Hobby of Kings - Part 4

Coins of China

The shapes and manufacturing method of the coins can be considered as indirect evidence of independent invention in China. The chinese coins were made of base metals by casting . The earliest chinese coins were probably made in Yellow river valley. They were made of in the shape of miniature hoes, spades and knives. They were probably first issued around the 6th century BCE during the Zhou dynasty.

The first metallic coins, cast in bronze, date from about 500 B.C. according to Chinese archaelogists. The first coins were cast bronze imitations of these monetary objects, hoes, knives and cowries. It may be that these metal objects first served as means of exchange in the country. ... Four types of coinage were current in China in the fourth and third centuries [B.C.]. ... They were as follows: the Shansi region ... where spade-shaped coins were in circulation; the kingdoms of the north-east ... where coins were knife-shaped; the Wei valley in Shensi ... where round coins with a central hole were used; lastly the sphere of influence of the the Ch"u kingdom (middle Yangtse and Han valley), where use was made of gold coins shaped as tablets divided into sixteen little squares carrying the indication of their value, and where bronze cowrie shells were also struck

The earliest coins were inscribed imitation hoes issued by the Zhou kings in the late sixth century BC ... In the third century BC a practical solution to the problem of handling irregularly shaped coins was found by replacing hoe and knife coins with flat disc-shaped coins with a central hole, so they could be carried in bulk on strings.

Hollow Spade Coins
Several specimens of hollow handled spades with a pointed feet from Shantung peninsula were dated to be from 600 BCE. The dating of these coins is not considered definitive by many scholars. There is considerable disagreement among the numismatic scholars. Hollow handle spades with pointed feet are called Pu. They are considered to be the first coins by some. The name suggest that they might be transition money from primitive money. Pu was the term of earlier primitive money. These spades can not be considered as true coins for lack of stamping or inscriptions on them. However, they were cast to an ancient chinese weight standard of 1 liang = 24 shu (1 shu = 0.56g). These spades were cast to 3 liang.




Flat Foot Spade Coins
The second type are the large, heavy flat-foot spades occurring in a number of varieties both with and without inscriptions (one or two characters when present). The form is very close to that of actual tools, suggesting an early date. They are rare, suggesting a short-lived series and/or a very restricted area of circulation, but there are other hollow-handled spade types that appear to have evolved from them.

These large hollow-handled pointed foot spades appear to have evolved into the smaller, more robust hollow-handled spades with a shallow curve to the foot and single-character inscriptions, which show up much more commonly today.




The name of the denomination is as yet uncertain, but the evidence indicates units of "CHIN". Wang, on plate X #2, illustrates a specimen with the character for "CHIN", and on plate XI #2 another specimen which seems to indicate a denomination of "3 CHIN". The first specimen appears to be of a slightly earlier series and it is possible the denomination changed from 1 chin to 3 chin at some point, but this seems unlikely. It is more likely the earlier spades did not need a units mark as only one denomination (3 chin) was in use. The second, slightly later type, is part of a series with more than one denomination, so unit marks become more important.

Flat Handle Spade Coins
Around 400 BC flat spades revolutionized the spade currency. Unlike the hollow-handled spades which required a complex multi-piece mold with a casting core in the handle, the flat spades required only a simple two-piece mold, allowing for larger mintages in shorter periods of time. They were sturdy and easier to store. The flat spades were cast to an ancient chinese weight standard based on multiples of 12 shu (1 shu = 0.56g). They were issued in three denominations of 1/2 liang (12 shu), 1 liang (24 shu) and 2 liang (48 shu). They were called "CH'IEN. This word later come to mean money in Chinese language. They also met all the conditions to be a true coin. Many bear mint and denomination marks, suggesting they may have circulated beyond the boundaries of the cities that cast them.





Pointed Foot and Round Foot Thin Spade Coins
Pointed Foot and Round Foot thin spades are a bit of a mystery. Wang suggests they evolved directly from hollow-handled spades and are contemporary with the heavy flat spades, but from different mints. Their general form and style of calligraphy tends to suggest this may be so, in which case they belong to the 4th century BC, and we would expect some of them (early issues) to be cast to a 12 shu standard, with possibly others (later issues) at a 10 shu standard. We hope to be able to look into this fairly soon.




It appears that between 350 and 250 BC the heavy flat spades gave way to the thinner square foot flat handled spades, in an extensive series bearing a variety of mint names, but only a few distinct forms.

Most spades in this series weight between 5 and 6 grams (10 shu) but for some types there are also examples around 11 grams (20 shu). The larger examples with sharp corners can weight as much as 14 gram but appear to have been intended as a 20 shu denomination. Their denominations were 1/2 liang (10 shu) and 1 liang (20 shu).



