When and why did round coins become a practical standard?
Upvote:14
I have to agree with the comments. Most coins have always been round but maybe some Asian countries have had more non-round coins than other areas of the world. But it also depends on what you want to call a coin. There's Chinese spade money from 650 BC for example. India has a long history of square coins which are definitely coins.
This one is from 450 - 350 BC. http://www.joelscoins.com/india.htm
This one is from 1976. https://indiancollectible.blogspot.com/2018/11/interesting-varieties-of-modern-indian.html
There are some more examples for India http://www.payer.de/quellenkunde/quellen0411.htm
Japan also had non-round coins. There are lots at this website from 18th and 19th centuries. http://www.coinvault.com/japan.htm
There are also examples from medieval times for the Muwahhids (Almohads). https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/david_l_tranbarger_rare_coins/159/product/islamic_muwahhids_almohads_c_12th13th_century_square_ar_dirham_sabta/646299/Default.aspx
And here is another modern one from Aruba. The Cook Islands has a triangular coin https://matadornetwork.com/read/7-coolest-currencies-world-stories-behind/
If you do some googling (square coins) you'll see that there are other examples and they come from different time periods. There's no clear pattern except that most coins have been round ever since man started making them. So I don't think we can say when round coins became a practical standard because most early coins were already round and because the situation was different in different regions at different times. But we might say that non-round coins are less common these days, maybe because of vending machines.
About why coin are mostly round, there are several ideas or theories about this. For example there's an article called Why are coins historically round and not square? which says
A little historically, a lot of coins were made by pressing down a small ingot with a pre-made stamp. This typically forces the metal into a rounded shape anyway and means less work to finish the coin – and coins had to exist in relatively large quantities.
Another article called Why Are Coins Round Instead Of Square Or Rectangle?
round coins are easier to Mint. A circular die simply needs to line up with the opposing circular blank to mint a coin successfully.
There are other practical reasons like
A round shape is less likely to wear down unevenly since no one part of it sticks out further than the rest from any angle.
http://www.herebeanswers.com/2017/09/why-are-coins-historically-round-and.html
Also in the days when coins value was because of its metal and weight, it was easy to cut off the corners but more difficult to do that with round coins. And then in the modern world there are vending machines which need coins to roll.
More post
- 📝 Why didn't Portugal found universities in its colonies like Spain?
- 📝 Did most major ancient cultures (e.g. the Mesopotamians) consider the heart as the main cognitive organ?
- 📝 Why was the Imre Nagy government deported to Romania?
- 📝 Military tactics specifically aimed against cavalry horses
- 📝 How many officers on board Type VII-C U-boat?
- 📝 What is this household object from early 1900s rural Russia?
- 📝 Where were the Mormons going?
- 📝 Need help interpreting "silver" hallmark - 1706?
- 📝 "Hat Hair" in History
- 📝 What was the role of U.S. involvement in World War II?
- 📝 Were concentration camp guards allowed to talk about their work at home?
- 📝 Which American Civil War admiral said he would not punish people for getting their ship close to the enemy?
- 📝 How was armour rusting in the rain handled throughout history?
- 📝 Why is the snake or asp the primary logo of medicinal organisations?
- 📝 How was Hitler able to rearm?
- 📝 Names of articles worn by men of ~11th century European nobility
- 📝 What "other property" was considered for representation at the Constitutional Convention?
- 📝 Published History of Harvard
- 📝 What media did Irenaeus used to write his letters?
- 📝 Did Britain look into taking California?
- 📝 Why were gravediggers, actors and former gladiators (but not slaves) banned from the Colosseum?
- 📝 Were women the property of men prior to 1919 in the UK?
- 📝 What would have happened had Stalin not had the Siberian forces help?
- 📝 Has there ever been an instance of an active nuclear power plant within or near a war zone?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that Richard Burton told John Speke he would return home via Jerusalem after their Nile Quest?
- 📝 Is the "youth bulge" hypothesis an evident explanation for imperialistic/rebellious historic movements and genocides?
- 📝 Why didn't Tiberius Gracchus seek the consulship?
- 📝 Who was the first military force to use teppo (guns) in mass battles during the Sengoku-jidai?
- 📝 Why did South Korea not go the same way as South Vietnam?
- 📝 Where is Ivan the Terrible's Library?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 When and why did round coins become a practical standard?
- 📝 When and why did having long hair become associated with women, and short hair with men?
- 📝 When and why did smiling at strangers and in photos become customary in the United States?
- 📝 Why did Nepal and Bhutan not become a part of India like other princely states when colonial rule ended?
- 📝 When and why did it become frowned upon to win a siege by starvation?
- 📝 When and why did "Near East" become "Middle East?"
- 📝 When and why did marriage become about love?
- 📝 When and why did single deity religions become more popular than multi deity religions?
- 📝 Why is physical skeuomorphism so prevalent and when did it become popular?
- 📝 When and why did the Democrats become the more liberal of the two main parties in the USA?
- 📝 When and why did blue become the colour of the British Conservative Party?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 When and how did the USA and the UK become allies?
- 📝 When and why did garum disappear?
- 📝 When and why did the use of the lifespans of royalty to limit clauses in contracts come about?
- 📝 When and where did socks become common?
- 📝 When and why did war chariots stop being used?
- 📝 When did the round house fall out of vernacular use throughout Britain and Ireland?
- 📝 When and how did the Han ethnic group become by far the biggest ethnic group in China?
- 📝 Gender Color Association: When did boys become blue and girls pink?
- 📝 Why was gold so popular and valuable back when it did not have many real world uses?
- 📝 How and why did trade unions in America become influenced by organised crime, but unions in Britain didn't?
- 📝 When did migration and international travel become legally limited?
- 📝 Why did Chicago and other cities choose an L (elevated metro) when most others chose underground subways?
- 📝 Where, when and why did the practice of proxy marriage originate?
- 📝 When did "skipping" grades become common and when did it stop in USA?
- 📝 Why and when did agriculture lose its prestige?
- 📝 Why did overestimated coins led to inflation and well-estimated coins to deflation?
- 📝 Why did the coins of England minted under Richard I and John bear the name of Henry?
- 📝 Why did Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Breznev wear military uniforms when Lenin and the later Soviet leaders did not?