China led the ancient world by introducing shells as a medium of exchange and unit of account in commerce. Like many of their counterparts, our forebears at the end of the Neolithic Age used shells as money. Shells are durable and easy to carry and count so it was used as the universal equivalent. The unit of shell money is peng, which has evolved to mean "friend". Friend is our fortune indeed! There is no agreement on how many clustered shells a peng include. A cluster of 10 shells makes one peng, the commonly held standard unit.
At the end of the Shang Dynasty, northerners in China found it was hard to find enough shells from the south, so they used other materials like pottery, stone, bone, jade, bronze and gold to make shell-shaped money. The bronze shell-shaped coins heralded the mintage of Chinese coin. It was a great leap in the evolution of Chinese currency. Featuring the comparatively unified size, weight and value, the bronze shell-shaped coin entered the circulation smoothly.
After the Spring and Autumn Period, Chu State (present-day Hubei and Hunan) minted coins with Chinese characters. Some of them looked like ants climbing along a nose and some like the face of ghosts. In north China, gold shell, silver shell and gold-plating bronze shell appeared.
Spade-shaped and knife-shaped coins were also popular in northern China. The influence of shell did not fade though it staged out as a currency with the social and economic development.
Shell (bei) is an important character component in Chinese. Almost all things or acts concerning money have the component of shell, such as fortune, poverty, goods, trade, businessman, tribute, greed, expense, compensation, ransom, expensive (as well as noble), and cheap (as well as humble). People like to call their dear children or pets bao bei, or more sweetly bao bao or bei bei, which literally means treasure, and implies to honey or darling.
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Travelers' Voices on Shell Money
1.
Dec. 7,2008 17:21 Reply
Mrs.connie(usa) said:
is shell money worth anything now
Dec. 7,2008 19:25
Ms.Yuan(China) replied:
Shell was used as money in a certain period of Chinese history. But now shell is just shell. :)
Dec. 8,2008 22:02
Mr.White(United States) replied:
If now shell money is used, let's go to the seaside and find more shells. Hah! money, money, money
Jan. 3,2009 00:59
Ms.Ralph Anthony Gonzales(Philippines) replied:
Oh My Gosh.. China is really indeed very important to the stepping stones of our life today.. we have thank them for every discoveries they have made.. thanks a lot..
Jan. 3,2009 01:01
Mr.Ralph(Philippines) replied:
yeah.. shell is now a sea shell by the sea shore.. no value at all..hahaha.. look at those shells today.. are they very important today compared to what china's history have tell, are't they?
Feb. 20,2009 13:34
Mr.Nguyen(United States) replied:
Probably not
May. 11,2009 15:23
Ms.smugler(u.s.) replied:
no shell money is worth nothing now!
2.
Mar. 30,2009 20:08 Reply
Ms.Zoo(America) said:
well shell money is cool but id rather much prefer dollar bills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May. 9,2009 08:06
Mr.Ralph Anthony Gonzales(Philippines) replied:
well if that's your opinion.. no problem.. but,it's much important for us Asians to be informed where did our paper and coin moneys originated.. thanks..
May. 11,2009 15:20
Ms.smugler(U.S.) replied:
shell money is very cool i agree but they also invented paper money so i apreciate them both the same way!
3.
May. 11,2009 15:17 Reply
Ms.smugler(u.s.) said:
why did they use shell money did they think it was valuble in some way?
4.
Mar. 30,2009 15:38 Reply
Mr.bun(quebec) said:
why is it about shell money why not paper money?
May. 9,2009 08:02
Mr.Ralph Anhtony Gonzales(Philippines) replied:
Mr Bun.. Paper was only used when it was invented by the Chinese only after they use the shells as their currency..I think that the immediate predecessor to modern paper is believed to have originated in China in approximately the 2nd century CE, although there is some evidence for it being used before this date, while shells was used during the Neolithic Age, which has said to be started in 9500 BCE... that's all.. hope you'll understand..
May. 9,2009 08:04
Mr.Ralph Anthony Gonzales(Philippines) replied:
and shells are more imortant than paper money... addition to that..
5.
Mar. 23,2009 19:32 Reply
Mrs.richardson(usa) said:
what were the words written on the ancient money of china? or What two things would be written on money in ancient china?
6.
Mar. 22,2009 07:25 Reply
Mr.Smiley-Face :)((Australia)) said:
during the Qin dynasty, what currency were used that starts with "s"? please reply because i need to know the answer for my SOSE homework
7.
Feb. 4,2009 16:53 Reply
Mr.yay(China) said:
Get some money by the sea... Cool that China had counless rivers and lakes that time... Oceans were right beside the country
8.
Jan. 9,2009 22:06 Reply
Ms.nakeya(u.s.a) said:
well the shell money is made of bronze and the dollars are made of paper and they still use the bronze money they used it even when the emperor was not dead they worked hard to make that money and shell money is not under the sea and the shell money.
9.
Dec. 2,2008 08:15 Reply
Ms.smoodler(california) said:
i love shell money