1046-771 BC), Ancient China

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Beautiful original patina, great condition, 141mm;. The piercing is original and without cracks, holes or repairs. These were strung together, like the later holed cash. Very rare. Zeno #6905; BM (Chinese Coins) #3 (for bronze pieces).

"Mortuary" money were imitations of coins (in this case, of a bronze bridge money piece) which were put in graves as grave goods. Since the bronze was expensive, making copies of coins and bronze artifacts in clay or terracotta was an afforable alternative to buried expensive objects along with the dead. This tradition started in China in times immemorial and continued until fairly recently. Many "mortuary" coins, "gold" slabs and artifacts in clay are known.Chinese "bridge" money were among the earliest bronze Chinese coins. In the work of Coole (Coole, A. B., "An encyclopaedia of Chinese coins", Denver, 1967) these pieces are discussed under "Odd shaped mediums of exchange" where he suggests they were used in the transitional period between the "bartering age and the coin age". Such examples were made in many shapes and resembled various valuable utensils and objects of the period including bells, lotus roots, knives, shields etc. This would explain why the shape of this example resembles early jade instruments called "chin", which were used like modern metallic triangles. Such examples are representative of the earliest phase of money-like exchange known in the world, and considering not much is definitively understood of these objects, they are perhaps best referred to as examples of proto-money.This coin is unconditionally guaranteed to be authentic.


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