I got one of these Chinese coins that came with a different coin I purchased. Can anyone please confirm what this is? I believe that it may be a Northern Qi Dynasty, Emperor Wen Xuan Di, 553 - 559 AD coin. I found an example online (here) that's similar, but my example is a bit wider in diameter at 26.27mm. It weighs a little less than the one in the link at 3.54 grams. Also, the top and bottom designs of the obverse are missing or are worn down, so maybe it's more like this one despite the different rim appearance. Or, maybe it's one of these other examples here? Thanks in advance!
Here are a couple good sites I use to help ID Chinese cash coins: http://www.sportstune.com/chinese/coins/idpage.html http://www.calgarycoin.com/reference/china/china8.htm#chien lung
Based on one of those sites, it looks like it's a Wu Chu coin. There doesn't seem to be a way to narrow the coin down further, given the info in the image below. But it's also got a 15° or so rotation.
Its a Wu Zhu, but different styles of calligraphy, different diameters, and minute differences could distinct a Han dynasty Wu Zhu to a Sui dynasty Wu Zhu 700 years later. My best guess would be its a Western Han dynasty coin, from around the 2nd century BCE, based on the size, but i'm no expert.
Eastern Han wuzhu. The shape of the wu is distinctive. The hole bein rotated is from when the hole was punched out to remove the overflow in the mold. These molds couldnt be rotated, they were two part molds carved from slate which had alignment pegs in them. Some molds survive from this period. Hartill doesn't list this variety but Du Weishan shows several with the sharp corner wu in Wu Zhu Tu Lao.
