coin
A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...
of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
and
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
, used from the 4th century BC until the 20th century AD, characterised by their round outer shape and a square center hole (方穿, ''fāng chuān''). Originally cast during the
Warring States period
The Warring States period () was an era in History of China#Ancient China, ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded ...
, these coins continued to be used for the entirety of
Imperial China
The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapte ...
. The last Chinese cash coins were cast in the first year of the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
. Generally most cash coins were made from
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
or
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
alloys, with
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...
,
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
, and
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
coins occasionally used less often throughout Chinese history. Rare
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
and
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
cash coins were also produced. During most of their production, cash coins were
cast
Cast may refer to:
Music
* Cast (band), an English alternative rock band
* Cast (Mexican band), a progressive Mexican rock band
* The Cast, a Scottish musical duo: Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis
* ''Cast'', a 2012 album by Trespassers William
* ...
, but during the late Qing dynasty, machine-struck cash coins began to be made. As the cash coins produced over Chinese history were similar, thousand year old cash coins produced during the
Northern Song dynasty
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ra ...
continued to circulate as valid currency well into the early twentieth century.
In the modern era, these coins are considered to be Chinese “good luck coins”; they are hung on strings and round the necks of children, or over the beds of sick people. They hold a place in various traditional Chinese techniques, such as
Yijing
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zhou ...
divination, as well as
Traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...
, and Feng shui. Currencies based on the Chinese cash coins include the Japanese mon,
Korean mun
The ''mun'' (Hanja: ) was introduced as the main currency of Korea in 1625 and stayed in use until 1892. Prior to the ''mun'', cash coins with the inscriptions ''tongbo'' (通寶) and ''jungbo'' (重寶) and silver vases called ''ŭnbyŏng'' ...
,
Ryukyuan mon
The was the currency used in the Ryukyu Islands. The Ryukyuan monetary system was based on that of China, like those of many nations in the Sinosphere, with the ''mon'' () serving as the basic unit, just as with the Japanese '' mon'', Vietnamese ...
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
term ''cash'', referring to the coin, comes from the
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
''caixa'' which was derived from the
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
''kāsu,'' a
South India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...
n monetary unit derived from the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
silver and gold weight unit ''karsa''. The English name was used for small copper coins issued in
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
, and also came to be used for the similarly small value copper coins of China.
The English word ''
cash
In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins.
In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-imm ...
'' meaning "tangible currency" is an older, unrelated word, derived from the
Middle French
Middle French (french: moyen français) is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the 14th to the 16th century. It is a period of transition during which:
* the French language became clearly distinguished from t ...
''caisse''.
There are a variety of
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
terms for cash coins, usually descriptive and most commonly including the character ''qián'' () meaning "money". Chinese ''qián'' is also a weight-derived currency denomination in China; it is called '' mace'' in English.
Manufacture
Traditionally, Chinese cash coins were
cast
Cast may refer to:
Music
* Cast (band), an English alternative rock band
* Cast (Mexican band), a progressive Mexican rock band
* The Cast, a Scottish musical duo: Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis
* ''Cast'', a 2012 album by Trespassers William
* ...
in
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
,
brass
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...
or
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...
. In the mid-19th century, the coins were made of 3 parts copper and 2 parts lead.Roberts, Edmund. (1837) ''Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat: In the U.S. Sloop-of-war Peacock'', Harper & Brothers. Harvard University archive. No ISBN Digitized. Cast
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
coins were periodically produced but considerably more rare. Cast
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
coins are also known to exist but are extremely rare.
Early methods of casting
During the
Zhou dynasty
The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...
period, the method for casting coins consisted of first carving the individual characters of a coin together with its general outline into a mould made of either soapstone or clay. As this was done without using a prior model, early Chinese coinage tends to look very diverse, even from the same series of coins as these all were cast from different (and unrelated) moulds bearing the same inscriptions.
During the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
, in order to gain consistency in the circulating coinage, master bronze moulds were manufactured to be used as the basis for other cash moulds.
Later methods of manufacture
From the 6th century AD and later, new "mother coins" (''mǔ qián'' ) were cast as the basis for coin production. These were engraved in generally easily manipulated metals such as tin. Coins were cast in sand moulds. Fine wet sand was placed in rectangles made from pear wood, and small amounts of coal and charcoal dust were added to refine the process, acting as a
flux
Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications to physics. For transport ph ...
. The mother coins were placed on the sand, and another pear wood frame would be placed upon the mother coin. The molten metal was poured in through a separate entrance formed by placing a rod in the mould. This process would be repeated 15 times and then molten metal would be poured in. After the metal had cooled down, the "coin tree" (''qián shù'' ) was extracted from the mould (which would be destroyed due to the process). The coins would be taken off the tree and placed on long square rods to have their edges rounded off, often for hundreds of coins simultaneously. After this process, the coins were strung together and brought into circulation.
In
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
cash coins are known as ''
yeopjeon
A ''yeopjeon'' (Hangul: 엽전; Hanja: 葉錢; "leaf coin") was a Korean brass coin with a square cut out which was first issued in 1678 and continued until the final years of the Chosun Dynasty. New history of Korea - Page 516 Hyŏn-hŭi Yi, S ...
'' (葉錢, "leaf coins") because of the way that they resemble leaves on a branch when they were being cast in the mould.
From 1730 during the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
, the mother coins were no longer carved separately but derived from "ancestor coins" (''zǔ qián'' ). Eventually this resulted in greater uniformity among cast Chinese coinage from that period onwards. A single ancestor coin would be used to produce tens of thousands of mother coins; each of these in turn was used to manufacture tens of thousands of cash coins.
Machine-struck coinage
During the late Qing dynasty under the reign of the
Guangxu Emperor
The Guangxu Emperor (14 August 1871 – 14 November 1908), personal name Zaitian, was the tenth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, wi ...
in the mid 19th century the first machine-struck cash coins were produced, from 1889 a machine operated
mint
MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...
in
Guangzhou
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...
,
Guangdong province
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
opened where the majority of the machine-struck cash would be produced. Machine-made cash coins tend to be made from
brass
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...
rather than from more pure copper as cast coins often were, and later the copper content of the alloy decreased while cheaper metals like lead and tin were used in larger quantities giving the coins a yellowish tint. Another effect of the contemporary copper shortages was that the Qing government started importing Korean 5
fun
Fun is defined by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' as "Light-hearted pleasure, enjoyment, or amusement; boisterous joviality or merrymaking; entertainment".
