China small coinage

Perplexity

When were small denomination coins introduced at large in China? In imperial China, small-denomination coins were already present in the early Western Han, but they became widespread as part of everyday market use from the late Warring States into the Qin–Han period, roughly the 3rd–2nd centuries BCE.

​ Early small coins
By about 350 BCE, round coins (predecessors of later “cash”) had appeared and began to circulate more broadly.

​ After Qin unified China (221–206 BCE), a standardized bronze coin (the Ban Liang) was issued for the whole empire, giving a unified small-denomination medium of exchange.

​ Han-era proliferation of small change
At the start of the Western Han (around 200 BCE), the government allowed people to cast small light “elm seed” coins because the older Qin coins were too heavy for daily petty transactions.

​ In 182 BCE, the state formally introduced a 5‑fen coin, one‑fifth of the standard Ban Liang, explicitly as a smaller denomination piece; this marks a clear step toward abundant small change in circulation.

​ So if you are asking when small-denomination coins were first introduced “at large” in China in the sense of standardized, empire‑wide petty currency, the key window is from Qin unification (late 3rd century BCE) through the early Western Han reforms (early 2nd century BCE).

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