Unusual currencies series - Ancient Chinese Ghost Face Coin

State of Chu (楚）- Warring States Period. Circa 4-3rd century BC.

AE Ghost face money. Also known as Ant Nose Money.

These were regarded as imitation cowrie coins in circulation during the time. The most commonly ones are like this where the character 咒 was inscribed on. Some attributed it as representing a human face like a totem but also exists with other inscriptions exist.

The Warring States Period heralded a period of chaos where the various autonomous states fought over supremacy and marked the fall of the Ancient Zhou 周 Dynasty. The various states struggled for hegemony over each other until the emergence of the Qin state who's force finally united all the various states into the first unified empire, the Qin Dynasty under the first Emperor of China Shi Huangdi.

 

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Another very interesting coin and a nice writeup. Thanks for posting this.

 

Thanks.. they are pretty common actually but I like their unique and unusual design..

 

Ant nose, eh? ... kinda cool

 

Yea. Some had archaic a Chinese characters rendering it looking like an ant. Also the 咒 character does look like two bug eyes and mandibles. But in reality it is used today as the character "curse". Strange though that the Chu would wanna curse their citizens through their coins. But apparently I read an article once that they were also totem builders, distinctive shamanistic practices and probably these ones represent the face of their totem. Chu state covers a lot of areas making up areas of indigenous minorities in the south, possibly some influence there.. For example, note the design of the following tomb guardian. Source: Wikipedia

 

Interesting to say the least. Congrats!

 

Thanks..

 

Do we have any idea of what one of these could purchase when it was minted?

 

These would probably not buy much. These are pretty small pieces and probably worth 1 cash each. Probably a few of these needed to buy a bag of rice.

 

Very interesting indeed. It's threads like these that bring out the inner anthropologist in me .

 

True true

These stuff at times gives me the make believe fantasy of being an armchair indy jones