Bronze Token, 2 Buddhas, 4 Characters - Any Info Welcome

I have a token which I cannot identify. Bought with a bundle of Qing coins but unsure of age. Can you help?

Bronze(?), 33.5mm diam., 2.5-5mm variable depth (very high relief), 18.12gms.

Obverse: narrow raised rim, plain edge; to left, in very high relief, a standing Boddhisattva(?) supported by lotus; to right, in very high relief, a seated Buddha with halo, supported by lotus; lotus stems below; nothing clearly visible in upper area.

Reverse: thick raised rim, off centre, plain edge; four Chinese characters at N, E, S, W (? unsure of reading order). I do not have access to dictionaries and cannot easily translate. Help with translation appreciated.

Pierced: square opening with raised border, rough casting.

Comment: possible traces of silver plating visible in recesses of obverse but may be white salts produced by weathering of bronze.

Help requested: any suggestions on identifying this token gratefully received. Also, any information about how these tokens were (are) used would be very welcome too. I love objects that 'tell a story' and this object clearly has a story to tell and I am curious to know what that story might be.

Many thanks for your interest.

I found nothing in Primal Trek

Цитата: "Frenchlover"​I found nothing in Primal Trek

​Thank you for your efforts - appreciated!

The search goes on...

I googled chinese coins with two images of bhudda and found a pdf document about Kaniskas Bhudda coins from this web site. Journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de The images they show are not your token but maybe you can contact them somehow and ask what it is. The bhudda images have the halo that yours has. My wife says it is a medal of some sort, phonetically she says dong bee.

coin from Western Xia, 1200AD
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/844636105100394778/
https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2007/01/tangut-coins.html

Цитата: "jane6301"​coin from Western Xia, 1200AD
​https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/844636105100394778/
​https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2007/01/tangut-coins.html
​

​Nice find !
There are other references on the web for Taizon, 4th era Chunhua (淳化; 990–994) temple coins

Dear All who have responded to my request for help thus far - thank you very sincerely. You have an amazing fund of knowledge and provided fantastic links. I have read the online content you highlighted and am now looking out to buy some reference books for in depth education. It is wonderful to be able to see the historical, cultural and religious context and begin to know more about who created this charm and why.

I will leave this question open for a while longer just in order to allow as many as possible to join the very interesting discussion. It will be very useful to create a mini archive of links to information around this topic. I suspect others will get as much enjoyment as I have from following the links provided and learning about charms and amulets. You know, I think I will start looking out for these and collecting them as happily as I do coins!

Цитата: "ThePoet"​I googled chinese coins with two images of bhudda and found a pdf document about Kaniskas Bhudda coins from this web site. Journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de The images they show are not your token but maybe you can contact them somehow and ask what it is. The bhudda images have the halo that yours has. My wife says it is a medal of some sort, phonetically she says dong bee.

Many thanks for this detailed reply.

​I read this article on Kaniskas Buddha and Kushan king iconography (is that the one you meant?) which suggests that the royal image on Kushan coins (rigid frontal stance, trousers, flared riding jacket etc) and the representation of Buddha (also typically shown in frontal but not always so rigid) influenced each other. This in turn could have helped the design of my amulet with the standing figure a distant echo of Kushan kings passed through various cultural filters and given a Chinese twist. I find it quite a reasonable thesis. I have all sorts of coins that were clearly inspired by Macedonian coins with images of Alexander the Great but which in India or Central Asia become increasingly transformed through different cultural filters until they are almost unintelligible as portraits of rulers unless placed in historical sequence when it suddenly becomes obvious that the squiggles and blotches on the coin are a face and an echo of Alexander.

