The list of coin hoards in China () lists significant

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

hoard A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...

s of coins, other types of coinages (e.g.

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 ...

s) or objects related to coins discovered in

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 ...

(the People's Republic of China in

Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

, Hong Kong,

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

, and the

Free area of the Republic of China The free area of the Republic of China, also known as the "Taiwan Area of the Republic of China", "Tai-Min Area (Taiwan and Fujian)" or simply the "Taiwan Area", is a term used by the government of the Republic of China (ROC) to refer to ...

, e.g.

Taiwan 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 nort ...

). The

history of Chinese currency The history of Chinese currency spans more than 3000 years. Currency of some type has been used in China since the Neolithic age which can be traced back to between 3000 and 4500 years ago. Cowry shells are believed to have been the earliest ...

dates back as early as the

Spring and Autumn period The Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history from approximately 770 to 476 BC (or according to some authorities until 403 BC) which corresponds roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou period. The period's name derives fr ...

(770–476 BCE), and the earliest coinages took the form of imitations of the

cowrie shells Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. The term ''porcelain'' derives from the old Italian term for the cowrie shell (''porcellana'') du ...

that were used in ceremonial exchanges. 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 ...

new forms of currency such as the

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 ...

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 ...

, and round copper-alloy coins were introduced (further reading:

Zhou dynasty coinage Chinese coinage during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods includes some of the earliest coins produced in the world. However, they were mostly not the typical round shape of modern coins. They included cowrie shells, Ant-nose coin ...

and

Ancient Chinese coinage Ancient Chinese coinage includes some of the earliest known coins. These coins, used as early as the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE), took the form of imitations of the cowrie shells that were used in ceremonial exchanges. The ...

). After unification of China under the

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first Dynasties in Chinese history, dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin (state), ...

in 221 BC the

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 ...

(半兩) cash coin became the standard coinage, under 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 ...

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 ...

(五銖) cash coins became the main currency of China until they were replaced with 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 ...

(開元通寳) during 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 ...

, after which a large number of inscriptions were used on Chinese coinages. During the late nineteenth century China started producing its own machine-struck coinages. In

Chinese culture Chinese culture () is one of the world's oldest cultures, originating thousands of years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia and is extremely diverse and varying, with customs and traditions varying grea ...

coins are often used as burial objects and it's not uncommon for coins to be discovered in tombs and graves. Occasionally foreign coins are also found in China, which were brought there through

international trade International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (see: World economy) In most countries, such trade represents a significant ...

routes such as the

silk road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

, overseas trade with foreign countries, and

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

. And because of trade with other countries large quantities of Chinese coins have also been found in neighbouring countries like Japan,

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 ...

, 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 ...

, as well as far away places like

Elcho Island Elcho Island, known to its traditional owners as Galiwin'ku (Galiwinku) is an island off the coast of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located at the southern end of the Wessel Islands group located in the East Arnhe ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, and

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

. In 2021 a paper was published about an old mint that was discovered at an archeological site in

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

Province, through radiocarbon-dating the spade money found there was attributed to have been created between 640 BCE and no later than 550 BCE making it possibly the world's oldest known mint. This means that it is possible that the earliest known coinage was invented by the Chinese and not the

Lydians The Lydians (known as ''Sparda'' to the Achaemenids, Old Persian cuneiform Wikt:𐎿𐎱𐎼𐎭, 𐎿𐎱𐎼𐎭) were Anatolians, Anatolian people living in Lydia, a region in western Anatolia, who spoke the distinctive Lydian language, an ...

as is commonly believed.

Cleaning of coins by Chinese archaeologists

As Chinese archaeologists frequently unearth ancient Chinese cash coins and other forms of historical currency at tomb sites, these unearthed bronze coinages are often severely corroded because they have been buried for hundreds or thousands of years, this sometimes means that the inscriptions on them can't be read. While archaeologists working at a site tend to do everything very slowly and do it as methodically as possible to avoid doing any damage to the buried cultural relics, this approach isn't taken with cash coins because they are often vital to date the tombs or ruins. With ancient Chinese cash coins archaeologists tend to be less concerned about their preservation and clean them to identify them. To clean bronze cash coins Chinese archaeologists will simply put them in a mild acid like vinegar to soak for a period of 2 or 3 days, after this process is done the surface dirt and some of the corrosion will be removed. The cash coins are then removed by the person doing the cleaning, and they will them scrape out any leftover corrosion in the Chinese characters by using a (common)

toothpick A toothpick is a small thin stick of wood, plastic, bamboo, metal, bone or other substance with at least one and sometimes two pointed ends to insert between teeth to remove detritus, usually after a meal. Toothpicks are also used for festive ...

. After this process is done, a

rubbing A rubbing ('' frottage'') is a reproduction of the texture of a surface created by placing a piece of paper or similar material over the subject and then rubbing the paper with something to deposit marks, most commonly charcoal or pencil but a ...

is usually made of the unearthed coins. On the contrary, it is usually said among

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 not clean their coins because the cleaning process will often lessen the coin's market value or in some cases even ruin it. Because of the high frequency of the discovery of coin hoards in China uncleaned coin hoards from other countries are frequently send to China for cleaning and assessment. For example, someone discovered a hoard of group of around 400 different 8 reales coins on the border between Mexico and the central American country of

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

. These silver coins were mostly produced by the

mint with others produced by the

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

mints, all of which contained portraits of kings Charles IV and

Ferdinand VII , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles IV of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Parma , birth_date = 14 October 1784 , birth_place = El Escorial, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Madrid, Spain , burial_plac ...

. As these coins were all too unclean to be deemed "valuable" by

coin collector 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 ...

s they were sent to a coin dealer in the

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

, People's Republic of China. Such situations are common as Chinese coin dealers have become experts in removing corrosion from coins to get them graded by numismatic experts and then be sold into the retail market.

1950s

1950s (Mainland China)

1960s

1960s (Mainland China)

1970s

1970s (Mainland China)

1972

1972 (Mainland China)

1974

1974 (Mainland China)

1977

1977 (Mainland China)

1980s

1983

1983 (Mainland China)

1984

1984 (Mainland China)

1990s

1990s (Mainland China)

1990

1990 (Mainland China)

1992

1992 (Mainland China)

1996

1996 (Mainland China)

1997

1997 (Mainland China)

1999

1999 (Mainland China)

2000s

2000

2000 (Mainland China)

2000 (Hong Kong)

2002

2002 (Mainland China)

2005

2005 (Mainland China)

2006

2006 (Mainland China)

2007

2007 (Mainland China)

2008

2008 (Mainland China)

2009

2009 (Mainland China)

2010s

2010

2010 (Mainland China)

2011

2011 (Mainland China)

2011 (Hong Kong)

2012

2012 (Mainland China)

2013

2013 (Mainland China)

2015

2015 (Mainland China)

2016

2016 (Mainland China)

2017

2017 (Mainland China)

2018

2018 (Mainland China)

2020s

2020

2020 (Mainland China)

2021

2021 (Mainland China)

Notes

References

Hoards A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...

Chinese numismatics Archaeology-related lists Treasure troves of China Coin hoards in China Lists of hoards {{DEFAULTSORT:Coin hoards in China