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Auction: CSS92C - THE PRESTIGIOUS ACADEMIC REFERENCE COLLECTION OF THE LATE DR. WERNER BURGER - Part 3: Chinese Charms
Lot: 2273

China: Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 CE), coin-shaped charm with round central hole, obverse inscribed 'Ci fu ya guai', reverse inscribed Manchu characters, 44.8*2.3mm, 23.5g, Zhong Qian 82. Extremely fine, very rare. Note: This is the same example that is used in Dr Burger's article on Chinese charms entitled Coins Which are Not Money: Cultural Functions and Symbolism collected in the book Money in Asia (1200-1900): Small Currencies in Social and Political Contexts edited by Jane Kate Leonard and Ulrich Theobald, Brill 2022. According to Burger, the left Taoist spell character on the obverse means "to ward off evil spirits from boats and carts" while the right one from chicken, geese and other birds. Burger also writes that the Manchu scripts on the reverse read "The heavenly official [may] grant luck" (Abka-i hafan hu?turi isibumbi ). This charm is also included as No 256 in the Volume of Charms of A Pictorial Catalogue of Rare Chinese Coinage by Yu Liuliang and Zhu Yongkun (Shanghai Science and Technology Press 2014). It is graded as Degree 8 out of 12 rarity degrees.


此符壓怪方孔花錢，背滿文，清朝（公元1644–1911），44.8*2.3mm，重23.5g，中乾82。品相極美，少見。另：該錢為布氏“是錢非錢：花錢的文化功能及意義”一文所用原物。該文收錄於《1200-1900的亞洲錢幣：社會與政治框架中的貨幣》一書，J.K Leonard與U. Theobald編輯，2022年布瑞爾出版社出版。此錢面左右各有一道符。布氏認為左符壓車船怪，右符壓雞鴨禽類怪。此錢背有滿文，布氏釋讀為Abka-i hafan hūturi isibumbi ，意即“天官賜福”。此錢亦刊載於《中國珍稀錢幣圖譜》花錢卷（余榴樑、朱永坤編著，上海科學技術出版社2014年出版）第256號，評級為珍八級。

Estimate

Starting price
HK$2000