Cash (Chinese coin)
Cash | ||
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Tâi-lô tâng-pè | |
Transcriptions | |
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Romanization | Dōsen |
The cash or qian was a type of
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
Terminology
The English term cash, referring to the coin, comes from the
The English word cash meaning "tangible currency" is an older, unrelated word, derived from the Middle French caisse, meaning "money box."[3]
There are a variety of Chinese terms for cash coins, usually descriptive and most commonly including the character qián (Chinese: 錢; pinyin: qián) meaning "money". Chinese qián is also a weight-derived currency denomination in China; it is called mace in English.
History

Ancient China
Chinese cash coins originated from the barter of farming tools and agricultural surpluses.[4] Around 1200 BCE, smaller token spades, hoes, and knives 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 and knife money.[5][6]
Imperial China
Qin to Sui dynasties
As standard circular coins were developed following the unification of China by
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 (simplified Chinese: 一贯钱; traditional Chinese: 一貫錢; pinyin: yīguànqián) varied over time and place but was nominally 1000. A tael of pure silver in sycee form traded for a fluctuating price of approximately 1000 cash.[5] 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 sometimes showed pictures of the appropriate number of cash coins strung together.[9]
Following the Ban Liang cash coins the Han dynasty introduced the San Zhu cash coins which in the year 118 BCE were replaced by the Wu Zhu cash coins.[10][11][12] The production of Wu Zhu cash coins was briefly suspended by Wang Mang during the Xin dynasty 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. Wu Zhu cash coins were cast from 118 BCE to 618 CE having a span of 736 years, which is the longest for any coin in human history.[13]
Tang to Qing dynasties
The Tang dynasty introduced the Kaiyuan Tongbao,[14] which would influence the inscriptions of cash coins, both inside and outside of China, minted from this period onwards.[15][16][17]
The Koreans,[18] Japanese,[19] Ryukyuans,[20] and Vietnamese[21][22] all cast their own copper cash in the latter part of the second millennium similar to those used by China.[23]
Chinese cash coins were usually made from
Chinese historian Peng Xinwei 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) made up 25% of the total Chinese currency stock by the 1900s.[25][26] 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's tiered currency systems used prior to the steam-powered mints, struck coinage, and territorial nation-state currencies between the 13th and 18th century.[27][28] Helen Dunstan 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.[29]
The last Chinese cash coins were struck, not cast, during the reigns of the
Cash coins after the fall of the empire

After the fall of the Qing empire, local production of cash coins continued, including the "
Manufacture
Traditionally, Chinese cash coins were cast in copper, brass or iron. In the mid-19th century, the coins were made of 3 parts copper and 2 parts lead.[38][where?][page needed] Cast silver coins were periodically produced but considerably more rare. Cast gold coins are also known to exist but are extremely rare.
Early methods of casting
During the Zhou dynasty 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.[39] The casting process in these early moulds worked in a way that two mould-sections were placed together, then the core of the mould was placed into the top area, then the bronze smiths would pour molten metal into an opening that was formed by a cavity that was located in its centre.[40][41][42] 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, to gain consistency in the circulating coinage, master bronze moulds were manufactured to be used as the basis for other cash moulds.[43]
Later methods of manufacture

From the 6th century CE and later, new "mother coins" (mǔ qián 母錢) 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
In Korea cash coins are known as yeopjeon (葉錢, "leaf coins") because of the way that they resemble leaves on a branch when they were being cast in the mould.[44]
From 1730 during the Qing dynasty, the mother coins were no longer carved separately but derived from "ancestor coins" (zǔ qián 祖錢). 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.[45][46][47]
Machine-struck coinage

During the late Qing dynasty under the reign of the Guangxu Emperor in the mid 19th century the first machine-struck cash coins were produced, from 1889 a machine operated mint in Guangzhou, Guangdong opened where the majority of the machine-struck cash would be produced. Machine-made cash coins tend to be made from brass 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 coins and overstruck them with "10 cash".[48][49]
The production of machine-struck cash coins in Qing China ran contemporary with the production of machine-struck French Indochinese Nguyễn 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).[50][51]
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 = 1 zhu (Chinese: 銖; pinyin: zhū)
- 24 zhū = 1 tael (Chinese: 兩; pinyin: liǎng)
The most common denominations were the
From the
In 666 CE, a new system of weights came into effect with the zhū being replaced by the mace (qián) with 10 mace equal to one tael.[55] The mace denominations were so ubiquitous that the Chinese word qián came to be used as the generic word for money.[5] Other traditional Chinese units of measurement, 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 and a phrases such as tongbao (Chinese: 通寶; pinyin: tōngbǎo; lit. 'general currency') or zhongbao (Chinese: 重寶; pinyin: zhòngbǎo; lit. 'heavy currency').
