During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the development of commodity economy, the metal weighing currency that needs to be divided and identified in circulation gradually became unsuitable and was replaced by metal coins. From the Spring and Autumn Period to the metal coinage stage to the Warring States Period, four currency systems, namely cloth coin, knife coin, ant nose coin and ring coin, were established successively:

(1) Zhongyuan

That is, the royal families of Zhao, Han, Wei and Zhou, and cloth coins are mainly popular. Cloth coins are born out of bronze shovel-shaped farm tools, which is the homonym of "cloth". The cloth coins in the Spring and Autumn Period were mainly hollow cloth, that is, hollow hairpin with handle.

The cloth coins in the Warring States period were mainly flat-shouldered cloth, that is, compared with the "empty-shouldered cloth", they had no hollow handle, but were shaped like shovel-shaped copper sheets. The shape of cloth coins can be roughly divided into flat shoulders, shoulders, round shoulders, square feet, pointed feet, round feet and so on. The most common one is that it has evolved from flat shoulders or flat shoulders to shrugs, pointed feet and round shoulders, extending to Chu State and Yan State.

(2) There is Qi in the east and Yan in the north.

Mainly use knife coins. Knife coins are divided into "Yan Ming Dao" and "Qi Dao Hua". The shape of knife coins is similar to that used by northern nomadic people such as Shanrong and Beidi. Because the face of the knife has the word "Hua", it is called "Dao". The back of knife coin is divided into arc back, folded back and straight back, and the cutter head is divided into flat head and pointed head. It was also an early copper coin in China.

③ Northwest of Qin State.

Disposable ring coins are shaped like spinning wheels or jade walls. There are two kinds of ring coins: round hole and square hole. During the Warring States Period, round holes were cast earlier, and Wang Huiwen and Qin Shihuang in the late Qin Dynasty cast "half-liang" coins with round holes. Circular money is the original state of square hole money.

(4) Chu state in the south

The copper shell of coins is called ant nose money, which evolved from shell coins. Qian Wen, a copper shell, looks like a grimace, which is a combination of the word "shellfish". An ant's small nose means small money. Chu has bronze shell coins commonly known as "face money" and "ant nose money". In addition to ant nose money, Chu also has gold as the weighing currency, which is the only country in the Warring States period that used gold as the currency.

In a word, the four monetary systems in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period evolved from the tools of labor production such as knives, shovels and spinning wheels, which showed the regional characteristics and social features of economic life such as fighting, fishing and hunting, pottery making, textiles and trade exchanges. At the same time, the formation of the four major currency areas is also the product of the warlord regime. With the development of economy and commodity trade. The mutual circulation of currencies in various countries requires and correspondingly promotes the trend of unification and standardization of monetary systems.