Etymology and usage
The word ''fun'' is associated with sports, entertaining medi ...
coins and overstruck them with "10 cash".
The production of machine-struck cash coins in Qing China ran contemporary with the production of machine-struck French Indochinese
Nguyễn
Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese name, Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. wiktionary:nguyên, Nguyên (元)is a different word and surname.
By some estimates 39 perc ...
cash coins, but unlike in China milled cash coinage would eventually become popular in French Indochina with the Khải Định Thông Bảo (啓定通寶).
History
Ancient China
Chinese cash coins originated from the
barter
In trade, barter (derived from ''baretor'') is a system of exchange in which participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. Economists distingu ...
of
farm
A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...
ing tools and agricultural surpluses. Around 1200 BC, smaller token
spade
A spade is a tool primarily for digging consisting of a long handle and blade, typically with the blade narrower and flatter than the common shovel. Early spades were made of riven wood or of animal bones (often shoulder blades). After the a ...
s,
hoes
Hoe or HOE may refer to:
* Hoe (food), a Korean dish of raw fish
* Hoe (letter), a Georgian letter
* Hoe (tool), a hand tool used in gardening and farming
** Hoe-farming, a term for primitive forms of agriculture
* Backhoe, a piece of excavatin ...
, and
knives
A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced ...
began to be used to conduct smaller exchanges with the tokens later melted down to produce real farm implements. These tokens came to be used as media of exchange themselves and were known as
spade money
Spade money () was an early form of coin and commodity money used during the Zhou dynasty of China (1045 to 256 BC). Spade money was shaped like a spade or weeding tool, but the thin blade and small sizes of spade money indicate that it had no ...
and
knife money
Knife money is the name of large, cast, bronze, knife-shaped commodity money produced by various governments and kingdoms in what is now China, approximately 2500 years ago. Knife money circulated in China between 600 and 200 B.C. during the Zh ...
.Fredrik Schöth. ''Chinese Currency''. Revised and edited by Virgil Hancock. Iola, WI, USA: Krause, 1965.
Imperial China
As standard circular coins were developed following the unification of China by
Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of "king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor ( ...
, the most common formation was the round-shaped copper coin with a square or circular hole in the center, the prototypical cash. The early
Ban Liang
The Ban Liang (Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ''bàn liǎng'') was the first unified currency of the Chinese empire, first minted as early as 378 BCE and introduced by the first emperor Qin Shi Huang as China's first unified currency around 210 ...
cash coins were said to have been made in the shape of wheels like how other Ancient Chinese forms of coinage were based on agricultural tools. It is commonly believed that the early round coins of the
Warring States period
The Warring States period () was an era in History of China#Ancient China, ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded ...
resembled the ancient jade circles (璧環) which symbolised the supposed round shape of the sky, while the centre hole in this analogy is said to represent the planet earth (天圓地方). The body of these early round coins was called their "flesh" (肉) and the central hole was known as "the good" (好).
The hole enabled the coins to be strung together to create higher denominations, as was frequently done due to the coin's low value. The number of coins in a ''string of cash'' () varied over time and place but was nominally 1000. A
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
in
sycee
A sycee (;.. from Cantonese , , ). or yuanbao () was a type of gold and silver ingot currency used in imperial China from its founding under the Qin dynasty until the fall of the Qing in the 20th century. Sycee were not made by a central ban ...
form traded for a fluctuating price of approximately 1000 cash. A string of cash was divided into ten sections of 100 cash each. Local custom allowed the person who put the string together to take a cash or a few from each hundred for his effort (one, two, three or even four in some places). Thus a string of cash could contain 970 coins in one city and 990 in the next. In some places in the North of China short of currency the custom counted one cash as two and fewer than 500 cash would be exchanged for an ounce of silver. A string of cash weighed over ten pounds and was generally carried over the shoulder. (See Hosea Morse's "Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire" p. 130 ff.) Paper money equivalents known as
flying cash Flying cash (), or ''Feipiao'', was a type of paper negotiable instrument used during China's Tang dynasty invented by merchants but adopted by the state. Its name came from their ability to transfer cash across vast distances without physically tra ...
sometimes showed pictures of the appropriate number of cash coins strung together.
Following the Ban Liang cash coins the Han dynasty introduced the San Zhu cash coins which in the year 118 BC were replaced by the
Wu Zhu
Wu Zhu () is a type of Chinese cash coin produced from the Han dynasty in 118 BC when they replaced the earlier San Zhu (三銖; "Three Zhu") cash coins, which had replaced the Ban Liang (半兩) cash coins a year prior,Numis' Numismatic Ency ...
cash coins. The production of Wu Zhu cash coins was briefly suspended by
Wang Mang
Wang Mang () (c. 45 – 6 October 23 CE), courtesy name Jujun (), was the founder and the only Emperor of China, emperor of the short-lived Chinese Xin dynasty. He was originally an official and consort kin of the Han dynasty and later ...
during the
Xin dynasty
The Xin dynasty (; ), also known as Xin Mang () in Chinese historiography, was a short-lived Chinese imperial dynasty which lasted from 9 to 23 AD, established by the Han dynasty consort kin Wang Mang, who usurped the throne of the Emperor Ping o ...
but after the reestablishment of the Han dynasty, the production of Wu Zhu cash coins resumed, and continued to be manufactured long after the fall of the Eastern Han dynasty for another 500 years. Minting was definitively ended in 618 with the establishment of the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
. Wu Zhu cash coins were cast from 118 BC to 618 AD having a span of 736 years, which is the longest for any coin in
human history
Human history, also called world history, is the narrative of humanity's past. It is understood and studied through anthropology, archaeology, genetics, and linguistics. Since the invention of writing, human history has been studied throug ...
. The Tang dynasty introduced the
Kaiyuan Tongbao
The Kaiyuan Tongbao (), sometimes romanised as ''Kai Yuan Tong Bao'' or using the archaic Wade-Giles spelling ''K'ai Yuan T'ung Pao'', was a Tang dynasty cash coin that was produced from 621 under the reign of Emperor Gaozu and remained in prod ...
, which would influence the inscriptions of cash coins, both inside and outside of China, minted from this period onwards.
The
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
ns,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese,
Ryukyuans
The Ryukyuan people ( ryu, 琉球民族 (るーちゅーみんずく), Ruuchuu minzuku or ryu, どぅーちゅーみんずく, Duuchuu minzuku, label=none, ja, 琉球民族/りゅうきゅうみんぞく, Ryūkyū minzoku, also Lewchewan or L ...