Coins of the
Styles of calligraphy on cash coins
List of calligraphic styles and scripts on Chinese cash coins:[57][58][59]
Chinese calligraphy | Non-Chinese scripts | ||
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Calligraphic style | Example image | Script | Example image |
Seal script (篆書) | ![]() |
Kuśiññe script | ![]() |
Clerical script (隸書) | ![]() |
Old Uyghur alphabet | ![]() |
Regular script (楷書) | ![]() |
Khitan large script | |
Running script (行書) |
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Tangut script | |
Grass script (草書) |
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'Phags-pa script |
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Slender gold script (瘦金體) | ![]() |
Manchu script |
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Jade tendon seal script (玉筋篆) | ![]() |
Arabic script | ![]() |
Cash coins and superstitions
In imperial China cash coins were used for
Cash coins were also believed to hold "curing powers" in
In traditional Chinese medicine, several
In modern times though no longer issued by any government, cash coins are believed to be symbols of good fortune and are considered
A common superstitious belief involving Chinese cash coins specifically based on their inscriptions are "the five emperor coins" (traditional Chinese: 五帝錢; simplified Chinese: 五帝钱; pinyin: wǔ dì qián), this refers to a set of Chinese cash coins issued by the first five
Another type of supernatural belief 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, known outside of China as "Fatman" dollars (袁大頭, yuán dà tóu), have also been used for this purpose.[73]
In
In North America, the
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),
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).[88][89]
Cash coins with flower (rosette) holes

Chinese cash coins with flower (rosette) holes (traditional Chinese: 花穿錢; simplified Chinese: 花穿钱; pinyin: huā chuān qián) 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 or the Han dynasty.[90][91][92][93][94]
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 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.[90] However, for over 2000 years Chinese cash coins mostly kept their distinctive shape.[90] 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.[95] If the shape of these holes were only hexagonal then they were referred to as "turtle shell hole coins" (龜甲穿錢), in some occidental sources they may be called "star holes" because they resemble stars.[90][96] The exact origin and purpose of these variant holes is currently unknown but several hypotheses have been proposed by Chinese scholars.[90] 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.[90] 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.[90]
Under
During the Ming dynasty period "flower holes" were still (rarely) recoded in Hongwu Tongbao (洪武通寶) and Yongle Tongbao (永樂通寶) cash coins, with the Chongzhen Tongbao (崇禎通寶) series being the last recorded known cash coins to have "flower holes".[90]
It is also possible that these "flower holes" and "turtle shell holes" functioned as
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.[90]
Red cash coins
"Red cash coins" (
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
Non-copper-alloy cash coins
During most of their history the cast cash coins of China were predominantly made from
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.
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.[98]
Non-copper-alloy cash coins by time period | ||
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Material used | Period(s) | Example image |
Iron cash coins | Western Xia dynasty, Ming dynasty, and Qing dynasty . |
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Lead cash coins | Northern Song dynasty , and Qing dynasty. |
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Clay cash coins | Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period[103] | ![]() |
Silver cash coins | Ming dynasty | |
Gold cash coins | Southern Song dynasty . |
Usage among overseas Chinese
It is generally thought that cash coins among the early
"The coins used in playing fan t'an are those of the present dynasty, such as are now current in China and imported expressly for gambling purposes in large quantities."