By coincidence, I just bought a Kushan coin on eBay this week. If I post the image then you can compare the stance and clothing of the standing king on the coin with the standing Buddha on the amulet who, unusually, appears to be wearing perhaps trousers and jacket(?) and not the typical flowing robes (which the seated Buddha does wear). The article I mentioned goes into more detail but sets out a case for cross-cultural influence that you can maybe intuit from the two images? The amulet is using a very simplified, intensified visual language which was perhaps derived in part from the coinage of Kushan (an area that is now Iran/Pakistan). Perhaps trade along the Silk Road helped to spread this cultural influence to China? I collect Silk Road coins so that idea appeals to me :-)

Personally, I find this kind of thing fascinating. Thank you for alerting me to this!

Цитата: "jane6301"​coin from Western Xia, 1200AD
​https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/844636105100394778/
​https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2007/01/tangut-coins.html
​

​Thank you very much for these links. It looks like my coin is Song or imitates Song very closely.

The Tangut coins look very interesting. I will try to find out more about those.

Solve one mystery, another takes its place ;-)

Цитата: "Frenchlover"​

Цитата: "jane6301"​coin from Western Xia, 1200AD
​​https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/844636105100394778/
​​https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2007/01/tangut-coins.html
​​

​​Nice find !
​There are other references on the web for Taizon, 4th era Chunhua (淳化; 990–994) temple coins

​Thank you for all this help!

These look very like my amulet but they all have reverse characters that imitate coins (reign name, tong/yuan bao) but my amulet does not thus less coin-like than these examples although certainly from the same sort of context.

I think I need to do some translation work if I can find online dictionary I can use for this. My own dictionaries are too basic. Most online resources are naturally focused on modern language and everyday vocabulary so if this is e.g. a quotation from a Sutra it will be hard to translate for someone with my limited abilities. I guess I have to roll up my sleeves, do the donkey work, and start with the radicals and stroke order and see what I come up with. Will try this weekend when I have more free time.

You might write to Gary Ashkenazy the owner of the website primaltrek

Here's an article on your coin, check it out. Interesting

https://news.artron.net/20201222/n1041705.html

Цитата: "Frenchlover"​You might write to Gary Ashkenazy the owner of the website primaltrek

​Thank you, I will certainly try that, giving him a link to this fascinating discussion, and asking his comments.

I enjoyed exploring primaltrek. I am going to start actively collecting tokens now - I used to ignore them as less interesting than coins, just 'good luck' symbols and nothing more informative, but I now realise I was very, very wrong.

Older but wiser? Well, certainly older ;-)

Цитата: "jane6301"​Here's an article on your coin, check it out. Interesting
​
​https://news.artron.net/20201222/n1041705.html

​Excellent link - and fascinating discussion. This Two Buddha coin is rarer, from a poorly understood culture, and obviously more important to scholarship than I imagined. I think it probably belongs in a museum so as many people as possible can enjoy it. I live in England so I will contact a curator at British Museum and see if they want it. Not that I want to part with it but I must not be selfish.

Meanwhile, I enjoyed the phrase used by the author of the article: "let the 'dragons and phoenixes' continue their enquiry without negativity to arrive at truth about this artefact and the culture which created it" (I paraphrase).

That blesses our discussion!

Dragon or Phoenix? Either way, very flattering. I think you all deserve this honour. I am more plodding. My zodiac animal is an ox. We just quietly plod along .. except when we stampede, of course :-)

Цитата: "BettyCoins"​

Цитата: "Frenchlover"​You might write to Gary Ashkenazy the owner of the website primaltrek

​​Thank you, I will certainly try that, giving him a link to this fascinating discussion, and asking his comments.
​
​I enjoyed exploring primaltrek. I am going to start actively collecting tokens now - I used to ignore them as less interesting than coins, just 'good luck' symbols and nothing more informative, but I now realise I was very, very wrong.
​
​Older but wiser? Well, certainly older ;-)

I found this from Mr Ashkenazy https://primaltrek.com/blog/2011/08/30/liao-dynasty-charm/​

Very interesting - this coin combines so many cultural influences: Liao, Chinese, Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism. It has opened my eyes to history I knew very little about before. I am very glad I asked for information - I just joined Numista and felt shy about using the forum but it was a good decision, I think :-)