Coin-Like Charm Item Number: Edz4187 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Round, round centre hole, inner and outer rims on both sides, many characters on obverse, design on reverse; obverse has seal script characters left, design right, column of characters left and right, two columns of characters top, one column of characters bottom; trigrams and the eight characters that go with them on reverse.
A charm with a good-luck message (Larsen, David). Although charms of the same design are distributed to tourists as souvenirs at religious sites of contemporary China, these magic spells and charms were probably put to serious use in ancient society. People in need of healing or supernatural aid to turn their fortune, ask the Daoist practitioners to plead to the powerful deities, specifically the Thunder God and Taishang Laojun (Lao-tzu), on their behalf. After the ritual performance, the charm bearing the magic spell would be presented to the individual in need as an amulet.