Assistance With Chinese Ancient

Interesting. Thanks for posting those.

That would mean that square holes are very widespread before wide rims that require extensive filing.

Do you think the need to file the flash off the thin edges of Ban Liangs explains the introduction of square holes or something else??

SC

 

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In ancient Chinese theology, the heavens were round. In addition, since a circle is infinite, a circle represented an eternity in the afterlife. The “Bi” disks were typically burial objects with these ideas in mind.

Cowries were seen as fertility symbols, and hence they derived their value from that. Spades and knives were essential to survival more than others objects, and they were easily commoditized for trade more than other essentials, so that’s how they derived their value as money. It seems like a logical step that round coins came from an object with a particularly special meaning. Bi disks seem to meet that criteria with bronze being more affordable and accessible than jade.

Yep.

Not necessarily. The round-hole coins were filed to remove the casting sprue after being broken off the tree. That transferred over to the square-hole coins. Removal of the flash was much less of a concern until the use of rims became mainstream in the Western Han Dynasty.

Here’s an example of a Da Quan Wu Shi without the sprue nor flash filed off.

 

Wang Mang the usurper, there are still people like that today, they act all high and mighty but deep inside, nothing but a treacherous hypocrite.

 

To add to what TypeCoin971793 said. Chinese believed that heaven is round, the earth is square hence the square hole for Chinese coins. I am sure the continuation of using round coins is by no means a coincidence. Since the state of Qin used round coins while other waring states used other forms of money (Spades, ghost face, gold, knives, etc...). So when Qin unified China, one of the major accomplishments of Shihuangdi was that he standardize language and also currency. So the former 6 kingdoms had to use Ban Liang.
Later on Qin ban liang were found to be too heavy and people started to hoard it, so that's why in early han you see the ban liang were lighter in weight. Later ban lian were square hole and some even have rims, which was another great invention that was used up until even today.

 

Another reason is coin makers need to file away the edge of the coin to make them smooth, if you have a round hole, and you try to file it, the coins will move; with a square hole, the coins are stationary if you thread coins with a square face stick.