White Copper Tang Lion Mountain Ghost Coin Pendant

Charm coins were never money in circulation. They were cast to be played with, hung up or given away, and any inscription could go on them, from auspicious phrases to spells; official and private casts were mixed together and sizes ran wild. The Mountain Ghost coin is one branch of the family, an object belonging to the Daoist thunder rites and a close relative of the apotropaic coin, and collectors usually discuss the two in one breath. The old uses were miscellaneous: packed at the bottom of a chest, hung on a curtain hook, sewn onto a child's hat, or cast specifically as a gift.

The face of a Mountain Ghost coin usually carries a spell. It opens with the words thunder, thunder, and goes on to kill ghosts, subdue spirits, cut down demons and repel evil; the back often shows the eight trigrams or a thunder order pattern. The spell comes out of the thunder department liturgy of Daoism, not out of the Mountain Ghost of the Nine Songs in the Chu Ci. The two share a name and are constantly confused, so any description has to keep them apart. The lines run mostly four characters at a time and read like a jingle, and cutting them into copper demands deep strokes that do not run together.

The Tang lion is the other point of interest. Tang lions did not take the realistic road: large head, broad chest, mane curled into snail whorls, short and powerful legs. Presence mattered more than proportion, and they are a long way from a real lion though close kin to the stone lions outside a gate. This piece sets Tang lion and charm coin together, lion on the face, coin legend on the back, fierce on one side and steady on the other. The Tang mane is usually built as spirals set out one by one, which is where mould venting is most severely tested and where most rejects come from.

Cast in white copper as a round plaque, it sits right at chest height. In winter it feels cold for a moment and then evens out against the body. In a sweaty summer grime gathers in the recesses: take it off, use warm water with a little neutral soap, brush along the lines with a soft brush, rinse, dry it and put it away. Do not soak it, since copper left standing in water blooms fastest. White copper's white runs to grey rather than shining like silver, and against dark clothing it holds its own without looking flashy.

Charm coins are a category of their own among curios, and collectors care about type and the cut of the characters; one old coin can be studied for half a year. This is a newly cast piece, not an old coin, and the buyer should be clear on that from the start: what it is worth is the work and the subject, not the year. Saying exactly that when you give it away reads as more honest, not less. It makes a good entry piece, since the price is modest and the subject stands up to questions, and you can move further up once you know the field.