Hello everyone, it’s Takky!! As the third-generation Hamu family member working at FamilyMart, I had my first day on the job the other day!! My head feels like it’s about to explode already, but my kind coworkers are making it manageable.
This time, it’s the second installment of that thing you see all the time but don’t really get!! Check out the previous article here↓↓
You know those things you often see in jewelry shop display windows? Their unique shape really stuck with me.
Right off the bat, this is apparently called a “Yuánbǎo.” In ancient China, gold and silver in this shape circulated as currency, and during the Yuan Dynasty, it came to be called “Yuánbǎo,” meaning “treasure of the Yuan Dynasty”… Also, the ones circulating in ancient times apparently had no central ball and were flat so they could be stacked.
The one in the image below (obviously a fake) is a more recent style, featuring a central ball and dragon patterns on the sides.
Of course, it’s not currently circulating as currency, but it’s said to be circulating as feng shui items, good luck charms, or for asset purposes. I took a quick look at some online stores, and the pure gold ones were indeed quite pricey!!
In Conclusion
This time I looked into Yuánbǎo. I expected them to be lucky charms, but it was used to a surprising discovery that they’re actually modeled after items used in the past. Modern designs are quite elaborate, so they might actually work well as decorative ornaments. Also, in Chinese-speaking regions, because these ingots resemble the shape of dumplings, there’s a custom of eating them as a lucky food on New Year’s Eve!!
It seems the Hamu-ya staff member Para’s family ate them this year.
