I saw this offered on eBay for what I believe to be a cheap price, and I snapped it up. It is a “biscuit” Huo Quan (minted after Wang Mang’s reign, so 23-40 AD) where the mould shattered before the metal had cooled. You can see all the cracks and where metal started spilling out. It is really quite amazing.
What’s really amazing to me is that something like that survived for you to acquire it! Think this might have been found at a mint site in the rubbish pile?
Fascinating indeed @TypeCoin971793! You rarely see these and seeing as it is a Huo Quan it is perfect for your collection!
Maybe. These coins were almost certainly privately made and likely used as bullion slugs traded by weight. It seems more likely that it was discarded (I would think it would have been melted down), but it could have circulated as is (which I would expect the excess metal to have been clipped off). Who knows what happened to it.
