Four Chinese characters Yon Tong Wan Guo (“Everlasting Circulation in Thousand Kingdoms”) / Blank. 29mm, 5.3 grams. Issued in 579 AD. Hartill 13.32.

Very attractive example with brown-green patina, high quality with no problems or repairs.

These coins were cast in 579 – they were inflationary coins, worth ten of the old Wu Xing coins. The Emperor died later the same year and the coins were quickly discontinued. This attractive type, with the inscriptions written in the greatly admired Yu Zhu script, gave rise to many imitations and later casts. The original large coins, like this one, are rare.