List of Chinese cash coins by inscription

Chinese cash coins were first produced during the Warring States period, and they became standardised as the Ban Liang (半兩) coinage during the Qin dynasty which followed. Over the years, cash coins have had many different inscriptions, and the Wu Zhu (五銖) inscription, which first appeared under the Han dynasty, became the most commonly used inscription and was often used by succeeding dynasties for 700 years until the introduction of the Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寳) during the Tang dynasty. This was also the first time regular script was used as all earlier cash coins exclusively used seal script. During the Song dynasty a large number of different inscriptions was used, and several different styles of Chinese calligraphy were used, even on coins with the same inscriptions produced during the same period. These cash coins are known as ''matched coins'' (對錢). This was originally pioneered by the Southern Tang.

During the Yuan dynasty, largely deprecated copper coinage was abandoned in favour of paper money. This trend continued under the Ming dynasty. Cash coins only contained the era names of the emperor during the Ming dynasty. Due to a naming taboo the term "Yuanbao" (元寶) was phased out from cash coin inscriptions as the founder of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had the word "Yuan" (元) in his name.

The trend of exclusively using the era names on currencies continued during the Qing dynasty, and all cash coins issued during this period were written in regular script.

Below is a list of obverse inscriptions that were used on Chinese cash coins organized by period and/or dynasty.Numis' Numismatic Encyclopedia
A reference list of 5000 years of Chinese coinage. (Numista)
Written on December 9, 2012 • Last edit: June 13, 2013. Retrieved: 02 August 2018.Charms.r
Coincidences of Vietnam and China cash coins legends
Francis Ng, People's Republic of China, Thuan D. Luc, United States, and Vladimir A. Belyaev, Russia March–June, 1999 Retrieved: 17 June 2017.

Warring States

During the Warring states period, the first precursors of the Chinese cash coins started to appear. These ''early round coins'' (圜錢, ''huánqián'') circulated alongside the knife and spade money. As most of these early round coins had round holes, the first "true" cash coins were the Yi Hua (一化) produced by the State of Yan. Apart from two small and presumably late coins from the State of Qin, coins from the spade money area have a round hole and refer to the ''jin'' and '' liang'' units. Those from the knife money area have a square hole and are denominated in ''hua''.

Round hole, no rims, reverses plain and flat

List of early round coins produced between 350 BC and 220 BC:

State of Yan

List of early round coins produced by the State of Yan between 300 BC and 220 BC:

State of Qi

List of early round coins produced by the State of Qi between 300 BC and 220 BC:

State of Qin

List of early round coins produced by the State of Qin between 250 BC and 220 BC:

Qin dynasty

During the Qin dynasty production of the Ban Liang cash coins continued and its weight was standardised.

Western Han dynasty

Under the Western Han dynasty the Ban Liang cash coins of the earlier Qin dynasty were retained until a series of monetary reforms replaced them first with the San Zhu and then the Wu Zhu, the latter would be continued to be manufactured for around 700 years.

Xin dynasty

After Wang Mang usurped the throne he instituted various monetary reforms, in AD 9 he retained the Wu Zhu cash coins but introduced two new types of Knife money, between AD 9 and 10 he introduced an impossibly complex system involving tortoise shell, cowries, gold, silver, six round copper coins, and a reintroduction of the spade money in ten denominations. In AD 14, all these tokens were abolished, and replaced by another type of spade coin and new round coins.

List of cash coins issued by the Xin dynasty:

Chengjia

The rebel Gongsun Shu cast iron cash coins based on the Wu Zhu's of the Western Han dynasty in his rebel state of Chengjia in present-day Sichuan:

Eastern Han dynasty

The Eastern Han dynasty only cast Wu Zhu (五銖) cash coins.

Kingdom of Khotan

List of cash coins produced by the Kingdom of Khotan:

Three Kingdoms

List of Chinese cash coins issued during Three Kingdoms period:

Kingdom of Kucha

List of cash coins produced by the Kingdom of Kucha:

Jin dynasty and Sixteen Kingdoms

List of Chinese cash coins produced during the Jin dynasty and Sixteen Kingdoms period:

Northern and Southern dynasties

List of cash coins produced by the Northern and Southern dynasties:

Sui dynasty

The Sui dynasty only cast Wu Zhu (五銖) cash coins.

Tang dynasty

List of cash coins issued by the Tang dynasty:

Local issues

List of local issue cash coins of the Tang dynasty:

Yan dynasty

List of cash coins issued by the Great Yan dynasty during the An Lushan Rebellion:

Uyghur Khaganate

The Uyghur Khaganate manufactured a cash coin with an Old Uyghur inscription under the reign of Boquq Khagan. A later cash coin is known to have been cast by the Uyghurs but it is not known when it was manufactured.

