The money in China is not always circle. All the dynasties, the money used to be rectangle 铢, paper 票, and circle. And Before Spanish trading, the circle money in china has shown up, like the Qin dynasty, they use circle money in 221 BC.

Yep, fiat paper money was adopted in China since the 11th century.

The article is not about the origins of currency in Asia, nor on who first introduced (a) "circle currency", but why three major currencies ended up being named similarly (today).

Even if as the parent comment says China had round money previously that would not explain that, unless you can provide a line of reasoning similar to the one in the article showing how/why Korea and Japan ended up with "circle" based on that previous Chinese money the parent mentioned. Not that the article provides any hard prove, AFAICS it's conjecture based on what sounds likely, and I think it at least does sound a lot more likely than an explanation based on that Chinese 221 BC "circle money".

>Even if as the parent comment says China had round money previously that would not explain that, unless you can provide a line of reasoning similar to the one in the article showing how/why Korea and Japan ended up with "circle" based on that previous Chinese money the parent mentioned.

First, why wouldn't they? They borrowed terms and cultural ideas from one another all the time and have several words common. If anything, it's the theory in the article that has the burden of proof.

The title’s a bit hard to parse; I though “Asia” was a modifier to “Circles”. “Why is Asian Money Circular” might be clearer.

"Why is money called 'circles' in Asia?" is what I'd suggest.

Chinese money has always been round. Ironically they were called 方穿 (square through) money. They were there since the warring states era.

Article is about the etymology of yuan (circle) and it's derivatives like yen and won

圆 is a deep match for silver coins, because it also means full moon, which is the ultimate silver circle.