What is the earliest coin made in China?

China is one of the earliest countries to use money in the world, with a history of 5,000 years. In the process of its formation and development, China's ancient currency experienced five major changes:

1, the evolution from natural currency to artificial currency. Shells were the earliest currency in China, and shells were used as currency in Shang Dynasty. In China's Chinese characters, most of the words related to value come from "Bei". With the development of commodity exchange, the demand for money is increasing, and shells can no longer meet people's needs. Shang people began to imitate seashells with copper. The appearance of copper coins is a major evolution from natural currency to artificial currency in the ancient currency history of China. With the extensive use of artificial coins, seashells, a natural currency, gradually withdrew from the currency stage in China.

2. Evolution from messy shape to unified shape. From the appearance of copper coins in Shang Dynasty to the Warring States Period, there were many forms of China currency. During the Warring States period, not only countries made their own money, but all regions of a vassal state also made their own money. It is famous for Zhao's shovel coins, Qi's knife coins, Qin's round hole coins and Chu's ant nose coins. After Qin unified China, Qin Shihuang promulgated the earliest monetary law in China in 2 10 BC, "taking Qin coins as the world's currency", which stipulated that the whole country should use Qin's square and semi-written language. The unification of currency ended the chaotic state of China's ancient currency with different forms and different weights, which was a major evolution from chaotic form to normative form in the ancient history of China's currency. The shape of this circular square hole determined by Qin Banliang Qian continued until the early Republic of China.

3. Evolution from local currency to central currency. At the beginning of Han Dynasty, counties were allowed to cast money freely. According to the Records of Hanshu Foodstuffs, Wendi "made people make money besides stealing", so "stealing is like a cloud". This not only caused currency confusion, but also made dajia, a wealthy businessman, manipulate the right to coin money, making him richer than the emperor. In 65438 BC+065438 BC+03 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty recovered the right to coin coins in counties and counties, and the central government unified the casting of five baht, which became the only legal tender at that time. From then on, it was decided that the central government would manage the casting and distribution of coins in a unified way, which was a major evolution from local coinage to central coinage in the ancient currency history of China. Since then, coins of past dynasties have been directly managed by the central government. The return of the right to coin to the central government played an important role in stabilizing the political situation and economic development of the dynasties.

4. The evolution from literature weight to Bao Tong and Yuanbao. Coins minted since the Qin and Han Dynasties usually clearly indicate the weight of Qian Wen currency, such as "half a tael" and "five baht" (24 baht is one tael). In the fourth year of Wude in Tang Gaozu (62 1), Li Yuan decided to reform the currency system, abolish ancient coins with different weights, take the meaning of "creating the world" and uniformly cast "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" money. "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" is a change of the old system in Qin and Han Dynasties, and Qian Wen didn't pay attention to weight, which is the evolution of the ancient currency in China from the weight of certificates to Bao Tong and Yuanbao. "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" coin is the earliest Bao Tong coin in China. Since then, China's copper coins no longer take Qian Wen as the standard weight, but are commensurate with Bao Tong and Yuanbao, and have been used until the "Bao Tong of the Republic of China" after the Revolution of 1911.

5. Evolution from metal money to paper money. During the Northern Song Dynasty, with the development of exchange, currency circulation increased. When Emperor Taizong of the Northern Song Dynasty was in power, he minted 800,000 coins every year, and then gradually increased. Due to the shortage of copper materials for casting coins, the government has cast a large number of iron coins in some areas to make up for the shortage of copper coins. According to "History of Song Dynasty", the total amount of cast iron money in Sichuan at that time weighed 25 Jin and 82 Liang. In Sichuan, you have to pay 130 Jin of iron to buy a piece of silk. Iron money is so cumbersome and inconvenient that the paper money "Jiaozi" printed in the Northern Song Dynasty came into being in Sichuan. In Song Zhenzong, with the permission of the government, it is run by 16 wealthy families in Chengdu. The appearance of "Jiaozi" is an important evolution from metal money to paper money in the ancient currency history of China. Jiaozi is not only the earliest paper money in China, but also the earliest paper money in the world.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the development of commodity economy, the metal weighing currency that needs to be divided and identified in circulation gradually became unsuitable and was replaced by metal coins.

