Money is the product of commodity exchange. At the end of primitive society, the earliest currency was physical currency. Generally speaking, nomadic people use livestock and hides to realize the function of money, while agricultural people use grains, fabrics, farm tools, pottery, seashells, pearls and jade as the earliest physical money. According to archaeological excavations, a large number of pottery pots were unearthed as sacrificial objects in late Neolithic sites such as Banpo. Dawenkou culture buried a large number of pig heads and jawbones, indicating that pigs and pottery had played the role of monetary wealth in the late primitive society. But as we all know, the physical currency that was widely circulated in ancient times was a "shell". Because as physical currency, cattle, sheep, pigs and other livestock are inseparable, grains will rot, pearls and jade are too few, and knives and shovels are heavy, so they are finally concentrated on seashells as physical currency. Seashells can be used as neck ornaments, which are valuable and easy to carry and count, so they have been selected as the main currency in the long-term commodity exchange. In the archaeological excavation, a large number of natural shellfish were unearthed from the sites of Xia and Shang Dynasties, and shellfish were used as physical currency until the Spring and Autumn Period. Therefore, most of the words related to wealth and value in China Chinese characters are related to the word "Bei". Such as: expensive, capital, greed, poverty, wealth, purchase, etc.

China is the first country in the world to use coins. Three thousand years ago, many "copper-free shells" were unearthed in tombs in the late Yin and Shang Dynasties, which were the most primitive metal coins. By the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, in addition to Beibi coins, there were some metal-weighed coins in circulation, such as loose copper blocks, copper slag and copper ingots, which were also unearthed in archaeological excavations.

To sum up, in the late primitive society, the main currency form in Zhixia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties was physical currency, and natural shellfish was widely circulated. In the later period, a small amount of metal weighing currency and coinage appeared, which belonged to the period of currency germination and formation.

Why do ancient coins have square holes?

China unified the monetary system from the Qin Dynasty, and changed the irregular coin style of past dynasties into the shape of the inside of the outer circle. Why do coins have square holes? One is that people think that the sky is round, so it evolved from the natural environment; First, the ancient traffic was underdeveloped and there was a shortage of copper sources. The shape of the square hole is mainly used to facilitate the passage of wires and ropes. Right and wrong, there is no agreement. Later, with the excavation of a large number of ancient coins, especially unearthed kiln collections, the mystery was finally solved.

As we all know, ancient coins are cast in groups, and the mold looks like a tree, saving time and materials. Experts call it a "cash cow". After coins are cast, they must be broken and polished one by one. In order to make grinding convenient and quick, clever craftsmen adopted square holes to prevent groups of coins from rolling and rotating freely when grinding on square bars. This is the real origin of square holes used in ancient coins. Kuangji China unified the monetary system since Qin Dynasty, and changed the irregular coin style of past dynasties into the shape of the inside of the outer circle. Why do coins have square holes? One is that people think that the sky is round, so it evolved from the natural environment; First, the ancient traffic was underdeveloped and there was a shortage of copper sources. The shape of the square hole is mainly used to facilitate the passage of wires and ropes. Right and wrong, there is no agreement. Later, with the excavation of a large number of ancient coins, especially unearthed kiln collections, the mystery was finally solved.

Interviewee: Thursday 1227- magic apprentice level 1 12-9 17:25.

Ancient coins are cast in groups, and the mold looks like a tree, saving time and materials. Experts call it a "cash cow". After coins are cast, they must be broken and polished one by one. In order to make grinding convenient and quick, clever craftsmen adopted square holes to prevent groups of coins from rolling and rotating freely when grinding on square bars. This is the real origin of square holes used in ancient coins. Kuangji China unified the monetary system since Qin Dynasty, and changed the irregular coin style of past dynasties into the shape of the inside of the outer circle. Why do coins have square holes? One is that people think that the sky is round, so it evolved from the natural environment; First, the ancient traffic was underdeveloped and there was a shortage of copper sources. The shape of the square hole is mainly used to facilitate the passage of wires and ropes. Right and wrong, there is no agreement.