WARRING STATES: Ba & Shu States, AE bridge money (19.25g), 300-225 BC, Opitz p.352 (plate example), 125mm, with ends in the shape of a beast's head, holed at top as made, two tiny casting holes, with parts of the original bronze surface still visible, EF, ex Charles Opitz Collection. Though colloquially known as "bridge money", these bronze pieces are formally known only as funerary objects designed to imitate the stone chimes of the bianqing. Bridge Money pieces have now been dated to circa 306-221 BC and are accepted by many - but not all - Chinese numismatists as actual coins of Ba and Shu States during the Warring States period.
Estimate: $60-90