Money is not something that exists at the beginning of human social life, but a general equivalent that is gradually separated in the process of human commodity exchange, as early as ancient human times, due to the low level of productivity, the public ownership system within the clan is implemented, and the occasional exchange between clans is also barter, without any fixed medium of exchange.
Along with the continued development of social production and the emergence of the phenomenon of private ownership, resulting in the exchange of labor products between clans becoming more and more necessary, so the social demand for barter exchange is increasing day by day, and the I Ching department records that Japan and China are the city, to the people of the world, to the people of the world, to gather the goods of the world, to trade and retreat, each to get what it wants, and its process and scene truly reflect the original public ownership of the mainland, towards the disintegration of this kind of socialized commodity exchange.
And this inconvenience of barter eventually led to some mediums of exchange, separated from general commodities, in ancient times on the mainland, such as livestock, grain, pearls, shells and small production tools, etc., have served as a medium for the ancestors to engage in product exchange, especially a natural shell from the ocean, because of its exquisite beauty, easy to carry, and widely loved and popular.
The reason why shell coins can obtain the status of general equivalents is because in ancient times it was preferential to have many conditions as a medium of exchange, 1 beautiful, 2 rare, 3 convenient, 4 not easy to break, this period is about 5,000 years ago in the late Neolithic period.
Natural sea shells have been found in many cultural sites on the mainland, as well as artificial bone shells, stone shells, etc., which is the product of exchange at that time and the natural shellfish were insufficient when the artificial shell was replaced by a reflection, until today's Chinese characters related to wealth and economic and trade activities, the structure of which is mostly from the shell, which has also become a strong evidence of the production of shell coins as the original currency of the mainland.