- – The Gambling and Games of the Chinese in America by Stuart Culin (1891).
"played with Chinese cash, or brass coin, of which it takes in China one thousand to make a dollar. The pieces, however, are used, not as money, but as dice or counters"
- – 1858
San Francisco Bulletinarticle.
Archeologists have also used Chinese cash coins found outside China to date various historical Chinese settlements.
According to a 1979 article by Glenn J. Farris published in the journal of the
Scholar Marjorie Kleiger Akin notes that it would have been impossible for Chinese cash coins to be used as money by overseas Chinese communities because "No object can circulate as money if it has a substantially greater value when removed from circulation and used for other purposes. The variety of uses for wen in North America and the numbers of the coins needed for some purposes have been underestimated in the past."[107] Akin warned that archeologists should be more careful to describe unearthed cash coins in the United States as not underestimate how many cash coins were needed in the creation of various objects and that more attention should be given to determine whether cash coins were used as buttons, as basket decorations, as talismans, or joined together in red threads as misinterpreting their usage as pocket change may cause them to overlook other potential uses.[107] She also notes that not all uses are identifiable and that careful examination of a pharmacy site might evidence their usage in traditional forms of medicine.[107] Akin further cited a number of interviews with elderly Chinese residents of Locke who all claimed that they have never heard of anyone using cash coins as a type of currency there.[107]
In a 1987 article entitled Chinese Coins Down Under: Their Role on the New Zealand Goldfields published in the Australian Journal of Historical Archaeology, researchers Neville A. Ritchie (regional archaeologist, Waikato, Department of Conservation) and Graham Stuart Park (director of the Auckland Institute and Museum) disputed the role of Chinese cash coins as money objects in any overseas Chinese community in the world.[119] Ritchie and Park stated that their usage as a currency is "highly improbable" after analysing both archaeological and historical sources.[119] They noted that Chinese cash coins among overseas communities were principally imported for gambling purposes, most notably as gaming counters.[119]
Scholar Marjorie Kleiger Akin noted that Chinese cash coins are "a dramatic example of artifacts whose primary function changed completely when they changed cultural context", noting that rather than being used as currency, they started to fulfil a large number of non-monetary functions among the Chinese people living in the western regions of the North American continent.
Chinese cash coins were also commonly reported to be used by Chinese Americans in a number of gambling games, such as Fan-Tan.[121] While the cash coins were being used as counters or markers, all bets were exclusively made using American money.[121] Though their usage as markers or counters wasn't exclusively done so in betting games, as children used them in a similar manner in a variety of the game hopscotch, played in San Francisco as late as 1935.[107]
Cash coins were also reported to have been used in decorative manners, for example 19th and early 20th century Chinese American mineworkers often strung them as keychains for either talismanic or sentimental reasons.[107]
While there's no evidence for historical medicinal uses of Chinese cash coins among the overseas Chinese communities living in the United States, today their usage in the
Scholar Julia G. Costello notes in the 2008 article The Luck of Third Street: Archaeology of Chinatown, San Bernardino, California that Asian cash coins are associated with one of 5 different uses: for gaming, as medicine, as talismans, as decorations, and in trade with Native Americans.[108] She also notes that Vietnamese cash coins were unlikely to be traded or used as decorative items because the Chinese regarded them as "dirt money" due to their dark colour, which they perceived as unattractive.[108]
General glossary of Chinese cash coins
Casting process
- Mother coins (母錢), are model cash coins used in the casting process from which other cash coins were produced.
- Ancestor coins (祖錢), are model cash coins introduced in the Qing dynasty 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.
