Knife money

Knife money
Yan State knife money
Traditional Chinese	刀幣
Simplified Chinese	刀币
Literal meaning	Knife coin
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin dāobì
Traditional Chinese	刀錢
Simplified Chinese	刀钱
Literal meaning	Knife money
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin dāoqián
Traditional Chinese	金錯刀
Simplified Chinese	金错刀
Literal meaning	Gold-plated knife
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin jīn cuò dāo

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	dāobì

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	dāoqián

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	jīn cuò dāo

Knife money is the name of large, cast, bronze, knife-shaped commodity money produced by various governments and kingdoms in what is now known as China, approximately 2500 years ago. Knife money circulated in China between 600 and 200 B.C. during the Zhou dynasty.

There are several stories that attempt to explain how knife money was introduced but it is not certain if any or all are true. In one of the stories a prince who was running low on money to pay his troops allowed them to use their knives as a form of currency to barter with villagers and the medium became so popular that it became generally accepted. In another story, the same prince began accepting knives as payment for small fines in the place of the current legal ring money. Knife money may also have been brought in by sea traders from the Indian Ocean.

Knife Money is much the same shape as the actual knives in use during the Zhou period. They appear to have evolved in parallel with the Spade money in the north-east of China.

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Wikipedia