From the Spring and Autumn Period to the metal coinage stage to the Warring States Period, four major currency systems, namely cloth coins, knife goods, ant nose coins and ring coins, were established successively. Here is a brief introduction.

1, the central plains is the royal family of Zhao, Han, Wei and Zhou, mainly in cloth coins. Cloth coins are born out of bronze shovel-shaped farm tools, and the word "cloth" is homophonic. The cloth coins in the Spring and Autumn Period were mainly hollow cloth, that is, hollow coins with handles. The cloth coins in the Warring States period were mainly flat-shouldered cloth, that is, compared with the "empty-shouldered cloth", they had no hollow handle, but were shaped like shovel-shaped copper sheets. The shapes of cloth coins can be roughly divided into flat shoulders, flat shoulders, round shoulders and square feet, pointed feet and round feet. The most common thing is that the flat shoulder plain cloth or flat shoulder square ruler evolved into the shoulder pointed ruler cloth, and the round shoulder evolved into a round foot, and the region later expanded to Chu State and Yan State.

2. Qi in the east and Yan in the north mainly use knife coins. Knife coins are divided into "Yan Ming Dao" and "Qi Dao Hua". The shape of knife coins is similar to that used by northern nomadic people such as Shanrong and Beidi. Because the face of the knife has the word "Hua", it is called "Dao". The back of the knife is divided into arc back, folded back and straight back, and the cutter head is divided into flat head and pointed head. It was also an early copper coin in China.

3. The state of Qin in the northwest used ring coins alone, and its shape evolved from spinning wheel or jade wall. There are two kinds of ring coins: round hole and square hole. During the Warring States Period, round holes were cast earlier, and Wang Huiwen and Qin Shihuang in the late Qin Dynasty cast "half-liang" coins with round holes. Circular money is the original state of square hole money.

4. The copper shell cast by the southern Chu State is called Ant Nose Money, which evolved from shell coins. Qian Wen, a copper shell, looks like a grimace, which is a combination of two characters. An ant's small nose means small money. Chu has bronze shell coins commonly known as "face money" and "ant nose money". In addition to ant nose money, Chu also has gold as the weighing currency, which is the only country in the Warring States period that used gold as the currency.

In a word, the four monetary systems in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period evolved from the tools of labor production such as knives, shovels and spinning wheels, which showed the regional characteristics and social features of economic life such as fighting, fishing and hunting, pottery making, textiles and trade exchanges. At the same time, the formation of the four major currency areas is also the product of various separatist regimes. With the development of economy and commodity trade. The mutual circulation of currencies in various countries requires and correspondingly promotes the trend of unification and standardization of monetary systems.

Third, the evolution of money in past dynasties.

Gang Qian refers to a currency legally issued by the state or local government. "Eye money" is derived from different versions of an outline money. The outline is raised to form a coin system. Taking money as a clue, we can understand the history of currency evolution; Taking money as a clue, we can intervene in the appreciation and archaeology of ancient coins. The following mainly explains the political, economic and historical changes in ancient times from the evolution of currencies in previous dynasties.

The system of outline money from Qin and Han dynasties to Ming and Qing dynasties can be divided into two stages. The first stage: the Qin, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties were dominated by copper coins, which was a dual-system stage dominated by Qin's "half two coins" and Han's "five two coins". In the second stage, from the Tang and Song Dynasties to the Ming Dynasty, the year number of coins was cleared, and the Bowen system was different from the first two systems, and the paper money silver standard system also appeared, which was divided into two parts.