Knife Coins
The knife money probably appeared around 500 BCE in the Yellow river valley. Some believe that they were cast earlier than 500 BCE. We assume the pointed knifes, with a smooth curve down the back, are the earliest form of knife money. They have the closest style to genuine knives, and like the early hollow-handled spades often appear without inscriptions, although the inscriptions are normally weak or difficult to see on most specimens. The casting and calligraphy are similar to the hollow-handled spades. They were called "Ch'i" knifes. It is a difficult and contentious issue dating this Knife money. Pointed knives and Ming knives average between 15 and 16 grams or about 30 shu.




Ming Knife Coins
The "Ming" knifes probably followed next, but they are still a bit of a mystery. The fabric is similar to common square-foot spades except that the inscriptions give no indications of mint names. All bear the character "Ming" on one side, which Wang (page 166) suggests is made up of the characters for "sun" and "moon", meaning "bright". These are by far the most common of all knife money and must have been cast in vast numbers, and are found over a wide area of Northern China and as far away as Northern Korea





There are two distinct shapes of ming knifes, the first of which has a distinctly angled back, and the second with a mildly curved back. The exact significance of this is uncertain, but it is possible that the mildly curved back varieties are the earliest, having evolved from the pointed curved back knifes. A partial hoard of these that we obtained recently, had both types well represented.

The curved-back ming knifes can be further divided into two distinct inscription varieties. The first variety has a mint name and monetary designation on the reverse. The second variety has reverse inscriptions which do no appear to have a relationship to mints or denominations. It appears that these two varieties are probably roughly contemporary but from different districts.

All of the angle-back specimens have the second type of inscription without mint name or monetary designation.

Dating ming knifes is a little problematical, but we suspect that they appear in the very late Zhou, probably at the end of the 4th century BC and continue down to and possibly after the unification under the Ch'in.

The more stylized straight knifes, with characters on one or both sides may be contemporary with the ming knifes. There are only a few varieties and the characters appear to be mint names. These tend to be poorly represented in the literature and more work needs to be done on them before we can comment on how they may fit into the system.



The large heavy knifes may be the most misunderstood part of this series. They are traditionally described as the earliest knife form, a theory to which we cannot subscribe. With the exception of the three-character Ch'i knife, which is not overly common, all heavy knifes are rare to extremely rare. If they had really seen the 600 years of circulation suggested by Wang, one would expect them to be very common coins.



The dating of these coins will probably remain uncertain until archeological evidence can provide some answers, but the coins themselves do give us some clues. It is significant that no uninscribed, or even simple versions are known to exist. These are normal steps in coinage evolution, which exist for hollow-handle spades, pointed knifes and cowry imitations. In fact these heavy knifes first appear with full developed complex inscriptions including a mint name and indication of a monetary unit, a feature not seen on other coins until the late hollow-handled and heavy flat spades which probably date to around 400 BC.

While rims are present on many ancient coins, they are usually low and thin. The rims on these coins are thick and high. There is no real parallel to them, but the closest seem to be the early round coins of "I" (a city in the Ch'i territory), which are certainly of a very late date. Of the specimens that we have seen, none have shown significant signs of wear, which leads us to believe that they may not have been part of the general circulating coinage. They also seem to be the most finely cast of all ancient Chinese coins.

When all the features of these coins are considered, we can believe they may have been made for ceremonial purposes such as presentations or burial, which is consistent with the use of the state (Ch'i) as a mint designation, rather than one of the cities in Ch'i as is the usual pattern for the coinage of the Zhou period.

Round Holed Coins
The round coins with round hole in the center appeared around 300 BCE. They have a mint mark and monetary units on them. They were cast with new weight standard. There came in two denomination 1/2 liang (10 shu or 5 grams) and 1 liang (20 shu or 10 g) and ch'ien.

Early round coins with round holes can be divided into two major types. The first type are those with multiple-character inscriptions including both mint marks and monetary units having many features similar with the heavy flat spades.
They differ from the spades in one important aspect. All the specimens we have been able to confirm fall into the weight system based on multiples of 10 shu with an average about 10 grams (20 shu) for the full units, and about 5 grams (10 shu) for the half units, while the heavy flat spades were cast to the weight standard based on multiples of 12 shu. This leads us to believe they we issued as a replacement for the heavy flat spades as the new weight system was adopted

The second series of round-holed round coins are those with only a mint name, but no denomination. These are seen with either one-or two-character legends but in all other ways, including the weights, resemble the multi-character types. The use of only a mint name without monetary units is a characteristic shared with the square-foot spades which are cast to the same weight standard, in a close relationship between the two and suggest a date right around or just after 300 BC.



Square-Holed Round Coins
Early square-holed round coins seem to be found exclusively in areas associated with knife money. They come in two distinct series, the relatively common "MING" types that appear to be related to the ming knifes, and the much scarcer "I" series which seem to represent the issues of a single mint called "I". The only inscriptions they have is their monetary designation of "HUO", a character which has come to mean "knife money", but which had also become a unit of denomination by the time these coins were issued.




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