Currency arose in the progress of trading goods. With the development of the social economy, it evolved from metal coinage into paper money and from being cast into being machined. Being time-honored items, various forms of currency have constituted a unique monetary system in China.

As a predominant form of Chinese currency, cast copper-alloy coins boasted a lifespan of over two thousand years. In the pre-Qin period, coins came in various shapes, such as spades, knives, discs, and ant-nose cowries. After the Qin united China, these coins were replaced by a uniform coin featuring a square hole in a round face. Despite the Zhu-Liang System finally being supplanted by the Bao-Wen System, this coin form became the classical style for Chinese cash coins that remained in use till the late Qing dynasty. Legend writing in various scripts was characteristic of coins in imperial China. The economic boom afterward greatly increased the demand for cash coins, consequently pushing the advance of mint technology.

Silver money and paper notes joined the family of Chinese currency in a particular socio-economic context. They became predominant forms of currency after phasing out traditional cash coins.

The inflow of foreign money to China from the Han dynasty onward helped improve the Chinese monetary system, and Chinese currency, in return, had a profound influence on neighboring countries and regimes across China's international borders.

Currency embodies the politics, economy, and culture of a country. It witnesses the accumulation of social wealth throughout history. It not only embraces the past and present but also envisions the future.

The birth of Chinese Coinage was the fruit of the social division of labor and the growing commodity enonomy in imperial China. Chinese coins first appeared in the Shang and Zhou dynasties when bronze agricultural tools used for barter evolved into small items serving as money. In the Spring-and-Autumn and Warring States periods, cast bronze coins took the form of a tool such as a spade or a knife. These coins exhibited various shapes and monetary units due to political, economic, and geographical differences, indicating a flourishing monetary ecomomy of pre-Qin China.

After the Qin united China, bronze Banliang (半两钱) was the legal tender of the country. From then on, a round face with a square hole in the middle became a classical form of ancient Chinese coins, which played a significant role in the history of Chinese currency and China's social economy.

The early Western Han dynasty still followed the Qin tradition of coinage. Under the reign of Emperor Wu, the Wuzhu coin, designed in a standardized form, was the main currency circulating in the Han territory. Its minting and issuance were confined to the central government. In this period, the monetary economy was improving. The rise of Wuzhu coins helped the Han government strengthen its financial control, increase tax revenues, and facilitate trading activities.

Spanning from Three Kingdoms, Western and Eastern Jins, Southern and Northern Dynasties ultimately to Sui, this era saw a setback in economy, represented by frequent issuances of nominal-denomination or base metal coins. In the meantime, cloth and grain were used as substitutes for coins in different periods and localities. When the Sui dynasty reunified China, it only cast one type of coin, a new Wuzhu coin, which terminated the 300-year turmoil of coinages starting from the late Han.

Kaiyuan Tongbao (开元通宝; lit. 'Ciruculating Treasure from the Inauguration of a New Epoch') was a type of cash coin first issued in the early Tang dynasty. It initiated the practice of the Bao-Wen System (宝文制), a coinage system that integrated the character '宝' (lit., 'treasure'; bao) into the legend of a coin and used '文' (lit., 'a penny'; wen) as the smallest monetary unit. From then on, the name of a coin comprised two parts—an emperor's reign title and a phrase such as Tongbao (通宝; lit. 'circulating treasure'), Zhongbao (重宝; lit. 'heavy treasure') or Yuanbao (元宝; lit. 'inaugural treasure'). Older coins inscribed with weight units, such as zhu (铢) or liang (两), were withdrawn from the markets. After the An Lushan Rebellion and the Resurgence under Shi Siming, the Tang imperial government saw a decline in its monetary economy yet a simultaneous boom in the commodity economy. From the mid-point of the Tang onward, the lack of cash coins in circulation resulted in the emergence of large-nominal-value coins.

After the collapse of the Tang dynasty, another peirod of disunity ensued, known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, when large-denomination coins and base metal coins prevailed in China, indicating the economic deterioration of this chaoitc era.

Cash coins served as a predominant currency in the Song dynasty when their mint output peaked, which signified an unprecedented advance of the Chinese monetary economy. Silver played an increasingly significant role in the tex revenues of the Song government, while paper money first appeared in certain localities to replace metal coins. The juxtaposition of the Song government and the ethnic regimes in China contributed to the frequent economic interactions between the North and the South, and the Song currency has a significant impact and influence on the ethnic money circulating in the Liao, Jin, and Western Xia territories.

Despite the Song coinage partly inherited by the Yuan dynasty, paper currency became the predominant circulating money in the Mongol territories. This regime played a leading role in managing paper scripts among its contemporaries.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, cash coins started to bear denominations on their reverse sides. Despite the Dazhong Tongbao cash coins being still produced and ciuculated in the early Ming period, Zhi Qian (制钱), standard cash coins produced by the imperial government, arose in the middle and late Ming periods. In the early Qing dynasty, provincial mints were founded across China and were ordered to cast their Manchurian mint names on the reverse of coins. The apparent rise in cash coin output from the 18^th century onward reflected the increasing demand for currency due to the economic boom of the era.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, silver money circulated on a larger scale and was used to pay taxes and corvee labor. In the Qing dynasty, silver became a common currency in people’s life. The Ming and Qing emperors attempted to use paper currency but failed due to poor circulation.

In the final years of the Qing dynasty, western machines and mint technologies were introduced to China as an integral part of economic transformation. Consequently, Chinese machined coinage arose in the late 19^th century and rapidly entered circulation. This inovation of mint technology helped expedite the currency reforms in the late Qing, thus establishing a predominant role of silver dollars in the Chinese currency system that continued until the rise of the fabi (法币; lit. 'the fiat currency') in the Republic of China.

With the growth of commodity economy and sea trade, a new financial system took shape in the late Qing period. The Republic of China witnessed a fast development in its modern banking system, with banknotes issued by various institutions, including state-owned or provincial government banks, local Chinese commercial banks, foreign banking corporations, and other private-run finacing organizations.

Currencies issued in the Revolutionary Base Areas refer to the coins and paper notes produced by CPC-led financial institutions and organizations in different phases of the Chinese New Democratic Revolution. These currencies were minted by the Communist Party of China (aka. the CPC) to boost the economy in revolutionary base areas. Using whatever expertise, supplies, and technology available, they were unstandardized currencies with a starkly simple design. Banknotes and bills of credit of this period manifested the purpose of issuance, political views, and the financial policy of the CPC. Maintaining currency stability was a monetary policy that the Party would always adhere to. Their growth accompanied the long and hard progress of the Chinese New Democratic Revolution.