, and
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
ese all cast their own copper cash in the latter part of the second millennium similar to those used by China.
Chinese cash coins were usually made from
copper-alloy
Copper alloys are metal alloys that have copper as their principal component. They have high resistance against corrosion. The best known traditional types are bronze, where tin is a significant addition, and brass, using zinc instead. Both of t ...
s throughout most of Chinese history, before 1505 they were typically made from
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
and from 1505 onwards they were mostly made from
brass
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...
.
Chinese historian
Peng Xinwei
Peng Xinwei 彭信威 (P'eng Hsin-wei) (1907–1967) was a Chinese economic historian, and author of ''A Monetary History of China''.
Life
Peng was born in Yantian, Xixiang, Jiangxi province, in 1907. After studying in Japan, he became a banker ...
stated that in the year 1900 traditional cast copper-alloy cash coins only made up 17.78% of the total Chinese currency stock, privately-produced banknotes made up only 3%, and foreign trade dollars circulating in China (which mostly included the silver
Mexican peso
The Mexican peso (Currency symbol, symbol: $; ISO 4217, code: MXN) is the currency of Mexico. Modern peso and dollar currencies have a common origin in the 16th–19th century Spanish dollar, most continuing to use dollar sign, its sign, "$".
...
) made up 25% of the total Chinese currency stock by the 1900s. The context of traditional Chinese cash coins in the Chinese economy during the 1900s and its late stage in the monetary history of China is comparable to that of
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
's tiered currency systems used prior to the steam-powered mints, struck coinage, and territorial nation-state currencies between the 13th and 18th century.
Helen Dunstan
Helen may refer to:
People
* Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world
* Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress
* Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
Places
* Helen, G ...
argues that the late-Imperial Chinese polity was much more preoccupied with maintaining national grain reserves and making the price of grain affordable to the Chinese people and the attention of the government of the Qing dynasty to the exchange rate of copper and silver would have to be viewed in this light.
The last Chinese cash coins were struck, not cast, during the reigns of the
Qing
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...
Xuantong Emperor
Aisin-Gioro Puyi (; 7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967), courtesy name Yaozhi (曜之), was the last emperor of China as the eleventh and final Qing dynasty monarch. He became emperor at the age of two in 1908, but was forced to abdicate on 1 ...
s shortly before the fall of the Empire in 1911, though even after the fall of the Qing dynasty production briefly continued under the Republic of China.
Cash coins after the fall of the empire
After the fall of the Qing empire, local production of cash coins continued, including the "Min Guo Tong Bao" (民國通寶) coins in 1912, but were phased out in favour of the new Yuan-based coins. During
Yuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai (; 16 September 1859 – 6 June 1916) was a Chinese military and government official who rose to power during the late Qing dynasty and eventually ended the Qing dynasty rule of China in 1912, later becoming the Emperor of China. H ...
's brief attempt at monarchy as the
Empire of China
The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapte ...
, cash coins were minted as part of the "Hong Xiang Tong Bao" (洪憲通寶) series in 1916 but not circulated. The coin continued to be used unofficially in China until the mid-20th century.
Vietnamese cash
Vietnamese cash ( ; chữ Nôm: ; french: sapèque) is a cast round coin with a square hole that was an official currency of Vietnam from the Đinh dynasty in 970 until the Nguyễn dynasty in 1945, and remained in circulation in North Vietnam u ...
cash coins in Indonesia
The cash coins of Indonesia ( id, Kepeng; ban, Pis Bolong; jv, Picis, , or ) was a historical currency in Indonesia based on Chinese imperial coinage during the Tang dynasty era (dynasty based in Mainland China). It was introduced by the Chine ...
circulated in
Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
until 1970 and are still used for most
Hindu rituals
Samskara (IAST: , sometimes spelled ''samskara'') are sacraments in Hinduism and other Indian religions, described in ancient Sanskrit texts, as well as a concept in the karma theory of Indian philosophies. The word literally means "putting to ...
today.
These coins are:
Trial coins with ''Fujian Sheng Zao'' (), ''Min Sheng Tong Yong'' (), and a ''Fujian Tong Bao'' with a reverse inscribed with ''Er Wen Sheng Zao'' () were also cast, but never circulated.
Inscriptions and denominations
The earliest standard denominations of cash coins were theoretically based on the weight of the coin and were as follows:
*100 grains of
millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...
= 1 ''zhu'' ()
*24 ''zhū'' = 1 tael ()
The most common denominations were the ½ tael () and the 5 zhū () coins, the latter being the most common coin denomination in Chinese history.
From the Zhou to the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
the word ''quán'' (泉) was commonly used to refer to cash coins however this was not a real monetary unit but did appear in the inscriptions of several cash coins, in the
State of Yan
Yan (; Old Chinese pronunciation: ''*'') was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. Its capital was Ji (later known as Yanjing and now Beijing). During the Warring States period, the court was also moved to another capital at Xiadu ...
their cash coins were denominated in either ''huà'' (化) or ''huò'' (貨) with the Chinese character "化" being a simplified form of "貨" without the "貝". This character was often mistaken for ''dāo'' (刀) due to the fact that this early version of the character resembles it and
knife money
Knife money is the name of large, cast, bronze, knife-shaped commodity money produced by various governments and kingdoms in what is now China, approximately 2500 years ago. Knife money circulated in China between 600 and 200 B.C. during the Zh ...
was used in Yan, however the origin of the term ''huò'' as a currency unit is because it means "to exchange" and could be interpreted as exchanging money for
goods and services
Goods are items that are usually (but not always) tangible, such as pens, physical books, salt, apples, and hats. Services are activities provided by other people, who include architects, suppliers, contractors, technologists, teachers, doctor ...
. From the Jin until the Tang dynasty the term ''wén'' (文), however the term wén which is often translated into English as ''
cash
In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins.
In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-imm ...
'' kept being used as an accounting unit for banknotes and later on larger copper coins to measure how many cash coins it was worth.
In AD 666, a new system of weights came into effect with the ''zhū'' being replaced by the mace (''qián'') with 10 mace equal to one tael. The mace denominations were so ubiquitous that the Chinese word ''qián'' came to be used as the generic word for money. Other traditional
Chinese units of measurement
Chinese units of measurement, known in Chinese as the ''shìzhì'' ("market system"), are the traditional units of measurement of the Han Chinese. Although Chinese numerals have been decimal (base-10) since the Shang dynasty, Shang, several Chine ...
