From Shell and Copper - to Silver and Gold

The oldest means of monetary circulation in our region is considered to be, as in other Eastern countries, livestock, tools of production and labor. Archaeological studies of the earliest monuments of Central Asia, including Tian Shan, also show that cowrie shells - a type of marine gastropod mollusk - were used as money. These shells are oval in shape, resembling white porcelain, and were often used as ornaments. Due to their shape, they were also referred to as "snake heads" or "serpents." These shells are found in the Indian Ocean and the southern seas washing China. It is there that they first appeared as a form of money equivalent. The significance of cowries as one of the pre-monetary forms of money is eloquently illustrated by the Chinese character "bèi," which was adopted to denote them in China.
From a small area of the Maldives and Lakshadweep Islands, cowries spread as money to almost the entire Northern Hemisphere. They were known in India and Ceylon, Siam and Africa. They are found in ruins far from their homeland, in Slavic burial mounds, on the shores of the Baltic Sea, in ancient burial sites in Germany and England, Sweden and France. For millennia, this unremarkable shell reigned in the markets of many countries around the world...
By the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, bronze was known in China. It was then that the replacement of stone, bone, and clay items used as measures of value in the market began with coins made of more durable materials. Ancient Chinese money is known in the form of plates, bells, spades, hoes, and knives.

In Kyrgyzstan, near the station of Pishpek, a treasure of Chinese knife coins was accidentally discovered in 1972, which were in circulation in China from the 7th to the 3rd centuries BC. Unfortunately, they all spread into private hands, and only one knife coin was found by the collector G.I. Velichko. The ring-shaped top and the adjoining part of the handle are lost; only part of the handle and the blade remain, the edge of which is slightly curved inward. On one side of the blade, three characters are placed - the inscription, according to B.D. Kochnev, is very close to that published by the sinologist M.V. Vorobyov, - "standard coin of the state of Qi." Such coins were issued from the early 5th century BC until 221 AD, when the Qin dynasty unified the country and reformed the monetary system of China.
Another type of ancient Chinese coin, first recorded as money, is known as "wu-shu" in the Fergana region of Kyrgyzstan. Archaeologists find these coins in burials along with Chinese fabrics, mirrors, beads, and glassware - items of Chinese import. These items reached the cities and villages of Fergana via the Great Silk Road, which is believed to have been established after the well-known diplomatic mission of the Chinese ambassador Zhang Qian to the Western regions in the 2nd century BC.
However, the trade route existed earlier. This is evidenced, in particular, by the finds of wu-shu, which were issued during the reign of the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD). Currently, more than 300 coins from burial mounds are known. They were found by G.A. Brykina in Northwestern Fergana, in the Batken and Laylak regions, in the burial sites of Tashravat, and are dated to 118 BC and the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Some researchers believe that wu-shu reached Fergana no earlier than the 2nd century and were only used as ornaments. However, this conclusion seems debatable.