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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).
Round metal coins with a round, and then later square hole in the center were first introduced around 350 BCE. The beginning of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE), the first dynasty to unify China , saw the introduction of a standardised coinage for the whole Empire.
These cash coins have the character Fu (Chinese: 福; pinyin: fú) on the reverse in reference to Fuzhou. They are made of lead. Wang Shenzhi: Yonglong Tongbao: 永隆通寶: yǒnglóng tōng bǎo: 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.
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).
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.
However, this "Spade coin" is actually a traditional Chinese cash coin (having a round shape with a square centre hole). [4] The Bu Quan cash coins were known later as the Nan Qian (Chinese: 男錢; pinyin: nán qián; lit. 'Male Cash'), from the belief that if a woman wore this on her sash, she would give birth to a boy. [2]
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]
A three hole spade was sold at an auction on November 25, 2012 hosted by the Beijing ChengXuan Auctions Co., Ltd (北京诚轩拍卖有限公司) for US$591,000 (or 3,680,000 yuan), which at the time had set a new world record for auctioning off an ancient Chinese coin. [18] A three hole spade shown here was sold on April 23, 2013 at an online ...