Han dynasty coinage

During the reign of Emperor Wu in 119 BC a series silver-tin alloy coins was introduced, but due to both unforeseen inflationary effects and rampant counterfeiting it was withdrawn after circulating for only 4 years.

During the Warring States period (403–221 BC), the development of private commerce, new trade routes, handicraft industries, and a money economy led to the growth of new urban centers.

[5] Towards the end of his reign, he introduced the Huo Quan (貨泉), a cash coin of similar form to the Ban Liang but usually weighing around 3 g, to replace the Western Han period Wu Zhu coinage.

[6] Peasants obtained coinage by working as hired labourers for rich landowners, in businesses like breweries or by selling agricultural goods and homemade wares at urban markets.

40–85 AD), Governor of Shu Province (modern Sichuan), described his subordinate officials' wealth not in terms of landholdings, but in the form of aggregate properties worth approximately 10,000,000 cash coins.

[4] Angus Maddison estimates that the country's gross domestic product was equivalent to $450 per head in 1990 United States dollars—a sum that was above subsistence level, and which did not significantly change until the beginning of the Song dynasty in the late 10th century.

[8] During the early Western Han period, founding Emperor Gaozu (r. 202–195 BC) closed government mints in favour of coin currency produced by the private sector.

[14] Some variants of the wǔ fēn Ban Liang cash coins tend to have very broad outer rims, which includes their inscriptions protruding well above the surface of the square central hole.

[14] The legalisation wasn't universally accepted by everyone, as the former government official Jia Yi would argue against the reintroduction of competitive coinage, claiming that it would lead to debasement, and that a plethora of different types of privately minted cash coins would confuse the public resulting in the widespread manipulation of money exchanges.

[30][32] While Deng Tong was probably the wealthiest individual of Western Han dynasty period, he lost imperial favour under Emperor Jing causing the government to confiscate all of his assets and revenue leading him to die in poverty.

[33] For this reason in the year Yuan Shou 4 (119 BC) during the reign of Emperor Wu the San Zhu (三銖) series of cash coins was introduced to replace the earlier Ban Liang inscription.

[36] However, over 60 different mandarins from across the realm petitioned against the revocation of the freedom to produce money stating that the private production of cash coins is the most efficient method of supplying the people with sound coinage.

[40] According to the History of Han the reverse sides of these Jun Guo Wu Zhu had a circular rim was added around the square central hole as a security feature against the scraping off of the metal.

[4] In the year 113 BC the imperial government monopolised the production of money again and a new series of Wu Zhu cash coins started being produced by the Three Offices of Shang Lin (上林三官).

[30] The quality of Shang Lin San Guan Wu Zhu cash coins was so high that forgery became unprofitable except to true artisans, great villains, or thieves.

[48] The Warlord Dong Zhuo moved the capital city from Luoyang to Chang'an in the year 190 and proceeded to melt down large bronze statues dating to the beginning of the Qin dynasty, the Twelve Metal Colossi, in order to manufacture small cash coins.

[51] The Bai Jin San Pin (白金三品, "White metal three kinds"), according to the Records of the Grand Historian, was introduced in 119 BC during the reign of Emperor Wu as both the Han–Xiongnu War and the territorial expansion of the Han Empire caused the imperial government to desperately increase their revenues.

[52][53] Among the reasons why the government started issuing this new type of currency was to remedy the inflation caused by the excessive issuance of bad money, but the Bai Jin San Pin would prove to be an insufficient solution.

[73] It wasn't until it was adopted by the imperial Chinese government during the Xin dynasty period, under the rule of Emperor Wang Mang, that this technique would become the most common method for the production of cash coins.

[79] Many scholars of numismatics and exonumismatics now believe that the first true charms and amulets in Chinese history actually appeared during the Han dynasty period, this claim is further strengthened by archaeological evidence.

[79] During the Western Han dynasty period Ban Liang cash coins with horizontal and vertical lines as well as with raised dots began to be seen, these could possibly be explained as representing the stars, moon, and sun.

[30] During the reign of the Han dynasty Empress Lü Zhi an edict was issued prohibiting private citizens from producing money, meaning that that counterfeiting had run rampant.

[30] Although later in subsequent dynasties in Chinese history they would again attempt to prohibit non-state coinage production the private market would continue to produce cash coins to offset demand.

While the primary purpose of this production was to be profitable, a good part of the casting was because the ancient Chinese people believed that coin-like charms can avert misfortune, to celebrate happy events, and to control evil.

[82] An alternative hypothesis for the appearance of "dots" (or "stars"), crescents (or "moons"), "auspicious clouds", and "dragons" on cash coins is that they relate to the philosophy and religious beliefs present in ancient China during the Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasty periods.

[82] Therefore, the extended meaning of a "moon" (represented as "dots") and the "(auspicious) clouds" on ancient Chinese coinages was that the currency should circulate just like the flowing, gushing, and rising waters of the world.

[87] During the Han dynasty a type of cast amulet known as Coiled Dragon and Stars (龍扭星) appeared, these are also referred to as Graters and Curry Combs, and are mentioned by Lu Zhenhai (卢振海) in his 1991 work Chinese Old Talismanic Coin Register (中国古代压胜钱谱, Zhōngguó gǔdài yā shèng qián pǔ).

[89] According to a November 2011 article in the Microchemical Journal entitled Corrosion behavior and morphological features of archeological bronze coins from ancient China, the chemical composition of the Wu Zhu cash coins of the Han dynasty from the Zhongguan minting site hoard have been systematically investigated by the means of optical microscopy (OM), X-ray diffraction (X-RD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with backscattered electron (BSE) detector, and energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) techniques.

[115] The elemental compositions of the alloys of the Wu Zhu cash coins attributed to the Western Han dynasty period from this hoard on average was found to be 84.8–85.4 wt.% copper (Cu), 3.3–6.1 wt.% tin (Sn), 4.7–6.4 wt.% lead (Pb), and 2.6–2.9 wt.% antimony (Sb).

[115] In the 2021 article Chemical studies of Chinese coinage II: from Qin to Yuan (221 BCE–1368 CE) by A. M. Pollard and Ruiliang Liu published in the journal Heritage Science the researchers noted the median levels of iron found in the alloys of cash coins jumped from the Qin dynasty period to the Western Han dynasty period, Pollard and Liu hypothesised that this might have been a reflection of the slagging processes in the production of the copper.