Chinese Replica Bronze Knife and Spade Coils. Ornamental display box containing sixteen pieces of replica ancient Chinese bronze currency, including cowrie shell, spade, knife, and early round coin varieties.

Size: 6 1/2 x 1 1/2 x 12 in. 

Chinese knife and spade currency is some of the earliest known forms of metal money used in ancient China, dating roughly from the Zhou dynasty through the Warring States period (circa 7th–3rd centuries BCE). Rather than round coins, these currencies were cast in bronze in the shapes of everyday tools—spade money resembling agricultural hoes and knife money shaped like utility knives—reflecting their origins in barter economies where such tools had intrinsic value. Different states issued distinctive regional types with varying inscriptions, sizes, and weights, often naming cities, mints, or denominations. Over time, these symbolic tool forms became increasingly standardized and abstract, eventually giving way to round coins with square holes under the Qin dynasty, but knife and spade money remain crucial artifacts for understanding the early development of currency, trade, and state authority in ancient China.

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