BabelStone » 25-February-2008 7:59pm

The reverse shows the so-called "TLV" pattern that is commonly found on Han dynasty bronze mirrors. This pattern is based on the distinctive pattern of the board of the boardgame Liubo 六博 (see these Western Han wooden funerary statuettes for the game in action)

andrey8831 » 25-February-2008 8:05pm

Thanks, for the information!

BabelStone » 25-February-2008 8:13pm

It's a very nice piece. I've seen literally hundreds of examples of TLV pattern bronze mirrors, but this is the first time I've seen the pattern on a coin.

La Vansa » 26-February-2008 1:49pm

This type of wuzhu is well known with incuse inscriptions "tuo shen yang" 脫身昜 (for 瘍), "May escape from deseases !", and yi zi sun 宜子孫, "may have sons and grand-sons!" on the obverse, and TLV pattern on the reverse. See Ding Fubao, Guqian dacidian, pp. 373a and 483b, Zhongguo huaqian #1009, Zhongguo gudai yasheng qianpu, p. 5.

La Vansa » 27-February-2008 10:50am

You can see other types of coins and charms with TLV pattern in "Zhongguo gudai yashengqian pu" 中國古代壓勝錢譜 of Lu Zhenhai 卢振海, Shenyang 1991 : wuzhu (pp. 5 and 8), daquan wushi (p.17), daquan shiwu (pp.19, 24) and charms of Han/Xin time (pp.317, 667).