Watch List notes:

WESTERN HAN: Anonymous, 118-49 BC, clay coin mold, H-8, 175mm x 85mm, two halves of a wu zhu coin mold used to make twelve specimens, VF, RRR. During the Han, coins were minted in the mountains. The copper was minted where it was extracted from the mines, and it was alloyed with different amounts of other metals like tin and lead, so the alloys varied from place to place. The tree-shaped mold came into being during the period of the Western Han dynasty, 206-220 BC. This was made the same way as the cluster mold, but could be used more times, since its shape allowed the mold to be opened after the casting of coins. In the article "A Han Dynasty Coin Mold," H.F. Bowker describes a Wu Zhu coin mould that belongs to Arthur Coole's collection. Bowker suggests the possibility that the mould assemblies were not baked, but only sun-dried. This example is of a Wu Zhu tree shaped mould is rare in that both obverse and reverse are mostly complete, the obverse being broken and repaired while the reverse is missing only a small section. Photo size reduced.

Estimate: 900-1,100 USD