Posted 06/13/2014 8:06 pm
The knife-coin is indeed a replica. On genuine "5000 cash" knives, the two characters inside the circular part are incuse, not raised, and there should be remnants of the gold inlay visible inside the incused lines. Zeno.ru example. Genuine ones are also rather expensive.
The four cash coins all appear to be genuine and are all cheap common types, despite being rather old. They are:
Top left: Qian Long (AD 1736-1795), Revenue mint.
Top right: an old Song Dynasty coin, roughly 1000 years old, but too badly worn for me to more narrowly ID the period with certainty. My best guess is the Xi Ning period (AD 1068-1077), something like this one, perhaps.
Bottom left: another Qian Long coin, but Kwangtung (Guangdong) Province mint.
Bottom right: Jia Qing (AD 1796-1820), Revenue mint.
The "fluffy things tied to the coins" did indeed once have meaning to the person that put them there. They would originally have been bright red in colour; they have faded over time. In Chinese traditional beliefs (and in the modern Western re-interpretation of those beliefs as "Feng Shui"), tying coins together with red cord to make various patterns and shapes can create powerful amulets. You can buy such things pre-assembled from Feng Shui supplies stores, made from either genuine old cash coins or (more likely) modern replicas. Apparently, the evil spirits can't tell the difference.
The four cash coins all appear to be genuine and are all cheap common types, despite being rather old. They are:
Top left: Qian Long (AD 1736-1795), Revenue mint.
Top right: an old Song Dynasty coin, roughly 1000 years old, but too badly worn for me to more narrowly ID the period with certainty. My best guess is the Xi Ning period (AD 1068-1077), something like this one, perhaps.
Bottom left: another Qian Long coin, but Kwangtung (Guangdong) Province mint.
Bottom right: Jia Qing (AD 1796-1820), Revenue mint.
The "fluffy things tied to the coins" did indeed once have meaning to the person that put them there. They would originally have been bright red in colour; they have faded over time. In Chinese traditional beliefs (and in the modern Western re-interpretation of those beliefs as "Feng Shui"), tying coins together with red cord to make various patterns and shapes can create powerful amulets. You can buy such things pre-assembled from Feng Shui supplies stores, made from either genuine old cash coins or (more likely) modern replicas. Apparently, the evil spirits can't tell the difference.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