, smaller subdivisions of the tael, were also used as currency denominations for cash coins.
A great majority of cash coins had no denomination specifically designated but instead carried the issuing emperor's
era name
A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin ''regnum'' meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year o ...
and a phrases such as ''tongbao'' () or ''zhongbao'' ().
Coins of the
Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
(1644–1911) generally carried the
era name
A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin ''regnum'' meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year o ...
of the emperor and ''tongbao'' on the obverse and the mint location where the coins were cast in
Manchu
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...
and Chinese on the reverse.
Cash coins and superstitions
In imperial China cash coins were used for
fortune-telling
Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical w ...
, this would be done by first lighting incense to the effigy of a Chinese deity, and then placing three cash coins into a tortoise shell. The process involved the fortune teller counting how many coins lay on their obverse or reverse sides, and how these coins scratched the shell, this process was repeated three times. After this a very intricate system based on the position of the coins with
Bagua
The bagua or pakua (八卦) are a set of eight symbols that originated in China, used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. Each consists of three lines, each lin ...
, and the five elements was used for divination, the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
Kai Yuan Tong Bao (開元通寶) coin was the most preferred for this usage. Contemporary Chinese
intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...
found the usage of cash coins for fortune-telling to be superior to any other methods. Other than fortune-telling cash coins were also believed to hold "curing powers" in
traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...
, one method of using cash coins for "medicine" was boiling them in water and letting the patient consume that water. Other than that they were also used as "medical tools" particularly in the '' guāshā'' (刮痧) method, which was used against diseases like
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
; this required the healer to scrape the patient's skin with cash coins as they believed that the pathogen remained stagnant underneath the patient's skin in a process called "coining". Though in general any cash coin could be used in traditional Chinese medicine, the ''Kai Yuan Tong Bao'' was most preferred, and preferences were given for some specific coins for certain ailments E.g. the Zhou Yuan Tong Bao (周元通寶) was used against
miscarriage
Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion and pregnancy loss, is the death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks of gestation is defined by ESHRE as biochemical lo ...
s.
In modern times though no longer issued by any government, cash coins are believed to be symbols of good fortune and are considered
good luck charm
In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...
s, for this reason some businesses hang Chinese cash coins as store signs for good luck and to allegedly avoid misfortune similar to how images of
Caishen
Caishen () is the mythological figure worshipped in the Chinese folk religion and Taoism. He has been identified with many historical figures, viewed as his embodied forms, among whom Zhao Gongming (, Wade–Giles: ''Chao Kung-ming''; also known ...
(the Chinese god of wealth) are used. Cash coins also hold a central place in '' feng shui'' where they are associated an abundance of resources, personal wealth, money, and prosperity. Cash coins are featured on the logos of the
Bank of China
The Bank of China (BOC; ) is a Chinese majority state-owned commercial bank headquartered in Beijing and the fourth largest bank in the world.
The Bank of China was founded in 1912 by the Republican government as China's central bank, repl ...
, and the
China Construction Bank
China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB) is one of the " big four" banks in China. In 2015, CCB was the 2nd largest bank in the world by market capitalization and 6th largest company in the world. The bank has approximately 13,629 domestic bra ...
.
A superstition involving Chinese cash coins specifically based on their inscriptions are "the five emperor coins" (), this refers to a set of Chinese cash coins issued by the first five emperors of the Qing dynasty (following their conquest of China in 1644). These cash coins are believed to have the power to ensure prosperity and to give protection from
evil spirits
A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, anime, ...
because during the reign of these five emperors China was powerful and prosperous. Furthermore, the term "five emperors" (五帝) also alludes to the "
Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors
The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were two groups of mythological rulers in ancient north China. The Three Sovereigns supposedly lived long before The Five Emperors, who have been assigned dates in a period from 3162 BC to 2070 BC. Today ...
". A full set of "five emperor coins" consists of Chinese cash coins with the inscriptions Shunzhi Tongbao (順治通寶), Kangxi Tongbao (康熙通寶), Yongzheng Tongbao (雍正通寶), Qianlong Tongbao (乾隆通寶), and Jiaqing Tongbao (嘉慶通寶). These inscriptions are further seen as auspicious because "Shunzhi" (順治) translates into
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
"to rule smoothly", "Kangxi" (康熙) translates into English as "Healthy and prosperous", "Yongzheng" (雍正) translates into "harmony and upright", the first Chinese character "qián" (乾) from "Qianlong" (乾隆) is a Mandarin Chinese homophonic pun with "qián" (錢) meaning "money", and "Jiaqing" (嘉慶) translates into English as "good and celebrate". Because of an archeological hoard of where Song dynasty cash coins were found in a Ming dynasty period tomb, it has been speculated by some archeologists that people during the Ming dynasty might have held similar beliefs with Song dynasty cash coins.
Another type of superstition involving cash coins is to have them buried with a corpse for good luck as well as to provide protection to the grave or tomb from evil spirits, although this tradition doesn't exclusively involve cash coins as early 20th century silver coins bearing the face of
Yuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai (; 16 September 1859 – 6 June 1916) was a Chinese military and government official who rose to power during the late Qing dynasty and eventually ended the Qing dynasty rule of China in 1912, later becoming the Emperor of China. H ...
, known outside of China as "Fatman" dollars (袁大頭, ''yuán dà tóu''), have also been used for this purpose.
In
Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
it is believed that dolls made from cash coins (or ''Uang kèpèng'') strung together by cotton threads would guarantee that all the organs and body parts of the deceased will be in the right place during their
reincarnation
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...
. The
Tlingit people
The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),
of the
United States of America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
used Chinese cash coins for their body armour which they believed would protect them from knife attacks and bullets. One contemporary Russian account from a battle with the Tlingits in 1792 states "bullets were useless against the Tlingit armour", however this would've more likely be attributed to the inaccuracy of contemporary Russian smoothbore muskets than the body armour and the Chinese cash coins sewn into the Tlingit armour. Other than for military purposes the Tlingit used Chinese cash coins on ceremonial robes.
