Brass White Copper Mountain Ghost Coin Round Pendant

A charm coin is not money. It is a coin-shaped object cast to press down on what should not be there, made to be hung or carried, never to circulate. The Mountain Ghost type carries a talisman on one face and the bagua on the other; the characters are packed tight, and you will not read them all, nor do you need to. The name shares its characters with the Mountain Ghost poem in the Nine Songs of Chu, though whether the two are the same figure is disputed, so do not let anyone tell it too neatly. Talismanic hands differ from one workshop to the next, and even within one type the strokes vary.

A round plaque works differently from a square one. Raising relief on a round face means cutting along the curve, and a crowd of figures pinches; but a charm coin is already coin-shaped, round outside and square within, or round with no hole at all, so a composition laid out like an old coin fits it better than anything. The rim is left as a narrow band with an edge you can feel, the hand-feel old coins leave behind and the easiest way to recognise this family of objects. The hole follows the same logic: a large one takes a cord easily, a small one wants a thin cord.

Brass and white copper behave differently. Brass runs warm and, once antiqued, looks dug out of the ground; it sits well with cotton, linen, old denim. White copper runs cool and bright, close to silver, and looks crisp against dark cloth. Brass verdigris will come off on the hand: wear it a day with a heavy sweat and you get a green ring at the wrist. That is copper doing what copper does, not dirt. Rinse it with water, and do not scrub it with toothpaste. The white copper version does not look old on the hand, while the brass one looks like it has been worn for years. That is the material, not the finish.

Choose a thick cord over a thin one. A charm coin has weight, and a thin cord cuts the neck without holding the plaque steady. Waxed cord is the least trouble; it dislikes water, but it is cheap and easy to replace. Leather looks better, though it stiffens against sweat in summer and lies nicely in winter. If the hole runs small, singe the tip of the cord and twist it thin rather than forcing it, which splits the rim. Chest height is enough for the length; longer and it beats against the stomach as you walk. Tie a double knot, because a single knot slips when wet, and a slipped knot loses the piece.

The Mountain Ghost charm has been through several rounds of speculation in the last twenty years, and old pieces and new ones differ enormously in price. New casts are sold as jewellery; do not sell them as antiques. Tell a gift plainly: the look of a charm coin, newly made. That is steadier than talking around it. Some people are uneasy about the word ghost, so turn the bagua face outward. In storage, keep it away from keys, since the rim chips easily and a chip cannot be ground out. And if it is jewellery, leave the patina talk alone: a new piece has none, and too much of it shows.