The Coinage of China

339, Lot: 463. Estimate $100. Sold for $120. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CHINA, Eastern Zhou dynasty - Warring States Period. State of Qí. City of Yi. Circa 300-220 BC. Æ Four Hua (30mm, 6.94 g). Yi Si Hua ([City of] Yi Four Hua) in early zhuànshū Hànzì (seal script) characters / Blank. BN Chinoises I 345; Hartill 6.24. Good Fine, green patina. Poorly cast.

From the J.P. Righetti Collection.

While the coinages of her western neighbors changed dramatically from the ancient to the early modern periods, varying both in artistic and precious metal content (or lack thereof), China experienced a system of coinage which set the standard for consistency not only in appearance, but in structure as well. Beginning with the first emperor of the Qín dynasty, Qín Shǐ Huáng, China became unified under one ruler who sough many political and economic reforms, the latter of which consisted of numerous numismatically oriented changes, such as the standardization of scripts, weights and measures, and the monetary system as a whole. The existing forms of currency were abolished and replaced with a unit of the higher order (the gold yí, equivalent to 20 taels), and a unit of the lower order (a round copper coin with a square hole in the center, equivalent to half a tael).

Future inflation caused this relation to change over time, but the need for larger sums of the ‘cash’ was easily remedied through their design, however, as large strings of 100 or even 1,000 were strung together for use in everyday trade. With this coinage, the standard was established, and the ‘cash’ style cast copper coin became synonymous with the monetary exchange of the entire Southeast Asian region. Calligraphic styles varied as well, with the more artistic ‘slender gold’ and ‘running grass’ scripts, to the more pragmatic orthodox and seal scripts. Some of these character forms were even penned by the emperors themselves, such as the Huīzōng emperor (1100-1125). The overlying layout of the ‘cash’ remained virtually the same, with the emperor’s niánhào, or reign name, listed as two characters read vertically from top to bottom, as well as a description of the coinage read horizontally from right to left, such as yuán bǎo or tōng bǎo (main or common currency).

The final dynasty of Imperial China, the Qíng, saw the increased presence of western colonial powers as well as gold and silver in trade, along with surging military expenses, thereby giving rise to the increased size of ‘cash’ coins, ranging from the standard one unit value all the way up to 1,000 unit value coins. As China’s political status became more volatile, so too did its currency, and ‘cash’ style coinage ended shortly after the empire itself in 1911, replaced with a more modern currency, but lacking the enigmatic history of the two millennial standard.