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Message:: [QUOTE="TypeCoin971793, post: 2561504, member: 78244"]No. the key coins were cast 7-9 AD, whereas the earliest round coins were cast ca 300 BC. There were two types of round coinage, those with round holes and those with square holes. The round-holed coins were produced by states that produced mainly spade coins, while the square-holed coins were produced by states that made knife coins. As for the origins, I have read that the round-holed coins were inspired by jade rings that represented eternal life. These were valuable objects culturally, so their inspiration is analagous to that of the spade and knife coins. The square-holed coins have a dual-facet origin story. The legend goes that the coins were supposed to represent nature with the coins being "as square at the Earth (the hole) and as round as the sky (outer rim)." Also, the square hole was valuable from ease of production. As the coins were cast, they would have casting spries on the edge. With a square hole, the coins can be quickly stacked onto a sqaure peg and the edges filed down without rotating about the peg. Round-holed coins were ineffective in this regard, so the square hole was the type adopted by the state of Qin when they unified China's coinage in 221 BC. You can see the effect of the square peg when the coins were not aligned properly when they were shoved on: [ATTACH=full]552197[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]