Stringing of cash coins
The square hole in the middle of cash coins served to allow for them to be strung together in strings of 1000 cash coins and valued at 1 tael of silver (but variants of regional standards as low as 500 cash coins per string also existed), 1000 coins strung together were referred to as a ''chuàn'' (串) or ''diào'' (吊) and were accepted by traders and merchants per string because counting the individual coins would cost too much time. Because the strings were often accepted without being checked for damaged coins and coins of inferior quality and copper-alloys these strings would eventually be accepted based on their nominal value rather than their weight, this system is comparable to that of a
fiat currency
Fiat money (from la, fiat, "let it be done") is a type of currency that is not backed by any commodity such as gold or silver. It is typically designated by the issuing government to be legal tender. Throughout history, fiat money was sometime ...
. Because the counting and stringing together of cash coins was such a time consuming task people known as ''qiánpù'' (錢鋪) would string cash coins together in strings of 100 coins of which ten would form a single ''chuàn''. The ''qiánpù'' would receive payment for their services in the form of taking a few cash coins from every string they composed, because of this a ''chuàn'' was more likely to consist of 990 coins rather than 1000 coins and because the profession of ''qiánpù'' had become a universally accepted practice these ''chuàns'' were often still nominally valued at 1000 cash coins. The number of coins in a single string was locally determined as in one district a string could consist of 980 cash coins, while in another district this could only be 965 cash coins, these numbers were based on the local salaries of the ''qiánpù''. During the Qing dynasty the ''qiánpù'' would often search for older and rarer coins to sell these to
coin collectors
Coin collecting is the collecting of coins or other forms of minted legal tender.
Coins of interest to collectors often include those that were in circulation for only a brief time, coins with mint errors, and especially beautiful or historic ...
at a higher price.
Prior to the Song dynasty strings of cash coins were called ''guàn'' (貫), ''suǒ'' (索), or ''mín'' (緡), while during the Ming and Qing dynasties they were called ''chuàn'' (串) or ''diào'' (吊).
Cash coins with flower (rosette) holes
Chinese cash coins with flower (rosette) holes () are a type of Chinese cash coin with an octagonal hole as opposed to a square one, they have a very long history possibly dating back to the first Ban Liang cash coins cast under the
State of Qin
Qin () was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. Traditionally dated to 897 BC, it took its origin in a reconquest of western lands previously lost to the Rong; its position at the western edge of Chinese civilization permitted ex ...
or the Han dynasty.
Although Chinese cash coins kept their round shape with a square hole from the Warring States period until the early years of the Republic of China, under the various regimes that ruled during the long
history of China
The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapte ...
the square hole in the middle experienced only minor modifications such as being slightly bigger, smaller, more elongated, shaped incorrectly, or sometimes being filled with a bit of excess metal left over from the casting process. However, for over 2000 years Chinese cash coins mostly kept their distinctive shape. During this period a relatively small number of Chinese cash coins were minted with what are termed "flower holes", "chestnut holes" or "rosette holes", these holes were octagonal but resembled the shape of flowers. If the shape of these holes were only hexagonal then they were referred to as "turtle shell holes", in some occidental sources they may be called "star holes" because they resemble
star
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
s. The exact origin and purpose of these variant holes is currently unknown but several hypotheses have been proposed by Chinese scholars. The traditional explanation for why these "flower holes" started appearing was accidental shifts of two halves of a prototype cash coin in clay, bronze, and stone moulds, these shifts would then produce the shape of the square hole to resemble multiple square holes placed on top of each other when the metal was poured in. A common criticism of this hypothesis is that if this were to happen then the inscription on the coin would also have to appear distorted, as well as any other marks that appeared on these cash coins, however this was not the case and the "flower holes" are equally distinctive as the square ones.
Under
Wang Mang
Wang Mang () (c. 45 – 6 October 23 CE), courtesy name Jujun (), was the founder and the only Emperor of China, emperor of the short-lived Chinese Xin dynasty. He was originally an official and consort kin of the Han dynasty and later ...
's
Xin dynasty
The Xin dynasty (; ), also known as Xin Mang () in Chinese historiography, was a short-lived Chinese imperial dynasty which lasted from 9 to 23 AD, established by the Han dynasty consort kin Wang Mang, who usurped the throne of the Emperor Ping o ...
other than cash coins with "flower holes" also
spade money
Spade money () was an early form of coin and commodity money used during the Zhou dynasty of China (1045 to 256 BC). Spade money was shaped like a spade or weeding tool, but the thin blade and small sizes of spade money indicate that it had no ...
with "flower holes" were cast. Under the reign of the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
the number of Chinese cash coins with "flower holes" started to increase and circulated throughout the entire empire, concurrently the casting of Chinese cash coins was switched from using clay moulds to using bronze ones, however the earliest
Kaiyuan Tongbao
The Kaiyuan Tongbao (), sometimes romanised as ''Kai Yuan Tong Bao'' or using the archaic Wade-Giles spelling ''K'ai Yuan T'ung Pao'', was a Tang dynasty cash coin that was produced from 621 under the reign of Emperor Gaozu and remained in prod ...
cash coins were still cast with clay moulds so the mould type alone cannot explain why these "flower holes" became increasingly common. As
mother coin
Mother coins (), alternatively known as ''seed coins'' or ''matrix coins'', were coins used during the early stages of the casting process to produce Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Ryukyuan, and Vietnamese cash coins. As cash coins were produced u ...
s (母錢) were used to cast these coins which were always exact it indicates that these "flower holes" were added post-casting, the largest amount of known cash coins with "flower holes" have very prominent octagonal holes in the middle on both sides of the coin, comparatively their legends are usually as defined as they appear on "normal cash coins", for this reason the hypothesis that they were accidentally added is disproven. All sides of these coins (either octagonal with "flower holes" or hexagonal with "turtle shell holes") are clearly contained inside of the cash coin's central rim. After the casting of cash coins had shifted to using bronze moulds these coins would appear as if they were branches of a "coin tree" (錢樹) where they had to be broken off, all excess copper-alloy had to be manually chiseled or filed off from the central holes. It is suspected that the "flower holes" and "turtle shell holes" were produced during chiseling process, presumably while the employee of the manufacturing mint was doing the final details of the cash coins. As manually filing and chiseling cash coins was both an additional expense as well as time-consuming it is likely that the creation of "flower holes" and "turtle shell holes" was ordered by the manufacturer. However, as the quality of Tang and Song dynasty coinages was quite high it's unlikely that the supervisors would have allowed for a large number of these variant coins to be produced, pass quality control or be allowed to enter circulation. Cash coins with "flower holes" were produced in significant numbers by the
Northern Song dynasty
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ra ...