(A) Qin and Han Dynasties "half a penny"

After Qin unified the six countries, political unity needed economic unity as the basis. Qin Shihuang followed the historical development trend and unified writing, weights and measures and currency. It is stipulated that "gold" is the upper currency, 20 taels is the unit, and copper coins with round holes are the lower currency and half taels are the unit. Qian Wen's "half Liang" is consistent with the actual weight. As the main form of China currency, this square hole round money has been used for more than two thousand years. Why take this shape? Mainly ring-shaped, easy to carry, the square hole is not easy to rotate through the rope, which can prevent wear. Some people think that this form expresses the world outlook of ancient people. Square hole round coins in Qin Dynasty were the earliest official legal tender in the world.

To distinguish the "half-taels of money" between the Warring States and the Qin Dynasty, we can start with calligraphy. During the Warring States Period, Qian Wen's "Half Beam" was a big seal; In the Qin Dynasty, Qian Wen's "Half Liang" was a small seal. According to legend, Qin coins were cast by Prime Minister Lisi. Probably influenced by this, most of Qian Wen after Qin Dynasty came from dignitaries or calligraphers. There was also money for imperial books in the Song Dynasty. One of the differences between Chinese ancient coins and western currencies is that the layout of Chinese ancient coins is mainly Qian Wen, and there are few patterns of circulating coins, while western currencies are mainly animals, plants, people and other patterns. The art of ancient money calligraphy is another topic.

It is said that Qin Shihuang collected weapons from all over the world and cast twelve gold men to prevent the people from rebelling. This will inevitably affect the casting amount of copper coins. Due to the extremely high copper price and insufficient currency circulation, Qin Banliang's money is of high value. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the problem of "Qin money is heavy (expensive) and difficult to use" appeared. Han inherited the Qin system in a semi-literary style, but when Liu Bang became emperor, the country was very poor, and a lot of small money was cast instead, including "Yu pod half 28 baht half two, four baht half two, etc." One or two is 24 baht. Because Qin Banliang's weight loss effect is remarkable, the name of "Banliang" is inconsistent with reality. In particular to an elm-shaped' white elm', the weight of which is less than 1g and the diameter is less than 1cm. In the Han Dynasty, private minting was allowed, and coins were minted in counties, which led to currency disorder and inflation. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty made great changes to the monetary system.

(B) "Five baht money" in Han Dynasty and its evolution

1, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty initiated "five baht money".

After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, it was urgent to open up financial resources. At the same time, counties and countries freely cast money, which leads to currency confusion and rising prices, threatening the central finance. So Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in BC 165438 ordered the abolition of the coinage right of counties and states in the early Han Dynasty, and changed it to central unified coinage. Set up "Shanglin three officials", that is, Guan Zhong (in charge of casting money), distinguish copper (in charge of raw materials) and equal loss (in charge of making models), and form a central coin-making institution to be responsible for casting five baht money, also known as Shanglin money and three official money. The high quality of five baht money has changed the phenomenon of currency confusion, which is conducive to centralization and economic development. From Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to the Western Han Dynasty, Xin Mang, Eastern Han Dynasty, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to Sui and Tang Dynasties, it lasted more than 700 years. Five baht has long been the legal tender of each dynasty. Because the weight of five iron coins is suitable, China's square round coins with "five baht" as the main shape have also influenced Japan, Annan, North Korea and other countries. The current monetary unit in Thailand is still called "Thai baht", which is not unrelated.

2. The chaos of the new mang currency system and the appearance of fine coins.

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang established a new dynasty, reformed the ancient system, and issued money indiscriminately. For example, "Daq50" is a large sum of money invested by Wang Mang to solve the economic crisis after he took office. "Spring" is a foreign word of "money". Wang Mang believes in latitude theory. After he seized the surname of Liu, he was afraid of the word "Liu", which was composed of Mao, Jin and Dao. Therefore, Qian Wenzhong used the word "spring" instead of "gold". The weight of a "Daquan Fifty" is only two and a half times that of the Western Han Dynasty, but it should be used as fifty baht. This means that every time a large amount of money is issued, it will take away 47.5 baht of wealth from the people, which will inevitably cause people's dissatisfaction, so the people still use 5 baht for transactions. Because of this, Wang Mang stipulated in the "Severe Punishment and Cool Law" that anyone who dares to hide five baht money will be exiled as a prisoner. It can be seen from the chaos of the monetary system that Wang Mang's rule is unpopular and will undoubtedly collapse. In addition, there is another kind of banknote called "five thousand knives", that is, a banknote is five thousand baht. Someone must die and forge such a big coin. In order to guard against theft and forge private money, in addition to the criminal law, a new coin shape was created, that is, the world's first two-color metal coin, which was formed by combining ancient knife coins with round coins. In order to prevent counterfeiting and private casting, official bank coins such as "Daquan 50" and "Daoping 5,000" are "exquisitely crafted", and this distorted style has also made future generations cry for thousands of years.

