The History of Ancient Chinese Coins
Posted: Monday, March 09, 2009
by Henry Fong
Feng Shui Absolutely
Ancient Chinese coins have a long history dating as far back as 2000 BC when China was ruled by the
During the Shang and Western Zhou eras there were numerous types of coins that came into use. The very first of these coins were cowry money. These were originally made of shells, but substitutes became used later that were made from carved bone. The cowry was outlawed in 221 BC.
When the Warring States and Spring-Autumn dynasties came into effect, we were introduced to many new coins. Hollow-shaft spade coins are one example of this. One of the other coins that was unusually interesting looked somewhat like a knife. These very large "coins" had a hole at one end for the purposes of stringing them together. These specific coins, "The Ming", are the namesake of the famous city. The "Bu" spade coin also came from this era also. Some of the very first circular coins came from this rime frame as well.
From 221 to 207 BC the Qin dynasty ruled. Gold and bronze coins were used during this time. The first metal coins were made long before this time, however. They first started sometime around 600 to 300 BC during the Pre-Chou and Chou dynasties.
Ancient coins that are not worth much today considering how old they are, are the Pan Liang coins. They were around for at least 2000 years. Up until 1911 AD, they were still in use. The coins were made between 140 BC to 118 BC. It is a round coin with a square in the middle.
Over 220,000 strings of 1000 coins each were made during the first century of the Han dynasty. This is because minting coins was turned into a state monopoly. Casting coins in bronze started in the Western Han. This made it easy to standardize coins.
A coin much like the Pan Liang was introduced under Emperor Yuan-shou. This was called the Wu-Ch'u. The only difference between the two coins was really that the Wu-Ch'u had a rim to protect it from wear. For hundreds of years this coin was duplicated.
From 1280 to 1368 the Mongols ruled China and they, also, had their own round coin with a square in the middle. This coin was very detailed and had many designs. The coin had to be stopped from usage, though, due to people keeping them. The people were given a time frame to exchange the coins or be punished.
Ancient Chinese coins have a very long history dating back thousands of years. The coins have been very diverse. They have been made from many different types of things. Most eventually turned to a form of metal. Each coin type was intricately made to whatever the ruler at the time liked.
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