Wu Zhu cash w/abbreviated legend, Wei Kingdom, 220-265 AD, Three Kingdoms, China

Two Chinese characters Wu Zhu ("5 zhu", Wu clipped by the rim, Zhu is abbreviated), no inside rim, shallow outside rim / Blank, inner and outer rims. 20mm, 1.46 grams. Hartill - (maybe 10.12, incorrectly described); Gratzer/Fishman "One Thousand Years of Wu Zhu Coinage" #B5.19. 

Scarcer type.

Cao Wei was one of the empires that competed for control of China during the Three Kingdoms period. With the capital at Luoyang, the empire was established by Cao Pi in 220, based upon the foundations that his father Cao Cao laid. Its name came from 213, when Cao Cao's feudal holdings were given the name Wei; historians often add the prefix Cao (from Cao Cao's family name) to distinguish it from the other states in Chinese history also known as Wei, such as the earlier Wei state during the Warring States Period, and the later Northern Wei state. In 220, when Cao Pi deposed the last emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wei became the name of the new dynasty he founded, which was seized and controlled by the Sima family in 249, until it was overthrown and became part of the Jin Dynasty's Kingdom in 265.

Unlike the other two of the Three Kingdoms, the Cao Wei's main coinage was that associated with the Han dynasty: the Wu Zhus. The decline of the coinage is evident; the coins are inflationary, getting smaller with the passing time, light, and crude. One of the identifying characteristics of the Wei Wu Zhus is that the characters are always clipped by the hole and/or outer rim (and often both). 

This coin is unconditionally guaranteed to be authentic.

SKU  x12245-w47308