The Eastern Han Dynasty restored the five-baht money system since the Western Han Dynasty. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Dong Zhuo went to Beijing to destroy five baht to make small money, which triggered inflation and plunged the monetary system into chaos again.

3, "Six Dynasties and Five baht" bad money

The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were the split period of China, with frequent wars, political turmoil and social and economic destruction. History calls this period "the monetary law is very bad". In order to save copper, five baht is getting smaller and smaller, which is called "goose eye" and "corn eye". There is even a kind of cutting edge ring, called cutting five baht, which changes one yuan into two yuan, but it has a large denomination and can be used for thousands of purposes. The five baht money in this period is collectively called "five baht in six dynasties" in the coin world. The Six Dynasties were Wu, Eastern Jin, Southern Song, Qi, Liang and Chen. The five baht money in this period was badly cast, and the Cultural Revolution rate and strokes were incomplete. Some people write "five baht" as "hardware", while others write "five baht" as an anti-text. However, there are exceptions to the five baht, such as "Taihe Five baht" and "Yong 'an Five baht" in the Northern Wei Dynasty, which are called "as important as their prose" in history, and their high quality not only reminds people of a series of successful reforms of Emperor Xiaowen in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

4. "Five baht money" and rumors in Sui Dynasty.

Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty cast "five baht to open the emperor", which ended the complicated situation of the monetary system for more than 300 years since the end of the Han Dynasty and was also the last dynasty to use five baht. Emperor Yang Di was tyrannical, and some people recognized the word "five" or "x" of "five baht money" in the Sui Dynasty as an "x" with a vertical | on the left. Therefore, some people say that it is a bad omen of Sui, which indicates that its demise is not far away. Therefore, the "five baht money" in the Sui Dynasty is very arguable. In fact, the Northern Wei Dynasty also wrote this way, but the people cursed the tyranny of the Sui Dynasty.

(3) Since the Tang Dynasty, the square-hole round banknotes have evolved from the two-baht system to the year number and the system with "Wen" as the unit, and from the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, which is the second stage of currency development.

1, Tang Gaozu pioneered "Bowen" and "Annual Money"

The Tang Dynasty was a powerful dynasty with developed economy and culture. According to research, Tang Gaozu Wude minted Kaiyuan coins in 62 1 year, ending the coin system named after two baht since Qin and Han Dynasties, creating the year number with "Wen" as the unit after Tang and Song Dynasties, and minting copper coins. "Kaiyuan" has the meaning of creation and initiative, and "Bao Tong" is a treasure in circulation. There has been a great breakthrough in the unit of weight. In ancient times, the weighing method of 24 baht was one or two. "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" initiated the decimal system. Each piece weighs two baht, four pieces are one penny, and the accumulated ten pence weighs one or two, that is, ten pence is one or two "to replace baht with money". Kaiyuan Bao Tong was cast in the Tang Dynasty for more than 200 years, which made the monetary system stable for a long time. The money system in the Tang Dynasty, with "Wen" as the unit and money as the unit of weight, lasted for thousands of years until the Qing Dynasty. According to another legend, Tang Gaozu's "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" was written by Ouyang Jian, a calligrapher in the early Tang Dynasty, and is known as a calligraphy coin.