,
Southern Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
Liao dynasty
The Liao dynasty (; Khitan: ''Mos Jælud''; ), also known as the Khitan Empire (Khitan: ''Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur''), officially the Great Liao (), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 916 and 1125, ruled by the Yelü ...
. Until 1180 the Northern Song dynasty produced "matched cash coins" (對錢, ''duì qián'') which were cash coins with identical inscriptions written in different styles of
Chinese calligraphy
Chinese calligraphy is the writing of Chinese characters as an art form, combining purely visual art and interpretation of the literary meaning. This type of expression has been widely practiced in China and has been generally held in high est ...
, after these coins were superseded by cash coins that included the year of production on their reverse sides the practice of casting cash coins with "flower holes" also seems to have drastically decreased. Due to this one hypothesis states that "flower holes" were added to Chinese cash coins to signify a year or period of the year or possibly a location where a cash coin was produced.
It is also possible that these "flower holes" and "turtle shell holes" functioned as Chinese numismatic charms, this is because the number 8 (八, ''bā'') is a Homophonic puns in Mandarin Chinese, homophonic pun in Mandarin Chinese with "to prosper" or "wealth" (發財, ''fā cái''), while the number 6 (六, ''liù'') is a Mandarin Chinese homophonic pun with "prosperity" (祿, ''lù''). Concurrently the Mandarin Chinese word for as "chestnut" (栗子, ''lì zi'') as in the term "chestnut holes" could be a homophonic pun in Mandarin Chinese with the phrase "establishing sons" (立子, ''lì zi''), which expresses a desire to produce male offspring.
The practice of creating cash coins with "flower holes" and "turtle shell holes" was also adopted by Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, however cash coins with these features are extremely rare in these countries despite using the same production techniques which further indicates that their addition was wholly intentional.
Red cash coins
"Red cash coins" (Traditional Chinese: 紅錢) are the cash coins produced in Xinjiang under Qing rule following Dzungar–Qing Wars, the conquest of the Dzungar Khanate by the Manchus in 1757. While in Northern Xinjiang the monetary system of China proper was adopted in Southern Xinjiang where the ''Pūl (coin), pūl'' (ﭘول) coins of Dzungaria circulated earlier the pūl-system was continued but some of the old Dzungar pūl coins were melted down to make Qianlong Tongbao (乾隆通寶) cash coins, as pūl coins were usually around 98%
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
they tended to be very red in colour which gave the cash coins based on the pūl coins the nickname "red cash coins". In July 1759 General Zhao Hui petitioned to the Qianlong Emperor to reclaim the old pūl coins and using them as scrap for the production of new cash coins, these "red cash coins" had an official exchange rate with the pūl coins that remained in circulation of 1 "red cash" for 2 pūl coins. As Zhao Hui wanted the new can coins to have the same weight as pūl coins they weighed 2 ''qián'' and had both a higher width and thickness than regular cash coins. Red cash coins are also generally marked by their rather crude craftsmanship when compared to the cash coins of China proper. The edges of these coins are often not filed completely and the casting technique is often inaccurate or the inscriptions on them seemed deformed.
At the introduction of red cash system in Southern Xinjiang in 1760, the exchange rate of standard cash (or "yellow cash") and "red cash" was set at 10 standard cash coins were worth 1 "red cash coin". During two or three subsequent years this exchange rate was decreased to 5:1. When used in the Northern or Eastern circuits of Xinjiang, the "red cash coins" were considered equal in value as the standard cash coins that circulated there. The areas where the Dzungar pūls had most circulated such as Yarkant County, Yarkant, Hotan, and Kashgar were the sites of mints operated by the Qing government, as the official mint of the Dzungar Khanate was in the city of Yarkent the Qing used this mint to cast the new "red cash coins" and new mints were established in Aksu City, Aksu and Yining City, Ili. As the Jiaqing Emperor ordered that 10% of all cash coins cast in Xinjiang should bear the inscription "Qianlong Tongbao" the majority of "red cash coins" with this inscription were actually produced after the Qianlong era as their production lasted until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 making many of them hard to attribute.
Non-copper-alloy cash coins
During most of their history the cast cash coins of China were predominantly made from
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
or other
copper-alloy
Copper alloys are metal alloys that have copper as their principal component. They have high resistance against corrosion. The best known traditional types are bronze, where tin is a significant addition, and brass, using zinc instead. Both of t ...
s such as
brass
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...
. However, other materials had at different times in Chinese history also been used for the manufacture of cash coins such as
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...
(see Tieqian),
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
,
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
, and
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
. While silver and gold were also used for other currencies in Chinese history, as it has in most other cultures around the world, but also cowry shells, clay, bone, jade, iron, lead, tin, and bamboo (see Bamboo tally) were also materials that have been used for money at various points in Chinese history. Iron cash coins and lead cash coins were often used in cases when there was an insufficient supply of copper. 2 iron cash coins were usually worth only a single bronze cash coin. Because of oxidation, iron cash coins are rarely in very good condition today, especially if they were excavated.
In some cases the usage of certain types of materials to produce cash coins are only more recently discovered due to the lack of historical records mentioning them. For example, it has only been since more recent times that the fact that the Song dynasty had attempted to produce lead cash coins been discovered. Because of this almost no Chinese coin catalogues list their existence while they have mentioned in works such as the ''Meng Guohua: Guilin Faxian Qian Xi Hejin Qian. Zhongguo Qianbi No. 3. 1994 (Vol. 46.)'' which deal with the topic. Lead cash coins have only been produced at a few times in the monetary history of china, mainly during the Five dynasties and Ten kingdoms period. Because of how soft lead is, most lead cash coins that are found today tend to be very worn.
Non-copper-alloy metals used by time period
This table reflects current knowledge, but future archaeological research might reveal that other materials were used for cash coins in other periods of Chinese history.
Other terms relating to cash coins
* Mother coins (母錢), are model cash coins used in the casting process from which other cash coins were produced.
* Mother coin#Ancestor coins, Ancestor coins (祖錢), are model cash coins introduced in the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
used in the casting process from which other mother coins were produced.
* Coin trees (錢樹), are the "tree-shaped" result of the casting process off of which the cash coins were taken to later be strung together.
* Huanqian (圜錢), or Huanjin (圜金), refers to the round coins issued during the
Warring States period
The Warring States period () was an era in History of China#Ancient China, ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded ...
and the Qin dynasty. This term was used to differentiate these coins from other shapes of coins, such as the spade coins and knife coins.
