"Round money", also known as "round gold" and "ring money", is a circular currency minted in the Warring States period, mainly made of bronze, popular in the Qin and Wei states at that time. There are two main types of round money: one is a circular hole, which is relatively primitive; the other is a round square hole (gradually evolved from a circular hole). The perforation of the round money was relatively narrow in the early days, and gradually became larger later. The obverse of the round coin is inscribed with inscriptions, while the reverse side is devoid of any writing.
Round money evolved from ancient jade bibi and spinning wheels. The different units of currency minted by the money body are, that is, the unit of "two" and the unit of "釿", and the qi and Yanyuan coins with the traditional monetary unit "knife" as the name.
"Round money" was a progressive form of coinage in the middle and late Warring States period. The earliest round money was generated in the politically and economically advanced State of Wei. Such as the face text "垣", "Gong" characters, etc. This form of coin is easier to carry than "cloth coin" and "knife coin", and it is also convenient to accept each other, which meets the needs of commodity exchange and development. Its emergence gave rise to a new coinage system, which was emulated by various countries in the Warring States period. First, the Zhao and Qin states imitated casting, and then there were Qi guo and Yan guo imitation casting
The following figure shows a product of Warring States Round Money "Fengping", this money old life pit, bronze material, Qian wen "Fengping" large seal characters, cloth on the left, above and below, calligraphy is simple, the face text "Fengping", ancient place names, Weiyi in the Warring States period, in the territory of present-day Xipu County, Shaanxi Province, the Warring States Circular Coin inscription is generally a ji place name, qian back flat textless. Diameter 31 mm, perforation 8.5 mm, weight 8 g.
