Chinese cash (currency unit)

The cash (Chinese: 文; pinyin: wén) was a currency denomination used in China in imperial times.

Other denominations were used, including various weights, based on the tael system, for sycee silver and gold ingots.

Traditional style, cast 1 wén coins continued to be produced until the end of the Chinese Empire in 1911.

The term is still used today in colloquial Cantonese (mān), but written as 蚊 to represent Hong Kong dollars.

The notes of the Yuan dynasty suffered from hyperinflation due to over production without sufficient coins to back them and were withdrawn.

[11][12] Early Korean, Japanese, Ryukyuan, and Vietnamese currencies, the Korean mun, Japanese mon, Ryukyuan mon, and Vietnamese văn (where it was both used for cash coins and as a currency unit), were derived from the Chinese wén and written with the same character.

In 1695, the Shogunate placed the character gen (Chinese: 元; pinyin: yuán) on the obverse of copper coins.

The Chinese character for this currency unit was "文", though these coins were not translated into English as "cash".