page_title: Qing dynasty coinage
section_title: Qianlong era
hierarchical_section_title: Qing dynasty coinage / History / Qianlong era
caption_attribution_description: 中文: 乾隆通宝，背满文“宝泉” English: This is a photo of a coin of China, the coin was minted in the Qianlong Era (1735–1796). According to the copyright law in China, it has been in public domain.
context_page_description: Qing dynasty coinage was based on a bimetallic standard of copper and silver coinage. The Manchu Qing dynasty ruled over China from 1644 until it was overthrown by the Xinhai revolution in 1912. The Qing dynasty saw the transformation of a traditional cash coin based cast coinage monetary system into a modern currency system with machine-struck coins, while the old traditional silver ingots would slowly be replaced by silver coins based on those of the Mexican peso. After the Qing dynasty was abolished its currency was replaced by the Chinese yuan by the Republic of China.
context_section_description: During the first few years of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor China had suffered from a shortage of cash coins due to the contemporary scarcity of copper, but soon Yunnan's copper mines started producing a large surplus of copper allowing the Qing government to swiftly increase the money supply and minting more coins at a faster pace. In the middle of the Qianlong era as much as 3,700,000 strings of cash were produced annually. In 1741 coins were ordered to be made of an alloy of 50% copper, 41.5% zinc, 6.5% lead, and 2% tin to reduce the likelihood of people melting down coins to make utensils, all while the Qing government encouraged to sell their utensils to the state mints to be melted into coinage. The addition of the 2% tin caused the Chinese people to dub these cash coins qingqian (青錢, "green cash").
  By the end of the Qianlong era, Yunnan's copper mines started depleting the production of cash coins, and the copper content was debased once more. 1794 all provincial mints were forced to close their doors, but subsequently reopened in 1796.
  During the Battle of Ngọc Hồi-Đống Đa in 1788 special Qián Lóng Tōng Bǎo coins were minted with An nan (安南) on their reverse sides as a payment for soldiers.
caption: A Qián Lóng Tōng Bǎo (乾隆通寶) coin.
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