Jerry E. writes:Â I found a coin after a severe storm. It is slightly smaller than a U.S. quarter but about the same weight. It has Chinese (?) or Oriental writing on both sides. It has a square hole in the center of the coin. Any ideas??? Thanks.
You have a Chinese “Ch’ien” or Cash coin. They were first made in about 618 AD under the Emperor Kao Tsu, the first emperor of the Tang dynasty, and continued to be made, usually by casting, until the end of the 19th century. It was a denomination that existed for a long period of time in the Chinese Empire. The most common ones were minted from about 1875 to 1908 but some earlier pieces can sometimes be found in quantity also. They were usually cast or minted from brass. It is also where we got OUR word for “cash”.
Cash coins were stored on squared wooden sticks that had a hinged wood piece at each end, ergo the reason for the square hole in the coin. The coins were often strung together through the central hole. Theoretically one string of cash contained 100 ch’ien but sometimes only contained 95 cash. Strings with only 95 cash were known as a “titsz”. Ten strings of cash were called a “tiao” but couldn’t include more than two titsz for the tiao to be considered complete. Ch’ien were minted in denominations of 1, 2, 5 and 10 Cash with the latter two denomination similar in size to a U.S. half dollar and dollar.
Though cash was used for a great deal of commerce, just like in the western world, silver and gold were considered the “real” money. An ounce of silver or tael was worth anywhere from 700 to 2,000 cash depending on the local market price of silver.
Current values: 15 cents to $35.