- Mao (卯), a casting period, a pre-determined batch of cash coins to be cast.[122]
Counterfeit and privately-issued cash coins
- Counterfeit cash coins (traditional Chinese: 惡錢; simplified Chinese: 恶钱; pinyin: È qián; lit. 'Bad money') refers to illegally produced cash coins, often of inferior quality.dynasties in Chinese history.[6] The introduction and circulation of counterfeit cash coins onto the market caused inflation, which hindered economic development and caused a series of social problems throughout history.[6][124] These illegally produced cash coins typically had reduced weights or were adulterated with lower-cost metals (such as iron, lead, etc.), reducing the copper content in the alloys relative to genuine cash coins.[6]
- Siqian (私錢) or Sizhuqian (私鑄錢), refers to cash coins produced by private mints or forgers.[125]
Design elements
- Crescent, a curved mark often found on the reverse side of cash coins, these are referred to as "moons" (月), further reading: "Han dynasty coinage § Dots, crescents, circles, numbers, counting rods, Chinese characters, and other symbols appearing on coins".[122]
- Dot, a round mark often found on the reverse side of cash coins, these are referred to as "stars" (星).[122]
- Dot and crescent, a combination of the above, these are known as a "pregnant star" (孕星).[122]
- Huachuanqian (花穿錢), cash coins with octagonal holes, known as "flower (rosette) hole coins".[126]
- Guijiachuan qian (龜甲穿錢), cash coins with hexagonal holes, known as "turtle shell hole coins".[126]
- Gongshi Nuqian (traditional Chinese: 公式女錢; simplified Chinese: 公式女钱; pinyin: gōng shì nǚ qián), or "female coins", is a term used to refer to Wu Zhu cash coins without an outer rim.[127]
- Jiaoqian (traditional Chinese: 角錢; simplified Chinese: 角钱; pinyin: jiǎo qián), 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.[127] 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".[127]
- Yushu Qian (traditional Chinese: 禦書錢; simplified Chinese: 御书钱; pinyin: yù shū qián), 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.[128][129] For example the Chunhua Yuanbao (淳化元寶) is said to have been inscribed by Emperor Taizong of Song.[128]
- 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.[130]
Inscriptions
- Liang (兩) and Zhu (銖), weight measures used as the main obverse inscriptions on ancient Chinese cash coins until the introduction of the Bao (寳), meaning "precious" or "treasure", inscription in the year 621.[131]
- Tongbao (通寳), literally "circulating treasure",[b] is an inscription first introduced with the Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寳) series of cash coins during the Tang dynasty period in 621 and was used as the most common inscription on cash coins for more than 1300 years and occupies a dominant position in the monetary history of China.[132][133] Prior to the introduction of the Kaiyuan Tongbao, cash coins typically featured the weight of the coin as (a part of) their inscription, but as cash coins were now valued based on government regulation rather than their weight as a form of commodity money this Inscription superseded the prior Wu Zhu (五銖) weight-based Inscription.[132]
- Yuanbao (元寳), literally "inaugural treasure", "first treasure", "primal treasure", "original treasure", or "round treasure", originated as a misreading of the Inscription Kaiyuan Tongbao where the inscription was read clockwise as "Kaitong Yuanbao" (開通元寳).[132][134] Due to a naming taboo the term "Yuanbao" was phased out from cash coin inscriptions due to a naming taboo as the founder of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had the word "Yuan" (元) in his name. The term "Yuanbao" is also an alternative name for boat-shaped sycees.[135]
- Zhongbao (重寳), literally "heavy treasure", an inscription typically used on high denomination cash coins, initially introduced in 758 with the Qianyuan Zhongbao (乾元重寳) nominally valued at 10 ordinary cash coins.[136]
- Northern Song dynasty.[131] From the Ming dynasty onwards, there was only a single nianhao used per reign, so the nianhao is often used synonymously as the name of the Emperor, for example Yongle Emperor, Jiajing Emperor, Kangxi Emperor, Jiaqing Emperor, Etc.[131] Hence, only a single inscription was typically used during their reigns (Yongle Tongbao, Jiajing Tongbao, Kangxi Tongbao, Jiaqing Tongbao, Etc.).[131]
- Matched cash coins (對錢, duì qián, 對品, duì pǐn, 和合錢, hé hé qián), is a term introduced during the Northern Song dynasty where cash coins with the same weight, inscription, and denomination was simultaneously cast in different scripts such as regular script and seal scriptwhile all having the same legend.