* Gongshi Nuqian (), or "female coins", is a term used to refer to
Wu Zhu
Wu Zhu () is a type of Chinese cash coin produced from the Han dynasty in 118 BC when they replaced the earlier San Zhu (三銖; "Three Zhu") cash coins, which had replaced the Ban Liang (半兩) cash coins a year prior,Numis' Numismatic Ency ...
cash coins without an outer rim.
* Jiaoqian (), or "corner coins", is a term used to refer to Wu Zhu cash coins with four oblique lines that extend outward from each corner of the square centre hole to the rim of the reverse side of the cash coin. In Mandarin Chinese, these cash coins are often referred to as ''si chu'' (四出). The word ''si'' (四) translates as "four" and the word ''chu'' (出) means "going out".
* Niqian () refers to cash coins made out of clay, when the government of the You Zhou Autonomous Region (900–914) confiscated all bronze cash coins and buried them in a cave, because of this the people had to rely on cash coins made out of clay while later bad quality iron cash coins were issued.
* Tuqian (土錢), a name given to clay cash coins commonly found in tombs that were used as Chinese burial money, burial coins for the afterlife.
* Matched cash coins (對錢, ''duì qián'', 對品, ''duì pǐn'', 和合錢, ''hé hé qián''), is a term introduced during the Southern Tang and started being extensively used during the
Northern Song dynasty
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ra ...
where cash coins with the same weight, inscription, and denomination was simultaneously cast in different scripts such as regular script and seal script while all having the same legend.
* Yushu Qian (), or "royally inscribed currency", is a term used to describe Song dynasty era cash coins which, according to legend, were inscribed by the Emperor of China himself. For example the Chunhua Yuanbao (淳化元寶) is said to have been inscribed by Emperor Taizong of Song.
* Bingqian (餅錢, "biscuit coins" or "cake coins"), is a term used by modern China, Chinese and Taiwanese
coin collectors
Coin collecting is the collecting of coins or other forms of minted legal tender.
Coins of interest to collectors often include those that were in circulation for only a brief time, coins with mint errors, and especially beautiful or historic ...
to refer to cash coins that have extremely broad outer rims and are extremely thick and heavy. These cash coins were produced under Emperor Zhenzong of Song, Emperor Zhenzong during the Song dynasty and bear the inscriptions Xianping Yuanbao (咸平元寶) and Xiangfu Yuanbao (祥符元寶), respectively. Bingqian can range from being 26.5 millimeters in diameter and weighing 10.68 grams to being 66 millimeters in diameter.
* Si jue (四訣), four lines radiating outward from the four corners of the square centre hole which may or may not extend entirely to the rim of the reverse of a cash coin, these lines were exclusively included on some Song dynasty cash coins.
* Gong Yang Qian (), variously translated as "temple coins" or "offering coins", were a type of alternative currency that resembled Chinese cash coins that circulated during the Mongol Empire, Mongol Yuan dynasty period. The Yuan dynasty emperors (or ''khagans'') were supports of Buddhism, which meant that the Buddhist temples tended to receive official government support. During this period the larger Buddhist temples in China were able to cast bronze Buddha statues and make other religious artifacts which also meant that it was easy for them to also cast these special kind of cash coins which could then be used by faithful adherents of Buddhism as offerings to Buddha. In general, these temple coins tend to be much smaller and crudely made compared to earlier and later Chinese cash coins. However, because these temple coins, due to their copper content, still had intrinsic value, they would sometimes serve as an alternative currency in China, this would particularly happen during difficult economic times when the Jiaochao paper money issued by the Mongol government was no longer considered to be of any value.
* Zhiqian (制錢, "Standard cash coins"), a term used the Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasties to refer to copper-alloy cash coins produced by the imperial mints according to the standards which were fixed by the central government.
* Siqian (私錢) or Sizhuqian (私鑄錢), refers to cash coins produced by private mints or forgers.
* Jiuqian (舊錢), a term used during the Ming and Qing dynasties to refer to Song dynasty era cash coins that were still in circulation.
* Yangqian (样錢, "Model coin"), also known as ''Beiqian'' (北錢, "Northern coin"), is a term used during the Ming dynasty to refer to full weight (1 ''qián'') and fine quality which were delivered to Beijing as seigniorage revenue.
* Fengqian (俸錢, "Stipend coin"), is a term used during the Ming dynasty to refer to second rate cash coins that had a weight of 0.9 ''qián'' and were distributed through the salaries of government officials and emoluments.
* Shangqian (賞錢, "Tip money"), is a term used during the Ming dynasty to refer to cash coins that were small, thin, and very fragile (comparable to ''Sizhuqian'') that were used to pay the wages of employees of the imperial government (including the mint workers themselves) and was one of the most commonly circulating types of cash coins during the Ming dynasty among the general population.
* Kai Lu Qian (), or "commemorative cash coins", were a special type of cash coin produced to commemorate the opening of a mint or a new furnace. The largest ever recorded of these cash coins, and also the largest and heaviest ancient Chinese coin ever found, was a giant Jiajing Tongbao (嘉靖通寶) cash coin produced for the opening of a mint in Dongchuan District, Dongchuan, Sichuan. This Kai Lu cash coin has a diameter of 57.8 centimeters (or 22.8 inches), a thickness of 3.7 centimeters (or 1.5 inches), and it has a weight of 41.5 kilograms (or 91.5 pounds). On June 27, 1990, the Quality Inspection Section of the Huize County Lead and Zinc Mine Archives (), where the cash coin is on display, conducted a sampling and analysis of the coin, conducted an assay and concluded that the coin had a composition of 90. 81% copper, 0. 584% aluminum, 0. 532% zinc, and 3% iron. In the year 2002 it was added to the Guinness World Records as the largest coin.
* Woqian (倭錢, "Japanese cash"), refers to Japanese mon (currency), Japanese cash coins that entered China during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the Imperial Chinese court eventually prohibited them. These are sometimes discovered in China among Chinese cash coins.
* Guangbei qian (光背錢), is a Qing dynasty term that refers to Shunzhi Tongbao (順治通寳) cash coins with no reverse inscriptions including Qing dynasty coinage#Mint marks, mint marks.
