How do I find out the origin of the name? Maybe some one knows the answer? Lovely quilter in my quilt group brought in a beautiful one that she is working on & we got to wondering why the pattern is called Chinese Coins (square blocks ) when chinese coins are round!
TIA Nana
The old Chinese coins were round with holes in the middle. They could be stacked on a stick to facilitate carrying them around. My husband has Chinese philatelic stamps with old coins pictured on them. If you think of a stack of these coins viewed from the side you can see the origin of the block name.
Louise in WA
There are at least two different blocks called Chinese Coins.
One isn't so much a block as a method. A lot of short narrow strips sewn together like a stack, with one wide long strip sewn on each side of the stack. Debra in VA See my quilts at
Hello! I'm usually a lurker, but this is something I am interested in too. I have attached a link of a pattern I have, but it's called "African Coins," made from African fabrics.
Is this the way the Chinese Coins quilt looks?
Isn't that lovely - so different; but, indeed that is the pattern I think of as Chinese Coins. . In message , Mignon writes
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