- Shiqian (詩錢), a poem coin.[122]
- Coastal province type, a common calligraphic style found on the locally produced cash coins of the Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian from the Qianlong period onwards.[122]
Materials and metals
Metal cash coins
- Jinqian (金錢, jīnqián), gold cash coins (can also refer to other gold coins).
- Qianqian (鉛錢, qiānqián), lead cash coins.
- Tongqian (銅錢, tóngqián), copper-alloycash coins, the most common type.
- Tieqian (鐡錢, tiěqián) refers to cash coins made from iron.[137]
- Xinqian (鋅錢, xīnqián), or Baiqian qian (白鉛錢, Báiqiān qián), refers to zinc cash coins.[138]
- Yinqian (銀錢, yínqián), silver cash coins (can also refer to other silver coins).
Non-metal cash coins
- Niqian (traditional Chinese: 泥錢; simplified Chinese: 泥钱; pinyin: ní qián) 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.[139]
- Tuqian (土錢), a name given to clay cash coins commonly found in tombs that were used as burial coins for the afterlife.[140]
Sample and pattern coins
- Yang qian (樣錢), A sample or pattern coin.[122]
- Banbu yang qian (頒布樣錢), an official pattern coin.[122]
- Jincheng yang qian (進呈樣錢), "Present to the Emperor" sample coin.[122]
Special and commemorative cash coins
- Jiyuan qian (記元錢), a cash coin cast to commemorate a new period title.[122]
- Kai Lu Qian (traditional Chinese: 開爐錢; simplified Chinese: 开炉钱; pinyin: kāi lú qián), or "commemorative cash coins", were a special type of cash coin produced to commemorate the opening of a mint or a new furnace.Dongchuan, Sichuan.[143][141] 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).[141][142] On June 27, 1990, the Quality Inspection Section of the Huize County Lead and Zinc Mine Archives (simplified Chinese: 会泽县的铅锌矿档案馆; traditional Chinese: 會澤縣的鉛鋅礦檔案館; pinyin: huì zé xiàn de qiān xīn kuàng dàng àn guǎn),[144] where the cash coin is on display, conducted a sampling and analysis of the coin,[141] conducted an assay and concluded that the coin had a composition of 90. 81% copper, 0. 584% aluminum, 0. 532% zinc, and 3% iron.[144][142] In the year 2002 it was added to the Guinness World Records as the largest coin.[144]
- Five Metal Value Ten coins are Chinese cash coins that were issued by the new year's present.[145]
- Tianxia Taiping coins (天下太平錢) are Chinese cash coins that were used for presentation at the Palace of Ancestral Worship.[146] 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.[147] These coins contain the reign titles Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, Xianfeng, Tongzhi, Guangxu, or Xuantong with "Tongbao" (通寶), or rarely "Zhongbao" (重寶), in their obverse inscription and the reverse inscription "Tianxia Taiping" (天下太平).[146] 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.[146] Some Tianxia Taiping cash coins were manufactured by the Ministry of Revenue while others were produced by private mints.[146] Palace issues tend to be larger than circulation cash coins with the same inscriptions.[147]
- Neiting qian (內庭錢), a palace cash coin.[122]
Types of cash coins
- Pre-Ming
- Huanqian (圜錢), or Huanjin (圜金), refers to the round coins issued during the knife coins.[8]
- 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.[148]
- Huaqian (花錢, "Flower coin"), charms, amulets, and talismans that often resemble cash coins.
