Period：Warring States period (475-221 BCE)
Measurements: Upper wide 3.2 cm, Lower wide 3.1 cm, Length 5.6 cm, Thickness 3.1 cm
Provenance: Unearthed at Zhenghankai Pharmaceutical Factory of Xinzheng, Henan, 1983

Of a rough flat rectangular form, it was made of limestone, polished smooth, the inscription of 17 words in three columns was carved in the central part on the obverse side, and the words were orderly arranged. Based on the inscription, it is presumably the mold for impressing an inscription on the weapons in the 18th year of King Huanhui of Han reign period during the Warring States period.

Taking stone for making the mold is probably for the consideration of the duration and repetition of the mold. There is a square dent at the place of the first character at the beginning of the inscription, and another similar dent in the lower part of the second row, the survived movable fonts were discovered in the dents. Whereby the inscription mold not only can mass reproduce pottery molds bearing the identical inscription, but also can substitute the single character mold freely.

The discovery of the artifact substantiates that the employment of “movable font mold” in the process of the inscription casting technique on bronzes and freely use of the textual copying technique prior to Qin dynasty, indicating that the movable type printing technology and products had emerged at the time.