Chinese wen

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The cash is the English term for the currency of China from the 6th century BC until 1889 AD, with cash continuing to circulate into the 20th century, and a unit of measurement. The Chinese term was wén(Traditional Chinese: 文; pinyin: wén). Pre-modern Korea and Japan also derived their currencies, the Korean mun and Japanese mon, from the wén. The English word cash derives from the Tamil kāsu, a South Indian monetary unit, which was applied by European explorers to the Chinese wén.

Traditionally Chinese coins were cast in copper, brass or iron, and took such different kinds of shapes as hoe and knife, but they are most commonly in the form of round-shaped coins with a square or circular hole in the center. The hole enabled the coins to be strung together to create higher denominations, as was frequently done due to the coin's low value.

The world's first paper money, issued in China between the AD 7th and 15th centuries, was denominated in cash. A 2000-cash banknote can be seen here issued by the Qing Dynasty. The notes carried depictions of coins, sometimes in strings of ten. Historically they sometimes suffered from hyperinflation due to over production without sufficient coins to back them and were withdrawn.

In the 19th century, foreign coins began to circulate widely in China, particularly silver coins such as the Mexican peso. In 1889, Chinese currency began to be denominated in yuan and its subdivisions. One yuan was worth 1000 wén.

The wén was also a traditional Chinese unit of measurement equal to 1/10 of what the West called a candareen or approximately 37.8 milligrams.