China - Charms，QING:"Cash Coin Sword" made of approximately 100 coins and likely sewn together in the Min Guo (Republic) period in the 1930-40s, the blade of the sword is sound, but some of the coins on the handle are loose due to the age of the thread, VF. Coin swords were a form of talisman used in south China to ward off evil influences, especially those inducing fever. They were made by tying together cash (the pidgin term for Chinese coins with a square hole in the middle) on to an iron rod. The coins in this sword are all Guang Xu (1875-1908) machine struck coins and the handle is made of coins from almost all coins of the Qian Long (1736-1795) to Dao Guang (1820-1850).
