Ancient coins refer to ancient money. Money is the product of commodity exchange. China is the first country in the world to use coins. 3000 years ago, many "copper-free shells" were unearthed in tombs in the late Yin and Shang Dynasties, which were the most primitive metal coins.

By the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, in addition to shell coins, there were also some metal weighing coins such as loose copper blocks and copper ingots without a certain shape, which were also unearthed in archaeological excavations. China coins in world record association, China, created and broke a number of the best in the world and the best in China.

Chinese name

Ancient coins

concept

the ancient currency

abstract

Commodity exchange product

trait

The most primitive metal currency

Origin and origin

At the end of primitive society, the earliest currency was physical currency. Generally speaking, nomadic people use livestock and hides to realize the function of money, while agricultural people use grains, fabrics, farm tools, pottery, seashells, pearls and jade as the earliest physical money. According to archaeological excavations, a large number of pottery pots were unearthed as sacrificial objects in late Neolithic sites such as Banpo. Dawenkou culture buried a large number of pig heads and jawbones, indicating that pigs and pottery had played the role of monetary wealth in the late primitive society. But as we all know, the physical currency that was widely circulated in ancient times was a "shell". Because as physical currency, cattle, sheep, pigs and other livestock are inseparable, grains will rot, pearls and jade are too few, and knives and shovels are heavy, so they are finally concentrated on seashells as physical currency. Seashells can be used as neck ornaments, which are valuable and easy to carry and count, so they have been selected as the main currency in the long-term commodity exchange. In the archaeological excavation, a large number of natural shellfish were unearthed from the sites of Xia and Shang Dynasties, and shellfish were used as physical currency until the Spring and Autumn Period. Therefore, most of the words related to wealth and value in China Chinese characters are related to the word "Bei". Such as: expensive, capital, greed, poverty, wealth, purchase, etc.

To sum up, in the late primitive society, the main currency form in Zhixia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties was physical currency, and natural shellfish was widely circulated. In the later period, a small amount of metal weighing currency and coinage appeared, which belonged to the period of currency germination and formation. [ 1]

The history of coins

Chinese ancient coins sprouted in the Xia Dynasty, originated in the Shang Dynasty, developed in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and unified in winning the Qin Dynasty. In the long history of more than 4000 years, they have created more than 70 world firsts. Not only that, China's coin system is complete, the variety is rich, the context is clear, and the connotation is broad, which is unmatched by any country.