White Copper Five Emperor Coins Red Enamel Open Ring

The Five Emperor coins are the issues of five Qing reigns in a row — Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing — strung together in folk practice for the sake of the sequence. What sells on the market is mostly reproduction; a genuine coin is judged on the bronze, the cutting of the characters and the patina, and the ordinary buyer need not go that deep. Recognise the subject and stop there. Some say the five emperors are the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of high antiquity, which is a different system and not how the coin trade uses the term. What five reign titles in a row give you is a timeline, and that is what a single coin does not have.

The ring shrinks the five into one row across the back of the finger. It is open, so the band will spread a little and the fit is negotiable. The weakness of an open ring is the overlap, which loosens; push it on from the side of the finger rather than spreading it every morning. The overlap needs width, or the two ends shift out of line. The inside faces should be polished — a rough edge rubs the skin, especially once you sweat. And the metal remembers the angle it has been bent to; spread it often enough and it will not come back.

Red enamel fills the recesses of the coin pattern. Enamel is glass fired onto the metal: the colour is stable and shrugs off sweat, but it fears a knock, and a chip cannot be filled back in. Red against white copper is one vivid tone against one cold one — dark at a distance, bright up close. Good enamel sits flush with the copper face, so a fingernail passes over it without catching. It has to go into a kiln, and a few degrees off leaves the colour dull. An open ring also drifts to one side on the finger; turn it every few days so it wears evenly.

Five coins in a row take up real space. Short fingers look shorter under a wide face, so take the narrow version; long fingers carry the wide one. Keep the opening at one side of the finger, where it will not dig in while you write or type. Fingers swell in summer, and an open ring is easier to live with than a fixed circle — that matters more than how it looks. Leave a small gap between the coins so the finger can bend. White reads cool, yellow reads old; decide by what you actually wear.

Giving one of these, do not promise wealth. Talk about the coin itself: round outside, square inside, the old idea of heaven and earth pressed into money. A friend in business will take the point, and a student can wear it without looking dated. If the size is uncertain, take the adjustable one. Red enamel dislikes perfume, so spray with the hand held away; take the ring off before laundry, because detergent left to soak lifts the edges. A small velvet pouch makes a better impression than a paper box.