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Later Liang dynasty

List of cash coins produced by the Later Liang dynasty (907–923):

Later Tang dynasty

List of cash coins produced by the Later Tang dynasty (923–936):

Later Jin dynasty (936–947)

List of cash coins produced by the Later Jin dynasty (936–947):

Later Han dynasty

List of cash coins produced by the Later Han dynasty (948–951):

Later Zhou dynasty

List of cash coins produced by the Later Zhou dynasty (951–960):

Former Shu

List of cash coins attributed to the Former Shu Kingdom (907–925):

Kingdom of Min

List of cash coins attributed to the Kingdom of Min (909–945):

Kingdom of Chu

List of cash coins attributed to the Kingdom of Chu (907–951):

Later Shu

Cash coins produced by the Later Shu (926–965) include:

Southern Tang Kingdom

Cash coins manufactured by the Southern Tang Kingdom (937–975) include:

Southern Han Kingdom

The cash coins produced by the Southern Han dynasty were:

Crude lead coins

Crude lead cash coins attributed to the Southern Han/Chu area (900–971):

There is a very great variety of such coins; some have crescents on the reverse. The Kai character sometimes looks like yong (). Characters and legends often reversed because the incompetent workmen had not mastered the art of engraving in negative to make the moulds. Some specimens have meaningless characters.

Cash coins with hybrid inscriptions from this same area:

These cash coins are typical of the hybrid inscriptions formed by combinations of inappropriate characters. They also have series numbers on the reverse. Note that the radical "" is missing from this Wu Zhu (五朱) coin. One variant of the Wu Wu (五五) coin has the Xin dynasty inscription Huo Quan (貨泉) on its reverse.

You Zhou Autonomous Region

The following cash coins were produced in the You Zhou Autonomous region (which enjoyed virtual independence from the rest of the empire) between 900 and 914:

Liao dynasty

Liao dynasty coins (like some contemporary Song dynasty coins) can be read top-right-bottom-left (clockwise), but unlike the Song's coinage never appeared top-bottom-right-left. Liao dynasty era cash coins have appeared in both Chinese and Khitan scripts, but the latter can more accurately be described as a type of Chinese numismatic charms as they weren't meant for circulation.

List of cash coins produced by the Khitan-led Liao dynasty:

Northern Song dynasty

The cash coins of the Song dynasty are notable in the aspect that many cash coins of the same era that use the same inscription and have the same nominal value come in multiple Chinese calligraphic fonts. Many Emperors of the Song dynasty personally wrote the calligraphy to be inscribed on the cash coin. There are generally three scripts used on Song dynasty era cash coins which include Regular script, Seal script, and Running hand script/Grass script. The reading order of Song dynasty era cash coins exist in top-bottom-right-left and top-right-bottom-left orders.

List of cash coins produced by the Northern Song dynasty:

Sui ethnic minority during the Northern Song dynasty

In 2004 a coin produced by the Sui people of Guizhou was discovered dating to the Northern Song dynasty most likely produced between 1008 and 1016, this coin had the inscription ''dà zhōng xiáng fú'' (大中祥符) on one side and the word "wealth" written in Sui script on the other side, as this is the only known coin produced by the Sui people it established that they don't have a numismatic tradition like the Han Chinese have.

Great Shu Kingdom

In the year 993 a group of tea farmers and landless tenant farmers under the leadership if Wang Xiaobo rebelled against the Northern Song dynasty, in the year 994 after Wang Xiaobo died his brother-in-law Li Shun proclaimed himself to be the "King of the Great Shu Kingdom" (大蜀王, ''dà shǔ wáng'') in Chengdu after he captured the city ("Shu" being an archaic name for Sichuan). Li Shun was defeated and killed in the year 995. During his period he used the reign era and produced cash coins with this "Yingyun" (應運, ''yìng yùn'') inscription while after his death his former subordinates used the Yinggan (應感) inscription.

List of cash coins issued by the Great Shu Kingdom:

Southern Song dynasty

Under the Southern Song dynasty it became customary to add the date of issue on the reverse of the coin and as copper shortages and phenomena known as "currency famines" (錢荒) plagued the land both iron cash coins and paper money (in the form of Jiaozi, Guanzi, and Huizi notes) became more common leading to a decline of the production of bronze coinage.

List of cash coins produced by the Southern Song dynasty:

The Southern Song dynasty General Liu Guangshi (劉光世) also cast special cash coins with the inscription " Zhaona Xinbao" (招納信寶) to recruit Jin soldiers and allow them to defect to the Song Army, however these weren't meant for circulation.

Northern Liao dynasty

A number of cash coins were reported to have the reign titles of Northern Liao dynasty emperors, however as no historical records mention them the authenticity of these coins has been called into question.

List of cash coins presumably issued by the Khitan Northern Liao dynasty:

Western Liao dynasty (Qara Khitai)

In November 2008, October 2010, and February 2011 three specimens of cash coins produced by the Western Liao were unearthed in Kyrgyzstan