page_title: Coinage of Asia
section_title: China
hierarchical_section_title: Coinage of Asia / Coinage of East Asia / China
caption_attribution_description: 永楽通宝の写真 投稿者撮影（2006年5月13日撮影） 著作権は放棄しませんが（というかできない）、下記ライセンスとは別にあらゆる形で使用を許可します（PD並で提供）。
context_page_description: The earliest coinage of Asia is also the oldest coinage of the world. Coins were invented several times independently of each other. The earliest coins from the Mediterranean region are from the kingdom of Lydia, and are now dated ca. 600 BCE. The dating of the earliest coins of China and India is difficult and the subject of debate. Nevertheless, the first coins of China are at least as old as the earliest Lydian coins and possibly older, while the earliest coins of India seems to have appeared at a later stage.
  Pre-modern Chinese coins were always cast bronze or brass issues. This concept was later adopted by Japan, Korea and Annam, and also influenced regions in South-East Asia.
  The Lydian coins consisted of discs or lumps of electrum, and were stamped on two sides with dies. This concept spread rapidly to neighbouring Greek city states in Asia Minor and across the Aegean Sea, and eventually throughout the Mediterranean. When Lydia was conquered by Achaemenid Persia, the production of Lydian coins continued in the guise of silver Siglos and gold Darics. Other parts of Persia only began to mint coins at the time of Alexander the Great's conquest.
context_section_description: Some time around the 7th century BCE, coins shaped like utensils emerged in China. In most regions, spade-shaped coins were issued, while knife-shaped coins were issued in the North-East. In the state of Chu (in Southern China), small oval bronze pieces were issued. Numismatists and archaeologists believe that the minting of coins was not organized by the central authority, i.e. the royal court of Zhou. The spade and knife coins underwent a number of changes in size, shape and inscriptions.
  Cowrie shells are found in archaeological excavations that date back to the Shang era (2nd millennium BCE). These might have been used as currency, but there is not agreement as to whether they did serve a currency purpose or not. Various other bronze artifacts have been described as money (e.g. "bridge money"); these are now believed to be various types of ornaments, not related to currency.
  During the 4th century BCE, a new type of coins, the "ban liang" type, was introduced in the Western state of Qin. The ban liang coins were round, cast bronze coins with a hole in the center, inscribed "ban liang", or half liang (a weight unit). Qin eventually conquered the other states of China and replaced the defunct Zhou Dynasty with the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE. The monetary systems of China were now standardized, based on the Qin model, and knife and spade coins were replaced with ban liang coins. The round, cast base metal coins of the Far East are known as cash coins. The cash coins were customarily strung together with hempen threads into standard-size strings of cash, representing a fixed value.
  In 118 BCE, the ban liang coins were replaced by another type, the "wu zhu" type, that was inscribed "wu zhu", or five zhu (another weight unit). These were minted until 621 CE, shortly after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty. Being minted for almost a thousand years combined, the ban liang and wu zhu coins come in a great number of varieties. The uncovering of the history of these varieties is an ongoing process.
  The coins issued during the Tang Dynasty were unusual in their day, in the sense that the obverse inscription consisted of four characters instead of two. The "Kai Yuan tong bao" coins were minted throughout the Tang era, and subsequent Chinese coin issues (up to around 1900) were based on this precedent.
  During the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, the first two (out of four) characters of the obverse inscription represented the name of the current regnal era, thereby indicating the emperor under which the individual coin was minted. A system of discrete calligraphical variation was employed, thereby facilitating identification of the mint that was responsible for minting any given coin. During the Song and Ming dynasties, the reverse was often blank, although some carry the regnal year of the emperor or some other inscription. During the Qing Dynasty, the reverse explicitly indicated the mint, initially in Chinese, but later in Manchu. Unlike the Song and Ming dynasties, Qing Dynasty coins come in one denomination only until the mid 19th century. During the Taiping Rebellion, inflated large size coins (e.g. coins representing 50 or 100 cash/units) were minted.
  During the colonial era, foreign silver coins entered China 1. Traditionally, China did not have a silver coinage, although silver was stored in the shape of silver bars (so-called sycees). As the Chinese harbours were forcibly opened for foreign trade by the colonial powers, foreign silver coins poured into China, and profoundly altered the monetary system and modes of economic transaction. The production of traditional cash coins ceased, and various provinces began, during the 1880s, to acquire modern equipment, capable of minting modern Western style coinage, akin to the coinage that was being introduced through foreign trade. This put the traditional cash coinage to rest, while the modern coinage of China began.
caption: A Chinese coin of the Ming Dynasty, inscribed 永樂通寶 (Yong Le tong bao) or Yong Le currency. Yong Le was the regnal name of Emperor Zhu Di (1402–24).
exif: {}