Box containing gold and silver coins, from set of funerary offerings

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This box of coins, bought from a funerary goods supplier in Singapore, is from a boxed set of paper and cardboard offerings for a man. Representing symbolic possessions for the afterlife, they include various forms of currency, for bribes.

This cellophane-wrapped cardboard presentation box contains gold and silver 'coins', wrapped in gold and silver paper. Two coins are visible outside the box.

These symbolic possessions are burned in a night-time Daoist funerary ceremony, several weeks after the deceased's cremation. It is a widespread contemporary tradition in south-east Asia. The cardboard items are burned to ensure a comfortable afterlife.

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• Online ID: 000-100-104-917-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  K.1999.1174
• Date: 1999
  
• Material: Card, multicoloured; card, silver; card, gold; decorated
  Box / coin
  
• Dimensions: 32 mm H x 84 mm L x 74 mm W
  
• What: Box / coin
  
• Subject: Paper offering
  
• Who:
• Where: Singapore
  
• Event:
• Description: Multicoloured card box containing coins, with Chinese figures and characters, part of paper offerings for a man, which would be burnt at graveside as offering for ancestors: Singapore, 1999
  
• References:
• Translations:
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