* Yiliqian (一厘錢, "one-Cash (unit), cash coin"), referred to as ''Zheyinqian'' (折銀錢, "conversion coins") by Chinese numismatists, is a term used to designate Shunzhi Tongbao cash coins produced from the year 1653 that had the inscription "一厘" on the left to the square centre hole on their reverse sides, this inscription indicates that the nominal value of the cash coin corresponded to 0.001 tael of silver (1 li (釐 or 厘, "cash"), as a weight). This would mean that the official government conversation rate was set as ''zhé yín yì lí qián'' (折銀一厘錢), which was proof that silver was of continuing importance as a currency of account. Similar cash coins with this reverse inscription were also being produced by some rulers of the Southern Ming dynasty.
* Xiaoqian (小錢, "small cash") or Qingqian (輕錢), is a Qing dynasty era term that refers to lightweight cash coins created from 1702 that had a weight of 0.7 ''qián'', these coins all disappeared from circulation around the middle of the 18th century.
* Zhongqian (重錢, "full-weight cash" or "heavy cash"), refers to cash coins produced from 1702 with a weight of 1.4 ''qián'' and were of a
* Huangqian (黃錢, "yellow cash"), a term used to refer to early Qing dynasty era cash coins that didn't contain any tin.
* Qingqian (青錢, "green cash"), is a term used to refer to Qing dynasty era cash coins produced from 1740 where 2% tin was added to the Copper-alloy, alloy, however despite being called "green cash" it looked indistinguishable from "yellow cash".
* Xiaoping Qian (小平錢) refers to the smallest and most common cash coins, they usually had a diameter of about 2.4–2.5 cm and weights between 3–4 grams.
* Daqian (大錢, "Big money"), cash coins with a nominal value of 4 Chinese cash (currency unit), wén or higher. This term was used in the Qing dynasty from the Xianfeng Emperor, Xianfeng period onwards.
* Kuping Qian (庫平錢), refers to a unit that was part of the official standardisation of the Chinese monetary system during the late Qing period by the imperial treasury to create a decimal system in which 1 Kuping Qian was of a Kuping
* Dongqian (東錢, "Eastern cash"), an exchange rate used for cash coins in the Fengtian province, where only 160 cash coins make up a string.
* Jingqian (京錢, "metropolitan cash") or Zhongqian (中錢),“Silver, Copper, Rice, and Debt: Monetary Policy and Office Selling in China during the Taiping Rebellion,” in Money in Asia (1200–1900): Small Currencies in Social and Political Contexts, ed. by Jane Kate Leonard and Ulrich Theobald, Leiden: Brill, 2015, 343–395. an exchange rate used in the capital city of Beijing, the Jingqian system allowed a nominal debt of 2 ''Chinese cash (currency unit), wén'' (文) could be paid out using only one physical cash coins instead of two, in this system a string of Beijing cash coins (吊) required only 500 cash coins as opposed to the majority of China which used 1000 cash coins for a string (串).
* Guqian (古錢, "ancient cash") or Guquan (古泉), refers to cash coins (real or fake) produced by Dynasties in Chinese history, previous dynasties, these at certain times were considered to be legal tender if the current Chinese government didn't produce enough cash coins to meet market demand.Niv Horesh (2014) ''Chinese Money in Global Context: historic junctures between 600 BCE and 2012''. Stanford University Press, Stanford.
* Tieqian (鐡錢) refers to cash coins made from iron.Peng Zeyi (彭澤益). ‘1853–1868 nian de Zhongguo tonghuo pengzhang 1853–1868 (年的中國通貨膨脹)’, in Peng Zeyi (彭澤益) (ed.), Shijiu shiji houbanqi Zhongguo de caizheng yu jingji (十九世紀后半期中國的財政與經濟) (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1983). Page 88. (in Mandarin Chinese).
* Five Metal Value Ten coins are Chinese cash coins that were issued by the Ministry of Revenue (imperial China), Ministry of Revenue made from an alloy of tin, iron, copper, silver, and gold. They contain the obverse inscriptions Tongzhi Zhongbao (同治重寶) or Guangxu Zhongbao (光緒重寶) and are all based on 10 ''wén'' Daqian. These special cash coins notably contain the mint marks of Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yining City, Ili, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang, and Zhili despite no Daqian from these periods being produced at any of these mints. These special cash coins were created to serve as a Chinese new year, new year's present.
* Tianxia Taiping coins (天下太平錢) are Chinese cash coins that were used for presentation at the Palace of Ancestral Worship. They were primarily used during the holidays, such as the birthdays of the reigning emperor or empress as well during as the Chinese New Year. These coins contain the reign titles Qianlong Emperor, Qianlong, Jiaqing Emperor, Jiaqing, Daoguang Emperor, Daoguang, Xianfeng Emperor, Xianfeng, Tongzhi Emperor, Tongzhi, Guangxu, or Puyi, Xuantong with "Tongbao" (通寶), or rarely "Zhongbao" (重寶), in their obverse inscription and the reverse inscription "Tianxia Taiping" (天下太平). These special cash coins were wrapped inside of a piece of rectangular cloth and every time that an Emperor died (or "ascended to his ancestors") the coins were replaced with new reign titles. Some Tianxia Taiping cash coins were manufactured by the Ministry of Revenue (imperial China), Ministry of Revenue while others were produced by private mints. Palace issues tend to be larger than circulation cash coins with the same inscriptions.
See also
* History of Chinese currency
* Jiaozi (currency), the earliest paper money
* Economic history of China (pre-1911)
* Economic history of China (1912–1949)
Currencies based on the Chinese cash
* Brunei pitis
* Cash coins in Indonesia
* Hong Kong one-mil coin
* Japanese mon (currency)
*
Korean mun
The ''mun'' (Hanja: ) was introduced as the main currency of Korea in 1625 and stayed in use until 1892. Prior to the ''mun'', cash coins with the inscriptions ''tongbo'' (通寶) and ''jungbo'' (重寶) and silver vases called ''ŭnbyŏng'' ...
* Kucha coinage
*
Ryukyuan mon
The was the currency used in the Ryukyu Islands. The Ryukyuan monetary system was based on that of China, like those of many nations in the Sinosphere, with the ''mon'' () serving as the basic unit, just as with the Japanese '' mon'', Vietnamese ...
(Commons:Images contributed by John Ferguson (Sportstune.com), also hosted on Wikimedia Commons).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cash (Chinese Coin)
Cash coins
Coins of ancient China
Medieval currencies
Modern obsolete currencies
Chinese numismatics