Chinese Coins and Traditional Chinese Medicine Old Chinese "cash coins", which are round copper or bronze coins with a square hole in the middle surrounded by four Chinese characters, served as the major form of currency in China for two thousand years.

It is less well known, however, that Chinese cash coins are believed to have curative powers and have historically played a role in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Old cash coins have been used in two ways. One was to have the patient boil the coins in water and then drink the decoction as a form of medicine. The second use was for the Chinese doctor to use a cash coin as a medical tool or instrument to "scrape" the skin along acupuncture meridians to force an illness to move and dissipate.

The following is an introduction to these two uses of old Chinese cash coins in traditional Chinese medicine.