Ant-nose Money "Ghost face" type; with upper line

Ant-nose Money ("Ghost face" type; with upper line) - obverseAnt-nose Money ("Ghost face" type; with upper line) - reverse

© Ollisaarinen (CC BY)

Features

Issuer State of Chu (Warring States)
Type Standard circulation coin
Years 400 BC - 220 BC
Currency Ant-nose money (401-220 BC)
Composition Bronze
Weight 2.92 g
Size 18 mm
Thickness 3.6 mm
Shape Oval (With a hole)
Orientation Medal alignment ↑↑
Demonetized Yes
Number
N#
237957
References Hartill# 1.5
David Hartill; 2017. Cast Chinese Coins (2nd edition). New Generation Publishing, London, United Kingdom.

Obverse

One primitive Chinese ideogram.

Lettering:

Translation:
Bei
Shell

Reverse

Blank (uniface).

Edge

Smooth.

Comments

While this is the most common type of ant-nose money, the depicted ideogram still remains debated. Bei (貝; for shell) is commonly accepted, although Jin (晋) is another theory.

There is a lot of variation is size and weight.

Hartill places the dates of these pieces to 400-220 BC; Heinz Gratzer's and A.M. Fishman's "The First Round Coins of China" places the dates of these pieces to 581-448 BC from King Gong to King Zhao.

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Date VG F VF XF AU UNC Frequency
ND (400 BC - 220 BC)  77% Hartill#1.5: Short line
ND (400 BC - 220 BC)  23% Hartill#1.6: Long line
ND (400 BC - 220 BC)  38% Hartill#1.7: Broken line

Frequencies show the percentage of Numista users who own each year or variety among all the users who own this coin. Since some users own several versions, the sum may be greater than 100%.

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Numista Rarity index: 86 Search tips
This index is based on the data of Numista members collections. It ranges from 0 to 100, 0 meaning a very common coin or banknote and 100 meaning a rare coin or banknote among Numista members.

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