Chinese coins were produced continuously for around 2,500 years by casting in moulds, rather than being struck with dies as with most western coins.

Collectors can obtain affordable yet old, beautiful, and interesting coins associated with all the main periods of Chinese history. Many appreciate the fine calligraphy and the patina accumulated by these coins over the centuries.

Numismatists find many challenges in attributing both ancient and comparatively recent coinage.

The rise and fall of the quality of the coinage reflects the fortunes of the successive dynasties in Chinese history.

The earliest coinage of China was described by Sima Qian, the great historian of c. 100 BC:

"With the opening of exchange between farmers, artisans, and merchants, there came into use money of tortoise shells, cowrie shells, gold, 钱 qian (coins), 刀 dao (knives), and 布 bu (spades) This has been so from remote antiquity."

While nothing is known about the use of tortoise shells as money, gold and cowries (either real shells or replicas) were used to the south of the Yellow River.

Although there is no doubt that the well-known spade and knife money were used as coins, it has not been demonstrated that other items often offered by dealers as coins such as fish, halberds, and metal chimes were also used as coins.

They are not found in coin hoards, and the probability is that all these are in fact funerary items.

Archaeological evidence shows that the earliest use of the spade and knife money was in the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC).

As in Ancient Greece, socio-economic conditions at the time were favourable to the adoption of coinage. Cowries

Inscriptions and archaeological evidence show that cowrie shells were regarded as important objects of value in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1766-1154 BC).

In the Zhou period, they are frequently referred to as gifts or rewards from kings and nobles to their subjects. Later imitations in bone, stone or bronze were probably used as money in some instances.

Some think the first Chinese metallic coins were bronze imitations of cowrie shells found in a tomb near Anyang dating from around 900BC, but these items lack inscriptions.

Similar bronze pieces with inscriptions, known as 蚁鼻钱 Yi Bi Qian (Ant Nose Money) or 鬼脸钱 Gui Lian Qian (Ghost Face Money) were definitely used as money.

They have been found in areas to the south of the Yellow River corresponding to the State of Chu in the Warring States period. One hoard was of some 16,000 pieces.

Their weight is very variable, and their alloy often contains a high proportion of lead.

The name Ant (and) Nose refers to the appearance of the inscriptions, and is nothing to do with keeping ants out of the noses of corpses.

Gold

The only minted gold of this period known is Ying Yuan, which consists of sheets of gold 3-5mm thick, of various sizes, with inscriptions consisting of square or round stamps in which there are one or two characters. They have been unearthed in various locations south of the Yellow River indicating that they were products of the State of Chu.

One of the characters in their inscription is often a monetary unit or weight which is normally read as 爰 yuan. Pieces are of a very variable size and thickness, and the stamps appear to be a device to validate the whole block, rather than a guide to enable it to be broken up into unit pieces. Some specimens have been reported in copper, lead, or clay. It is probable that these were funeral money, not circulating coinage, as they are found in tombs, but the gold coins are not.