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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;rick, post: 782835, member: 1235&quot;]about the coin... this theory came from someone who knows far more on the subject than I do.&nbsp; He posts under the name sumnom:</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&quot;<font face="Arial">The left hand image has a four-character phrase. It reads top to bottom, right to left. I don&#039;t really get the first two characters. Literally, they read &quot;drunk bamboo&quot; but I don&#039;t think we should take it that way. The character for &quot;drunk&quot; can also mean &quot;happy/happiness.&quot; I found the two characters together in people&#039;s styles (pen names) and in the names of pavillions where one might drink among the bamboo trees. I think it probably means to be drunk/happy in the bamboo grove. Let&#039;s reduce that to &quot;happiness.&quot; The characters from right to left mean &quot;money purse&quot; or &quot;money pouch.&quot; </font></p><p><font face="Arial"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Arial">The right hand image reads from top to bottom and literally means &quot;seed money&quot; or &quot;seed coin.&quot; In the dictionary this means a pattern piece, a trial strike, or a pattern from which the molds are made for casting other coins. However, I do not think it means that here. I think we can understand it in much the same way we understand the English term &quot;seed money.&quot; This is the money one uses to start an enterprise to make more money. It is the seed from which other coins will spring. One can also understand the Chinese here to mean &quot;to plant money.&quot; You might then want to plant this coin in your purse of happiness so that it will become full of wealth and bliss.</font></p><p><font face="Arial"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Arial">So, in short, I think the left image reads, &quot;purse of bliss&quot; and the right image reads, &quot;seed money&quot; and that this is a charm for bringing wealth and happiness. </font></p><p><font face="Arial"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Arial">Also, my gut tells me that it is of recent manufacture.&quot;</font></p><p><br /></p><p><font face="Arial">also, from another board member Sapyx:</font></p><p><br /></p><p><font face="Arial">&quot;I can&#039;t speak for East Asian cultures, but for some folks it&#039;s considered bad luck (or at least very poor manners) to give an empty purse or wallet as a gift - there&#039;s supposed to be something in it. A &quot;token&quot; or charm such as this one would seem to serve the purpose nicely.</font></p><p><font face="Arial"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Arial">I&#039;d suspect a purse/wallet manufacturer might well have had these made to insert into their newly-made purses or wallets. That way, they&#039;d be &quot;ready-to-give&quot;&quot;</font></p><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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