English: An old Chinese numismatic charm, which is 38 mm in diameter and dates to the Manchu Qing (Ch’ing) Dynasty (1644-1911) period, the reverse side of this coin charm exemplifies the special characteristics of usage of rebuses in the Mandarin Chinese language.

The reverse side of this coin amulet has what, at first (1st) glance, appears to be a haphazard collection of animals and objects displayed on a Chinese numismatic charm that are supposed to mean very little, but using the Mandarin Chinese language, as well as the richness of traditional and ancient Chinese symbolism along with the fondness of the Chinese people at the time for the rebus or “visual pun” in illustrations shows a different meaning. While the obverse inscription reads Fulu Shouxi (福祿壽喜), its reverse is more complicated.

The top of the reverse side of this Chinese numismatic charm displays a bat that is flying upside down. The Mandarin Chinese word for “bat” is fu (蝠) which is a homophonic pun with the word for “good fortune” which is pronounced as fu (福), meaning that the top inscription is identical to what the written inscription on the other (obverse) side of the Chinese numismatic charm. Though this “pun” goes even deeper than merely this homophone. This is because the Mandarin Chinese word for “upside down”, which is pronounced as dao (倒), is a homophonic pun with the word meaning “to arrive”, which is pronounced as dao (到) in the Mandarin Chinese language. Therefore, if a person were to say “the bat is upside down” in Mandarin Chinese, or fu dao (蝠倒), its implied definition would sound exactly the same as if that person had said “good fortune has arrived”, or fu dao (福到)!

Meanwhile, below the square central hole there is an image of a "deer", the Mandarin Chinese language word for "deer" is lu (鹿), which does in fact have the same pronunciation as the word found on its obverse side which stands for “salary” and is also pronounced as lu (禄) in the Mandarin Chinese language.

Meanwhile, on the right side of the square centre hole there appears to be an image of a bird. Unlike the top and bottom animals this bird does not have the same pronunciation as the corresponding Traditional Chinese character found on the obverse side of this Chinese numismatic charm, namely shou (壽 / 寿), this is the traditional Chinese symbol with the meaning of “longevity”. Meanwhile, the bird found on the right side of the reverse side of this charm is the “crane”, pronounced as he (鹤). The reason why this does indicate that it has the same meaning as "longevity" is because in traditional Chinese symbolism the crane is a symbol of longevity because it was believed to live to a very old age and also because its feathers are white. However, this bird doesn't appear to be a "crane", rather it is a "heron" or "egret", which in Mandarin Chinese is pronounced as lu (鹭), as the artist that designed this Chinese numismatic charm long ago during the reign of the Manchu Qing Dynasty made a slight mistake which goes unnoticed by most people. Despite this mistake, the “heron” or “egret”, still works in Traditional Chinese symbolism as a rebus because it shares the same pronunciation as the Mandarin Chinese language word for “salary”, or lu (禄).

The pair of birds on the left side of the square central hole are “magpies”, which in the Mandarin Chinese language is pronounced as xi qui (喜鹊). The magpie's pronunciation has the word “happiness”, or xi (喜) as part of its Mandarin Chinese name. Furthermore, as there are 2 (two) magpies standing as a pair on this charm their implied meaning is “double happiness” (囍)!