After the Anshi Rebellion, in order to cope with financial difficulties and make a lot of money, Tang Suzong called it "dry yuan and heavy treasure". This is the earliest money called "Bao", and one treasure is the first ten pence, which has caused devaluation, soaring prices, serious counterfeiting and people's anxiety. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Tang Wuzong abolished Buddhism and took a lot of money from Buddhist copper to cast "Huichang Kaiyuan", which eased the deflation that lasted for half a century. "Gan Yuan" and "Huichang" are both Gregorian years.

The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms was a period of separatist disputes among warlords, and it was also a period of currency chaos, because there were many regimes and various currencies. Besides copper, there are also tin and iron. Large coins cost ten to one hundred, even thousands to ten thousand. The confusion and complexity of the monetary system reflects the economic deterioration caused by the separatist war.

To sum up, the square hole coin of copper coins has changed from the two systems of Thai baht to the year number, and the Bowen system is a major turning point in the development of money.

(4) In addition to the removal of copper coins from Song Dynasty to Ming Dynasty, it also produced another turning point in the development of paper money and silver standard system.

1, annual money, imperial book money and paper money in Song Dynasty

The notable feature of copper coins in Song Dynasty is the adoption of year number. According to textual research, the title of the year originated from Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, and the title of money began with Li Shou's "Han Xing Qian" in Chengdu, Sichuan Province during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. The last year's money was Yuan Shikai's "The first year of Hongxian, when it was ten coppers." The money collapsed with Yuan Shikai and existed for less than four months. "Nianqian" is cast with the year number and the casting time, which is clear at a glance when studying the age of ancient coins, and it is the progress of the development of coin forms. The coins of the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties are the easiest to collect in each dynasty.

In addition, the number of calligraphy in the past dynasties can be seen in the Song Dynasty. According to legend, there are four styles of Yuanfeng coins minted during Yuanfeng period in Song Shenzong, namely seal script, official script, regular script and cursive script. Among them, Su Dongpo's official script "Qian Wen" is calm and heroic, and is called "Dongpo Yuanfeng". During the reign of Song Zhezong, Sima Guang and Su Dongpo wrote Yuan Yu Bao Tong, a pair of calligraphy. Make the book currency popular in the Song Dynasty. The emperor who is good at calligraphy can't bear loneliness, and often shows his skill in Qian Wen. According to textual research, Song Taizong Zhao Huan was the first person who wrote "Imperial Calligraphy Money" by the emperor, and Song Huizong Evonne had the highest achievement in calligraphy among the emperors. He was incompetent in governing the country and keeping the country safe, and the "shame of Jingkang" was captured by nomadic people with his son Qinzong. However, I have a special liking for Qin Qin's chess and calligraphy, especially the calligraphy "thin gold body" iron painting silver hook, which is unique. The popularity of calligraphy coins in the Song Dynasty is not unrelated to the emperor's personal admiration, especially the popularity of royal calligraphy coins with year numbers. Qian Wen's style changed in the Ming Dynasty. Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, Qian Wen has been made by craftsmen, with plain fonts, no one cares about its layout and structure, and the art of calligraphy is out of the question.

In the Song Dynasty, coins were cast in parallel with copper coins and iron coins. Because bronzes are more valuable than copper coins, there is a phenomenon of destroying money castings, and iron coins appear because copper coins are scarce. In addition, with the shift of economic center of gravity to the south and the expansion of currency circulation, the paper money produced in Song Dynasty is the earliest paper money in the world. This kind of paper money is a symbolic currency, a product of the development of social commodity economy to a certain stage, and also related to the progress of papermaking and printing technology. There were mainly Jiaozi in the Northern Song Dynasty, and Keiko and Guanzi in the Southern Song Dynasty. Jiaozi and Huizi were the general names of bills, securities and securities at that time. Whether the currency value is stable has become a barometer of the economic and financial situation.

Northern minority regimes such as Liao, Song and Xixia were influenced by the economy and culture of the Central Plains in their contacts with the Han nationality. They not only used copper coins cast in the Tang and Song Dynasties, but also issued copper coins in national languages and Chinese.

