Posted 06/10/2026 6:48 pm
This is not an actual monetary coin, but rather a "charm". There is a long tradition in East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam) to make coin-shaped charms, for good luck purposes. The giveaway that this is a charm and not coinage is the eight symbols on the back of the coin: these are the "eight trigrams" of the Taoist religion; this never appeared on circulating coins.
The obverse says "Zheng De Tong Bao", or "current coin of the Zheng De emperor", and the reason why this particular inscription is found on lucky charms is somewhat convoluted. There was an emperor by this name, ruling from 1505 to 1521, but he never actually made any coins during his lifetime - hence he was a "missing emperor" for Chinese coin collectors wishing to assemble a complete list of emperors. The legend grew that a few genuine Zheng De coins did actually exist, but were exceptionally rare - and so a superstition arose that Zheng De coins must be extremely lucky objects: "Any household with a Zheng De coin will have wealth and honour for ten thousand years". Which in turn led to this inscription being placed on a great many lucky charms.
Cash coins are normally about quarter-sized. The larger charms like this one are normally intended for mounting on a wall of a house.
The obverse says "Zheng De Tong Bao", or "current coin of the Zheng De emperor", and the reason why this particular inscription is found on lucky charms is somewhat convoluted. There was an emperor by this name, ruling from 1505 to 1521, but he never actually made any coins during his lifetime - hence he was a "missing emperor" for Chinese coin collectors wishing to assemble a complete list of emperors. The legend grew that a few genuine Zheng De coins did actually exist, but were exceptionally rare - and so a superstition arose that Zheng De coins must be extremely lucky objects: "Any household with a Zheng De coin will have wealth and honour for ten thousand years". Which in turn led to this inscription being placed on a great many lucky charms.
Cash coins are normally about quarter-sized. The larger charms like this one are normally intended for mounting on a wall of a house.
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
