Chinese Cast Bronze Coinage

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AThese early currencies originally mirrored the shapes of everyday tools, most notably miniature bronze farming spades and knives.
BUnlike Mediterranean civilisations that struck metal discs, ancient China produced cast bronze money by pouring molten alloy into clay moulds.
CThis distinctive aperture allowed thousands of coins to be strung onto cords, facilitating larger commercial transactions across the empire.
DOver several centuries, such unwieldy shapes gave way to unified circular pieces that featured a central square hole.

Questions 2–5

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Assaying with Touchstones

AThe resulting metallic streak left on the stone surface was then compared against reference marks made by needles of known alloy purity.
BMerchants resolved this uncertainty by drawing the edge of a coin across a dark, fine-grained slate known as a touchstone.
CBy applying dilute acid to these streaks, an assayer could dissolve base metals and determine the exact gold content with remarkable accuracy.
DIn the ancient marketplace, verifying the purity of precious metal coins was essential for preventing fraud.

Medieval Hammer Striking

AA worker then placed one of these blank discs between two engraved bronze or iron dies.
BMedieval mints produced vast quantities of currency through a manual technique known as hammer striking.
CFirst, metalworkers prepared blank discs of uniform weight and thickness, called flans, from cast metal ingots.
DThe resulting coin was subsequently inspected for clarity before entering wider economic circulation.
EA heavy blow from a mallet on the upper die forced the metal to flow into the engraved designs simultaneously.

Medieval European Bracteates

ALocal authorities exploited this lightweight format to recall and reissue the currency annually, collecting lucrative reminting fees each time.
BDuring the twelfth century, regional rulers across central Europe began minting unusually thin silver coins termed bracteates.
CThis one-sided pressure produced a prominent raised image on the front while leaving a hollow impression on the reverse.
DBecause the metal sheets were exceptionally fragile, these novel coins could only be stamped on a single side using a wooden base.

Managing Bimetallic Currencies

AThis predictable commercial behaviour, later termed Gresham's Law, repeatedly disrupted domestic coin circulation and forced monetary reforms.
BUnder this system, national governments fixed an official exchange ratio between the two precious metals.
CHistorical monetary regimes frequently attempted to operate a bimetallic standard using both gold and silver coins.
DHowever, fluctuations in international mining supplies often caused the open market value of one metal to diverge from that legal rate.
EWhenever such disparities arose, traders systematically hoarded or exported the undervalued coinage while spending the cheaper metal.

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