2. The monetary system in Yuan Dynasty was dominated by paper money.

A small amount of copper coins were cast in the Yuan Dynasty, but the currency mainly circulated paper money. This was outstanding in ancient China. Paper money in the Yuan Dynasty was called paper money. It is not allowed to misappropriate original banknotes, and the circulation of banknotes is strictly restricted. However, by the end of the Yuan Dynasty, political corruption, royal extravagance, huge military expenditure and fiscal deficit had to be compensated by the government's indiscriminate issuance of paper money, resulting in soaring prices. Coupled with the diversion and flooding of the Yellow River, natural disasters and man-made disasters are called "the root of the disaster of changing banknotes", which shows that the spamming of banknotes is closely related to the demise of the Yuan Dynasty.

3. The policy of paper money in Ming Dynasty was changed to a system of giving priority to silver, supplemented by money.

Although issuing paper money is a progress in the history of currency, the rulers of past dynasties used it to exploit and plunder the people, which led to the collapse of paper money policy. For example, in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang carried out the paper money policy and issued "Daming Treasure Money" to be used together with copper coins. However, Daming's paper money had no fixed issue quota and no reserve, which soon led to inflation. Therefore, after Ye Jiajing's rule in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, paper money was no longer accessible, and people mainly used silver and copper coins. For example, in the "Banjiang" in the Ming Dynasty, silver was used instead of labor, instead of the wages of employees, and instead of the rich to accumulate wealth. The amount of silver was cast into a certain standard silver ingot from the Yuan Dynasty, and the silver ingot was named as "Yuanbao" from the Yuan Dynasty to the first year, which was the beginning of China calling the silver ingot "Yuanbao". At the same time, copper is very popular among the people. The material is changed from bronze to brass, and Bao Tong coins with year numbers are cast.

4. Copper coins, paper money and mechanism coins in Qing Dynasty

Copper coins in Qing dynasty followed the system of Ming dynasty, mainly casting Xiaoping coins. Xianfeng is the most complicated copper coin in Qing Dynasty. Qian Wen is divided into Bao Tong, Chongbao and Yuanbao, with different denominations and different money bureaus. In the Qing dynasty, folk businesses used silver, small money used money, and money and silver went hand in hand.

In the early Qing dynasty, silver ingots were used as the main currency, and cashiers were required to collect one or two more taxes. In the Qing dynasty, land tax was levied in summer and autumn every year, and the grain must be full of silver. Because the central government does not cast silver coins in uniform circulation, the silver used by the people may not be enough, and the shape, fineness and flat size of silver ingots vary from place to place. Therefore, before paying taxes, silversmiths and silver shops cast scattered silver coins into enough silver. Some silversmiths colluded with officials and took the opportunity to seriously deprive people of the quality and weight of silver, which caused many complicated social problems.

In the late Qing Dynasty, silver ingots began to transform into silver dollars. From the middle of the Ming Dynasty, foreign businessmen used their silver dollars to buy China's silk, tea and porcelain in foreign trade, which made all kinds of foreign silver dollars popular in China. During the light years of the Qing Dynasty, since the unequal treaty of nanking was signed, the silver dollar used for compensation was "foreign money", and there was no silver dollar in China at that time. The shortage of foreign currency in stock offset the sharp increase in foreign compensation, forcing the government to start casting silver dollars by itself in the late Qing Dynasty. The earliest foreign-style silver dollar mechanism in China was the Guangxu Yuanbao, commonly known as Yang Long, which was named after the dragon pattern on the back of the silver dollar. At the same time, there is also a mechanism copper coin, also called "copper coin". The appearance of machine-made silver coins and copper coins is a great impact on the traditional silver and copper coin system in China, which is dominated by square holes and circles.

The types of banknotes issued in Qing Dynasty are complex, including official banknotes and private banknotes. Official banknotes are issued by government financial institutions, while private banknotes are issued by private financial institutions. Paper money is divided into four types: copper coin (convertible square hole copper coin), copper coin (convertible copper coin), silver coin (convertible silver) and silver coin (convertible silver dollar). At the beginning of issuing paper money, there were bank reserves and paper money coupons.