Ancient Chinese silver coins.

As late as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, silver coins with a certain shape were produced.

In the mid-1960s, burial coins wrapped in gold and silver foil lead cakes were unearthed from Chu tombs in Jiangling, Hubei, indicating that the Chu State had already used silver coins in the form of round cakes.

In 1974, 4 silver shell coins were unearthed from the Zhongshan State ruins during the Warring States Period in Hebei Province.

In the same year, 18 pieces of silver cloth coins were unearthed in Gucheng Village, Fugou County, Henan Province, including 1 piece with a hollow first piece of cloth and 17 pieces with a flat first piece. They were all silver coins of the Chu State during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

China's silver currency is divided into two types: silver taels and silver yuan.

Silver yuan is a product of modern imitation of foreign silver yuan.

Yin Liang is a weighing currency in ancient China. Its quality must be tested, its weight must be weighed, and its value must be determined before it can be used as currency.

Its shape and specifications vary with the times.

There are mainly rod (collar), round cake-shaped, flat (collar), horseshoe-shaped, boat-shaped, hammer-shaped and other shapes.

Before the Song Dynasty, it was mostly called a collar. In the Song Dynasty, it was renamed as a piece of ingot. After the Yuan Dynasty, it was generally called a Yuanbao.

The silver coins of the Han Dynasty were mostly used in rewards, taxes, atonements, collections, or in trade with foreign countries. The earliest legal silver coins seen in official documents were the third-grade platinum coins cast in the fourth year of Yuanshou, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (119 BC), and were made of silver-tin alloy.

Coin material, pure white in quality and color.

The first type is a round dragon coin with a dragon pattern on it, called "Baixuan", which weighs eight taels and is worth four and a half taels of copper and three thousand coins each.

The other type is a square horse coin with a horse pattern on it. It weighs six taels and is worth five hundred.

There is also an oval turtle coin with a tortoise shell as the coin pattern. It weighs four taels and is worth three hundred. However, it is a "virtual coin" and will be abolished soon.

At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang began to implement currency reform in the second year of Jushe (AD 7) and issued two grades of "silver goods". "Ordinary silver" was worth eight taels per flow, worth a thousand coins, and "Zhu Ti silver" was worth one thousand yuan per flow.

One thousand five hundred and eighty articles.

From the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Sui Dynasty, silver coins were used to a certain extent. For example, in the inland trade in the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, more and more silver coins were used for large payments.

The main forms of silver coins during this period were silver collars, silver cakes, etc.

In 1955, two silver five-baht coins were unearthed from the Six Dynasties Tomb No. 5 in Huangjiaying outside Guanghuamen, Nanjing. They were made after copper coins and may not have been used for circulation.

During the Tang and Five Dynasties, silver began to officially enter circulation.

Some large payments are made in silver, others such as taxes, rewards, tributes, alms to fasting monks, military expenditures, annual official salary atonement, gifts, relief and disaster relief, debts, etc. Silver is also sometimes used, especially in the Jiaoguang area of ????Lingnan.

"All purchases and sales are made in silver."

Silver coins of the Tang and Five Dynasties include collars, cakes, sheets, wats, bamboo shoots, boat shapes and silver coins.

In 1970, 421 pieces of silver "Kaiyuan Tongbao" were unearthed from the Tang Dynasty hoard in Hejia Village, Xi'an. They were probably not currency at that time.

In addition, Anyong's silver cakes and other items were also unearthed, which were tax-related silver as tribute.

In 1956, fifty-two large silver collars were unearthed from the Daming Palace in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, and were presented by Miao Fengqian and Yang Guozhong.

In 1962, a small silver collar "one collar weighing 21 taels" was discovered in Guancun Temple, Lantian County, Shaanxi Province.

Most of these silver collars have inscriptions engraved on the front and back, which contain the name, title, year and reason of the person who paid tribute.

In the Song Dynasty, silver coins had become a type of national legal tender, widely used by private and official people, and were not subject to regional restrictions. They were circulated throughout the country and were also the redemption fund for paper money at that time.

However, silver had not yet fully acquired the two basic functions of value measure and circulation means in the Song Dynasty.

Silver in the Song Dynasty came in many forms, the most common being ingots, which came in several sizes.

The large ingot weighs fifty taels, while the small ingots vary in weight, including twenty-five taels, twelve taels, seven taels, three taels, etc.

The two ends of the large ingot are mostly arc-shaped and girdle-shaped, with chiseled characters on them, including the place name, usage, heavy liang, names of officials and craftsmen, etc.

Silver ingots from the Song Dynasty have been unearthed many times.

In 1955, 293 pieces were unearthed from Shizhai Mountain in Huangshi City, Hubei Province, ranging in size, with a total weight of about 3,400 taels.

In 1958, 5 pieces were unearthed from the Balinzuo Banner of Zhaowuda League in Inner Mongolia.

In addition, the court of the Song Dynasty also minted many gold and silver coins, which were used as money for burials, rewards and gifts, and money for spreading accounts or laundering children when getting married. The "Qingyuan Tongbao" silver coin unearthed in Changsha, Hunan and the handed down "Taiping Tongbao" silver coin

All fall into this category.

In the second year of Cheng'an (1197), Zhang Zong of the Jin Dynasty minted "Cheng'an Baohuo" silver coins, which were divided into five grades from one to twelve taels, and each tael was worth two coins.

This was the beginning of legal counting of silver coins in China.

In the Jin Dynasty, people mostly used silver to discuss prices, and transactions were entirely in silver. In 1981 and 1985, five gold-dated "Cheng'an Baohuo" silver ingots were discovered in Heilongjiang Province. The face value was one and a half, weighing 59.3 grams, with handwriting and treasury stamps.

The shapes are almost identical.

In addition, silver ingots from the Zhenglong, Dading and Fenghe years have also been discovered.

The monetary role of silver in the Yuan Dynasty developed day by day. Not only were silver used for loans, salaries, awards, merit awards, labor remuneration, large transactions and taxes, but prices were also expressed in silver. Even the reserves for issuing banknotes were also used in silver.

Silver is the standard.

During this period, silver had established its currency status and became one of the folk currencies in the Yuan Dynasty.

Its form is still mainly ingots, which are in the shape of flat weights, fifty taels in size, with names such as place names, supervisors, treasury envoys, treasury deputy, Tijusi, scales, silversmiths, etc. engraved on them.

In the third year of Zhiyuan (1266), silver ingots began to be called "Yuanbao".

In addition, in the Yuan Dynasty, "Dachao Tongbao", "Zhiyuan Tongbao", "Yuanzhen Tongbao" silver coins and a kind of temple donation money were also minted.