Ads
related to: ancient chinese coin square hole in center of earth called the circle
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The cash or qian was a type of coin of China and the Sinosphere, used from the 4th century BCE until the 20th century, characterised by their round outer shape and a square center hole (Chinese: 方穿; pinyin: fāng chuān; Jyutping: fong1 cyun1; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: hong-chhoan).
These iron cash coins have the character Min (Chinese: 閩; pinyin: mǐn) on the reverse and comes from the Fujian region. There is a crescent below. One of these large Yonglong Tongbao coins was worth 10 small coins and 100 lead coins. A string of 500 of these poorly made Min iron coins were popularly called a kao ("a manacle"). 942: Wang Yanxi
Chinese coins were usually made from mixtures of metals such copper, tin and lead, from bronze, brass or iron: precious metals like gold and silver were uncommonly used. The ratios and purity of the coin metals varied considerably. Most Chinese coins were produced with a square hole in the middle.
There is a type of Wu Zhu cash coins which above the square center hole appear to have an ancient Chinese rod numeral, this ancient Chinese rod number appears to be protruding above the surface of the cash coin, it is a horizontal line with three vertical lines underneath. This is the ancient Chinese rod numeral symbol for "8" (eight).
Some coins give the impression that holes were used to save metal, though it may not be possible to prove with certainty that this was the reason for creating the holes. An example of such a coin with a fairly large hexagonal hole is a undated tin 1 cash coin, minted in the period 1550–1596, that circulated in the Banten Sultanate on Java and ...
Historically, Chinese coins were round with a square hole in the center. On the obverse side, there are usually words indicating the emperor's reign name or era name. On the reverse side, there are words or graphic patterns often indicating denomination or a mint mark. It is also possible that there is nothing on the reverse side.
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: yīguàn qián) varied over time and place but was nominally 1000. [4]
From 350 BC onwards, round coins started to be used. The round coins from the areas that previously used spade money, had round holes in their center. The round coins from the knife money areas typically had square holes. There are only two coins known to be exceptions to this general rule. [citation needed]