Silver Plated Unit Crescent Corn Ears Contemporary Counterfeit

Contemporary counterfeits of Wang Mang's small-denomination bronzes — particularly the Yi Dao and Huo Bu series — circulated widely during the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD), a period when monetary reforms were so frequent and so poorly received that private fabrication became almost inevitable. Wang Mang overhauled the currency system at least four times in fifteen years, each reform invalidating previous coins and generating public confusion that counterfeiters exploited.

The silver plating on bronze flans was a known technique for mimicking higher-denomination pieces. That this example survives at all is largely because bronze-core fakes were buried alongside legitimate issues and treated as equivalent by their owners.