- Cinnabar money (traditional Chinese: 硃砂銅錢; simplified Chinese: 朱砂铜钱; pinyin: Zhūshā tóngqián) refers to cash coins and cash coin amulets that have been artificially made to resemble cinnabar rust money through the application of cuprous oxide (Cu2O) which is dark red, and also lead red (Pb3O4).[149] This occurs when local corrosion and electrochemical corrosion will also occur, producing red and green rust forming small pinholes (referred to as "bone rust").[149] Cash coins typically first rust green before they turn red into cinnabar rust money.[149] This is because cash coins until the mid-Ming dynasty period onwards most cash coins were made from bronze, though later cash coins were mostly made from brass causing them to oxidise differently, but because the old superstitions still applied people would manually apply cinnabar dye to make them appear red.[149]
- Gong Yang Qian (traditional Chinese: 供養錢; simplified Chinese: 供养钱; pinyin: gōng yǎng qián), variously translated as "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.[152] In general, these temple coins tend to be much smaller and crudely made compared to earlier and later Chinese cash coins.[152] 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.[152]
- Ming dynasty
- Zhiqian (制錢, "Standard cash coins"), a term used the Ming and 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.[125]
- 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.[125]
- 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.[157]
- 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.[157]
- 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.[157]
- Woqian (倭錢, "Japanese cash"),[158] refers to 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.[159][160][161]
- Xuanbian qian (鏇邊錢), literally "lathed-rim cash coins", was a popular name (folk name) used during the Ming dynasty period to refer to cash coins produced in Yunnan and in Beijing, at the Baoyuanju Mint (寶源局), under the reign of the Jiajing Emperor that were polished using lathes known as xuàn chē (鏇車).[162][163] These cash coins were stable, had a yellowish colour that contemporary sources describe as "beautiful", and round and smooth rims.[162][163]
- Huoqi qian (火漆錢), literally "fire lacquer coins", refers to a Ming dynasty period type of cash coins that were produced by having a special lacquer applied to the coins during finishing aspect of the manufacturing process.[164][162] The only evidence of their existence is mentioned in the Tiangong Kaiwu.[162] A number of surviving late Ming dynasty cash coins are found to have certain amounts of black lacquer substance that is found at the lower parts between characters.[162] This lacquer tends to make the design of the coins look a bit cleaner and was possibly only applied to enhance the beauty of the coins and as an anti-counterfeiting measure.[162] As the alloys of Huoqi qian was different from unlacquered cash coins in circulation at the time, the lacquer may have served as a coating that protected the coin from corrosion.[162] During circulation, the lacquer on the raised parts of the coin would have likely rubbed off.[165][162]
- Qing dynasty
- 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 mint marks.[166]
- Yiliqian (一厘錢, "one-cash coin"), referred to as Zheyinqian (折銀錢, "conversion coins") by Chinese numismatists,[c] 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).[166] 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.[166] Similar cash coins with this reverse inscription were also being produced by some rulers of the Southern Ming dynasty.[166]
- 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.[166]
- 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 1⁄1000 of a tael of silver.[166]
- Huangqian (黃錢, "yellow cash"), a term used to refer to early Qing dynasty era cash coins that didn't contain any tin.[166]
- 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 alloy, however despite being called "green cash" it looked indistinguishable from "yellow cash".[166]
- period onwards.
Units of account
- Cash (文), nominally 1 cash coin.
- Diao (吊), a string of 100 or 500 cash coins.[122]
- Chuan (串), a string of 1000 cash coins.[122]
- Changqian (長錢) refers to the regular cash coin system used across China where 1000 cash coins make up a single string (串).[137]
- Dongqian (東錢, "Eastern cash"), an Fengtian province, where only 160 cash coins make up a string.
- Jingqian (京錢, "metropolitan cash") or Zhongqian (中錢),[167] an exchange rate used in the capital city of Beijing, the Jingqian system allowed a nominal debt of 2 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).[168]
- 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 1⁄1000 of a Kuping tael.
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
- Kucha coinage
- Ryukyuan mon
- Vietnamese văn
- Kelantan keping
- Terengganu keping
Explanatory notes
- ^ Alternative known as coin rubbing, known as Juasha in China, cao gio in Vietnam, koo kchall in Cambodia, kuong in Laos, and karok in Indonesia.
- ^ Alternatively translated as "circulating currency" or "universal currency".
- ^ Chinese numismatists use the term "conversion coins" because of their official fixed value compared with silver.
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To foretell the future, toss three coins six times. Some people use pennies. Others insist on Chinese coins. The fall of heads and tails yields six lines, either solid or broken.
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The characters on the coin were written by the famous calligrapher of early Tang Dynasty, OUYANG Xun,they translate to "circulated treasures at the beginning of the dynasty".
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