List of coin hoards in China


The list of coin hoards in China lists significant archaeological hoards of coins, other types of coinages or objects related to coins discovered in China. The history of Chinese currency dates back as early as the Spring and Autumn period, and the earliest coinages took the form of imitations of the cowrie shells that were used in ceremonial exchanges. During the Warring States period new forms of currency such as the spade money, knife money, and round copper-alloy coins were introduced. After unification of China under the Qin dynasty in 221 BC the Ban Liang cash coin became the standard coinage, under the Han dynasty the Wu Zhu cash coins became the main currency of China until they were replaced with the Kaiyuan Tongbao during the Tang dynasty, after which a large number of inscriptions were used on Chinese coinages. During the late nineteenth century China started producing its own machine-struck coinages.
In Chinese culture coins are often used as burial objects and it's not uncommon for coins to be discovered in tombs and graves.
Occasionally foreign coins are also found in China, which were brought there through international trade routes such as the silk road, overseas trade with foreign countries, and colonialism. And because of trade with other countries large quantities of Chinese coins have also been found in neighbouring countries like Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, as well as far away places like Elcho Island, Kenya, and Yukon.

Cleaning of coins by Chinese archaeologists

As Chinese archaeologists frequently unearth ancient Chinese cash coins and other forms of historical currency at tomb sites, these unearthed bronze coinages often to be severely corroded because of the fact that they have been buried for hundreds or thousands of years, this sometimes means that the inscriptions on them can't be read. While archaeologists working at a site tend to do everything very slowly and do it as methodically as possible in order to avoid doing any damage to the buried cultural relics, this approach isn't taken with cash coins because they are often vital in order to date the tombs or ruins. With ancient Chinese cash coins archaeologists tend to be less concerned about their preservation and clean them in order to identify them.
To clean bronze cash coins Chinese archaeologists will simply put them in a mild acid like vinegar to soak for a period of 2 or 3 days, after this process is done the surface dirt and some of the corrosion will be removed. The cash coins are then removed by the person doing the cleaning, and they will them scrap out any leftover corrosion in the Chinese characters by using a toothpick. After this process us done, a rubbing is usually made of the unearthed coins.
On the contrary, it is usually said among coin collectors to not clean their coins because the cleaning process will often lessen the coin's market value or in some cases even ruin it.

1950s

1950s (Mainland China)

1960s

1960s (Mainland China)

1970s

1970s (Mainland China)

1972

1972 (Mainland China)

1974

1974 (Mainland China)

1977

1977 (Mainland China)

1980s

1983

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1984

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1990s

1990s (Mainland China)

1990

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1992

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1996

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1997

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1999

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2000s

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2000 (Hong Kong)

2002

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2005

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2006

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2007

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2008

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2009

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2010s

2010

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2011

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2011 (Hong Kong)

2012

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2013

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2015

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2016

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2018

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2020

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