Beautiful original patina, great condition with a few casting holes, 118mm long, 11.35 grams. Zeno #10380 or similar; BM (Chinese Coins) #- (chapter 1). Ex-CNG.

The piercing is original - these were strung together, like the later holed cash. 

This piece has a beautiful patina and some original casting holes.

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 transitionary 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.