Қытайдың бірінші бірыңғай ақшасы: Ban Liang

Chinese cash coin

The Ban Liang (Traditional Chinese: 半 ; Pinyin: bàn liǎng) was the first unified currency of the Chinese empire, first minted as early as 378 BCE and introduced by the first emperor Qin Shi Huang as China's first unified currency around 210 BC (although coins with this inscription already circulated in the State of Qin prior to unification). It was round with a square hole in the middle. Before that date, a variety of coins were used in China, usually in the form of blades (knife money, spade money) or other implements, though round coins with square holes were used by the State of Zhou before it was extinguished by Qin in 249 BCE. The Ban Liang corresponds to a "half tael" (半兩), or twelve zhu (銖, about 0.68 grams). It typically weighs between ten and six grams, roughly corresponding to the Greek stater. The standardization of currency with this round coinage was part of a broader plan to unify weights and measures during the Qin empire. Ban Liang coins continued to be used under the Western Han dynasty until they were finally replaced by the Wu Zhu cash coins in 118 BC.

The Ban Liang coins predate the Chinese Empire and were originally cast during the Warring states period by the State of Qin; these coins circulated alongside cloth money. Qin State coins were inscribed with the Chinese characters "Zhu zhong yi liang" (珠重一兩, "pearls (round coins) heavy one liang"), which might have been kind of lot numbers, while other early State of Qin weighed half a tael or one zi {中冖田} (甾, 錙), which was six zhu. 1 tael coins tended to have a round centre hole, and half tael coins a square hole. The reverse side of all of these early round coins were blank. The Ban Liang cash coins of the Warring States period typically have a diameter between 32 and 34 millimeters and weight of 8 grams. In order to consolidate central power of the new Qin dynasty, Qin Shi Huang proceeded to standardise the various scripts, weights, and measures that existed among the various states. In the year 186 BC, or the 5th year of Empress Lü, the government officially set the weight of the Ban Liang at 8 zhu and the inscription was now written in clerical script. Despite being superseded by cash coinages with other inscriptions, the Ban Liang would continue to circulate in the Han dynasty. while other were written in different fonts such as the Han dynasty coins cast under Empress Lü written in Regular script, or a rare Ban Liang made from silver in the Qin dynasty, A variant with a reverse inscription known as “Liang Ban” (兩半) coins were also cast, cash coins with reverse inscriptions are known as chuan xing (傳形). this is due to the Han dynasty government constantly changing weight standards for the coins many variants from that era exist.

Western Han dynasty variants include: Other specimens of iron Ban Liang cash coins were also unearthed in the province of Sichuan.

Historically Ban Liang coins were very rare in the numismatic community, but as many of them were excavated and exported from China in the 1990s they have become extremely common today with their prices having been dramatically decreased as a result.