Knife money

Chinese knife coins were early history during the Chou dynasty (. 12th - 3rd century BC) made ​​of money transactions and befandliche outstanding payment. Since the bronze pieces were derived from the utensil knife, they first presented an intermediate form of device and coins dar. progresses, standardization and miniaturization they took, however, increasingly Münzstatus to. This concerns especially the v. from the 7th century BC in the kingdom of Qi provided with character pieces that identify them as official currency of the State and thus are among the oldest coins.

There are knives coins with three, four, five or six characters.