The early Ban Liang[7] cash coins were said to have been made in the shape of wheels, similar to other Ancient Chinese forms of coinage resembling agricultural tools.

[13] The Tang dynasty introduced the Kaiyuan Tongbao,[14] which would influence the inscriptions of cash coins, both inside and outside of China, minted from this period onwards.

During Yuan Shikai's brief attempt at monarchy as the Empire of China, trial cash coins are reported to have been minted as part of the "Hong Xiang Tong Bao" (洪憲通寶) series in 1916 but not circulated.

[40][41][42] As this was done without using a prior model, early Chinese coinage tends to look very diverse, even from the same series of coins as these all were cast from different (and unrelated) moulds bearing the same inscriptions.

Fine wet sand was placed in rectangles made from pear wood, and small amounts of coal and charcoal dust were added to refine the process, acting as a flux.

After the metal had cooled down, the "coin tree" (qián shù 錢樹) was extracted from the mould (which would be destroyed due to the process).

Another effect of the contemporary copper shortages was that the Qing government started importing Korean 5 fun coins and overstruck them with "10 cash".

A great majority of cash coins had no denomination specifically designated but instead carried the issuing emperor's era name and a phrases such as tongbao (Chinese: 通寶; pinyin: tōngbǎo; lit.

[68] This usage of cash coins has been documented as early as the Eastern Jin dynasty, in China's first emergency medicine manual.

[70] Cash coins also hold a central place in feng shui where they are associated with an abundance of resources, personal wealth, money, and prosperity.

[73] In Bali it is believed that dolls made from cash coins (or Uang kèpèng) strung together by cotton threads would guarantee that all the organs and body parts of the deceased will be in the right place during their reincarnation.

[75][76] In North America, the Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest (present-day Alaska and Canada) used Chinese cash coins for their body armour, which they believed would protect them from knife attacks and bullets.

[90][91][92][93][94] Although Chinese cash coins kept their round shape with a square hole from the Warring States period until the early years of the Republic of China, under the various regimes that ruled during the long history of China the square hole in the middle experienced only minor modifications such as being slightly bigger, smaller, more elongated, shaped incorrectly, or sometimes being filled with a bit of excess metal left over from the casting process.

[98] However, other materials had at different times in Chinese history also been used for the manufacture of cash coins such as iron (see Tieqian), lead, silver, and gold.

[98] In some cases the usage of certain types of materials to produce cash coins are only more recently discovered due to the lack of historical records mentioning them.

Lead cash coins have only been produced at a few times in the monetary history of china, mainly during the Five dynasties and Ten kingdoms period.

[98] This table reflects current knowledge, but future archaeological research might reveal that other materials were used for cash coins in other periods of Chinese history.

[98] It is generally thought that cash coins among the early overseas Chinese communities around the globe have primarily been used as ornaments, gaming pieces, talismans, and gifts to children, but their potential role as a type of alternative currency in Chinatowns and areas with concentrations of Chinese people has been proposed and disputed by multiple archeologists over the years.

[105][106] With modern scholars generally agreeing that they exclusively served non-currency functions and had gaming, religious, and cultural roles among the overseas Chinese.

[107][108] "The coins used in playing fan t'an are those of the present dynasty, such as are now current in China and imported expressly for gambling purposes in large quantities."

[107] European merchants started purchasing cash coins in large quantities following the currency reforms enacted by the Ming dynasty between 1570 and 1580.

During the many centuries of trade between Europe and China, cash coins would find their way to the New World and were occasionally used by Native American populations in adornments and clothing.

[107] Akin further cited a number of interviews with elderly Chinese residents of Locke who all claimed that they have never heard of anyone using cash coins as a type of currency there.

[119] They noted that Chinese cash coins among overseas communities were principally imported for gambling purposes, most notably as gaming counters.

[119] Scholar Marjorie Kleiger Akin noted that Chinese cash coins are "a dramatic example of artifacts whose primary function changed completely when they changed cultural context", noting that rather than being used as currency, they started to fulfil a large number of non-monetary functions among the Chinese people living in the western regions of the North American continent.

[107] A large number of cash coins were transferred to the United States and Canada for a variety of talismanic and religious purposes.

[107] Other ritualistic uses of cash coins include being used as funerary money, as their usage in Chinese funerals in the western United States has been reported as early as 1849.

[107] Cash coins were also reported to have been used in decorative manners, for example 19th and early 20th century Chinese American mineworkers often strung them as keychains for either talismanic or sentimental reasons.

[107] Scholar Julia G. Costello notes in the 2008 article The Luck of Third Street: Archaeology of Chinatown, San Bernardino, California that Asian cash coins are associated with one of 5 different uses: for gaming, as medicine, as talismans, as decorations, and in trade with Native Americans.

[108] She also notes that Vietnamese cash coins were unlikely to be traded or used as decorative items because the Chinese regarded them as "dirt money" due to their dark colour, which they perceived as unattractive.