Open-work charm

Open-work charms (simplified Chinese: 镂空钱 / 玲珑钱; traditional Chinese: 鏤空錢 / 玲瓏錢; pinyin: lòu kōng qián / líng lóng qián; lit. 'hollowed out money / elegant money') are a type of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese numismatic charms characterised by irregularly shaped "holes" or "openings" between their design elements known as openwork. The design of the amulets represent yin while the holes represent yang and their general purpose was to attract good fortune and ward off evil spirits and misfortune. Unlike most other types of Chinese numismatic charms which usually tend to have square center holes if they are holed, open-work charms tend to almost exclusively have round center holes though open-work charms with square center holes are known to exist and certain thematic open-work charms that feature human-made constructions mostly told to have square holes. Another distinctive feature of open-work charms is that they are almost purely based on illustrative imagery and only a small minority of them contain legends written in hanzi (Chinese characters). While most other forms of Chinese numismatic charms are made from brass, open-work charms are predominantly made from bronze.

Japanese open-work charms (known as E-sen) tend to be inferior in quality and are easily distinguishable from the rest.

Open-work charms were primarily used by women and children and were seen to bedclothes and sedan chairs as well as hung in cupboards.

Unlike most types of other Chinese numismatic charms open-work charms do not have a large overlap with other types, but some Chinese Boy charms are also open-work charms and resemble any other "normal" open-work charms but have a statuette of a boy sitting or crouching on top of the "coin".

History

Open-work charms were originally first cast under the reign of the Han dynasty, but a large number of the ones from this era are mostly just small fractions taken from other utensils made from metal.