 Other than that they were also used as “medical tools” particularly in the "guāshā" (刮痧) method, which was used against diseases like Cholera; this required the healer to scrape the patient's skin with cash coins as they believed that the pathogen remained stagnant underneath the patient's skin in a process called “coining”.Though in general any cash coin could be used in traditional Chinese medicine but the "Kai Yuan Tong Bao" was most preferred, and preferences were given for some specific coins for certain ailments E.g.the "Zhou Yuan Tong Bao" (周元通寶) was used against miscarriages.