Old Time Instruction

Ancient Chinese coins date back to 2000 BC during the Xia dynasty. There are still coins used today, but then they varied in size and shape and were used for many different things.

Types of coins range. The things people used as coins vary. Bone cowrie money was used in China starting in the 14th century BC during the during the Shang and Western Zhou eras. The shells were used and substitutes were made of carved bone. They were outlawed in 221 BC.

Other types of coins were used during the Spring-Autumn and Warring States. One of these was the hollow-shaft spade. Some other types of coins resembled knives. They were large and had a hole at the top so they could be stringed up. These types of coins were called “The Ming” after the city not the dynasty. Another type of coin was the “Bu” spade coin. This era also produced some of the first round coins.

The Qin dynasty was from 221BC to 207BC. During this time both gold and bronze coins were used. However, The first metal coins were made somewhere during the Pre-Chou dynasty and the Chou dynasty. This was somewhere between 600-300 BC.

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.

Minting coins were first made into a state monopoly during the Han dynasty which roughly lasted around 400 years, between 206 BC to 220 AD. In the first century alone over 220,000 strings were made. Each contained 1000 coins. In the Western Han, casting mould in bronze became used. This was done in order to easily standardize the coins.

Emperor Yuan-shou introduced the Wu-Ch’U coin during his reign. Much like the Pan Liang this coin was also round with a square middle. The only difference is that this coin has a raised rim to help prevent so much wearing. For 600 years this coin was used in several forms.

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 very old, very detailed history. There have been so many unique unusually shaped coins. The coins have had many different materials. Many of the coins eventually became formed metal. The coins details all came from the current dynasty’s rulers.