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Needle-tip knife Chengde
| Issuer | State of Yan |
|---|---|
| Year | 601 BC - 400 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Knife money (601-400 BC) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Elongated cast bronze knife-money with a slender, tapering blade culminating in a fine needle-like point at the tip. The blade surface bears a single Chinese character inscription in the field. The back of the blade curves gently, and the handle terminates in a distinctive circular ring. The overall form is characteristic of the needle-tip knife coins produced in the State of Yan during the Eastern Zhou period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | 十 (Translation: Shi Ten) |
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| Additional information |
Yan was one of the northernmost states during the Eastern Zhou period, bordering non-Chinese peoples whose own knife-money traditions almost certainly influenced this form. The needle-tip variety is distinguished from the明 knife types by its sharper, more tapered point — a regional characteristic that helps localize production to the Chengde area, well north of the Yan core around modern Beijing.
Bronze knife money circulated alongside cloth and shell currency in a mixed commodity system; these were not struck but cast in clay or stone molds, often in gangs, which accounts for the die-to-die weight variation common across the type.