幣 means “money, offering”

へい · hei

Also: cash, bad habit, humble prefix, gift

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

ぬさ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ヘイ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 15 strokes

The story

Cloth (巾) under 敝, a hand (攵) beating a torn cloth: 幣 was once a gift of silk to the gods or a guest. Shinto still waves 御幣, paper streamers on a wand, and the gift became money: 紙幣 is a banknote, 貨幣 currency.

Used in 紙幣 (shihei, banknote), 貨幣 (kahei, currency/coinage), and 造幣局 (zouheikyoku, the Mint)

More from Money & Markets

• 款 article
• 価 price
• 株 shares
• 融 melt
• 益 profit
• 債 debt
• 需 demand
• 購 buy
• 蓄 store up
• 卸 sell wholesale

Learn 幣 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.