The great dynasties in history, such as the Han, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, have ancient coins of the Dazhen level, of course, there are also ancient coins with a large number of surviving ancient coins, but in comparison, you will find that the money of the Ming Dynasty is generally more expensive, why is this?Anyone who knows about the monetary system of the Ming Dynasty knows it.
The monetary system of the Ming Dynasty includes paper money, copper coins, and in some remote areas still exist, the original barter trading state, this composite monetary system has led to the reduction of copper coins, at this time some people will say that it seems that the Qing Dynasty is also a similar situation, and the length of time in the Ming and Qing dynasties is relatively similar, why there are so many copper coins in the Qing Dynasty, this is because of 4 factors.
First of all, the emperor likes, after the Song Dynasty, often minted coins after the change of the Yuan Dynasty to highlight the imperial power, it is somewhat obvious that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were not very keen on this matter, such as Jianwen, Hongxi, Zhengxi, Jingtai, Tianshun, Chenghua, Zhengde, these did not have official coinage, but followed the previous coinage, which led to a slightly less total amount.
The second is the prevalence of paper money, paper money from the Song Dynasty appeared through the Yuan Dynasty, to the Ming Dynasty when it was more mature, the Ming Dynasty and copper money mixed circulation, resulting in a decrease in the demand for copper money.
The third is because of the decrease in coinage, which is very good compared to the Yuanfeng period of the Song Dynasty, the annual minting volume is even as high as 5.06 million cans, that is to say, nearly 4 billion coins, and the Ming Dynasty minted more coins, such as Hongwu 26 years, this year the coinage is less than 200 million, and the Xuande Emperor reigned for 10 years combined, a total of 100 million coins were minted, and in the 50 years of the Ming Dynasty after Xuande, there was not even a new coin.
The fourth reason is that the later dynasties destroyed the casting, the Qing Dynasty was not confident enough in this aspect, and the amount of destruction in the early days was relatively large, so it caused a situation where there were fewer coins in the Ming Dynasty, so there are often friends**, the problem of the potential of ancient coins, and understanding the history of currency will become an important reference.