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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;satootoko, post: 128793, member: 669&quot;]Almost certainly a few hundred years earlier, and to a very minor extent a few years later.</p><p><br /></p><p>This style was cast in brass, bronze, copper and iron by the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Annamese (roughly present-day Vietnam), by the billions.&nbsp; Most were the common ~21-23mm size, but others ranged as large as nearly 60mm.</p><p><br /></p><p>The square hole served two purposes.&nbsp; The coins were sand cast in &quot;trees&quot;, and when they were broken apart they were placed on a square stick so that the casting stubs could be ground off to make them (almost) perfectly circular.&nbsp; In circulation they would be strung on a cord, and carried necklace style long before pockets had been invented or imported in Asia.</p><p><br /></p><p>The characters on this one are too degraded for anyone but a top-notch expert to positively attribute, and even with the help of several reference works, I lack sufficient expertise.&nbsp; It does appear to be Chinese, but probably not from the 1662-1796 Manchu period - at least it&#039;s nowhere close to the ones pictured in Petrie&#039;s <i>Illustrated Guide to Chinese Cash Pieces of the Manchu Mints</i>.&nbsp; It is definitely not Japanese, but I can&#039;t rule out Korea or Annam as possibilities.</p><p><br /></p><p>The top picture needs to be rotated 90 degrees, so that the clear quadrants are top &amp; bottom, and the characters are on the sides.&nbsp; I&#039;m reasonably certain that the&nbsp; rotation should be to the left, but the characters are incomplete so no guarantee. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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