Carapace Money Pubblico Deposited
A name given to a variety of Chinese money, or tokens, issued in the time of the Emperor Wu Ti of the Han Dynasty (B.C. 140-86). It is de- scribed in the Ch'ien Pu T'ung Chih, a rare native work. The obverse, or upper side, resembles the back of a tortoise, with scales, while the lower side is hollow, trav- ersed by two " roads." The name is due, probably, to the shape and design of the objects themselves, rather than to the an- cient custom of using tortoise-shell in bar- ter.
For detailed information concerning types and designs, see Ramsden, in Am. Journal of Numismatics (xlv. p. 70).
- Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)