When we think of ancient coins, the first thing we usually think of is copper coins. Copper coins have been widely used throughout the continent's long feudal history, but many people may not know much about copper coins.
Copper coins were first used during the Qin and Han dynasties, and have been used since the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic. After Qin Shi Huang unified the whole country, he unified many aspects, including currency. He abolished all previous coins, such as knife coins and shell coins, and traded them uniformly with copper coins. This is undoubtedly a pioneering decision, which has a far-reaching impact on future generations and has played a great role in China's social economy.
With the exception of a few regions, most ancient coins were minted from hard molds, sand molds, and cast metal liquids.
What is the use of the square hole in the middle of the bronze coin? In fact, this is related to the belief of the ancient Chinese, who believed that the world was a round place, and a round sky surrounded the earth, manifested on copper coins, that is, the shape was round, with a left inner square hole. Plus, the hole is easier to pierce and thread through.
Copper coins, which seem to be easy to make, were not so easy to imitate in ancient times. First of all, the characters on the copper coins were written by celebrities or great calligraphers, and the font was unique and difficult to imitate. Secondly, even if you want to re-mint a lot, you can't do it, because copper coins and iron coins are official monopolies, and ordinary people can't get a lot of copper coins and iron coins, let alone manufacture them. In the development process of ancient copper coins, it is also the process of the imperial court fighting wits and courage to fight against counterfeiters, and at the same time, ancient coinage technology is constantly improving and developing, and eventually becoming a representative coin of feudal society.