Chinese, Japan and Korean currency units whose names mean 'circle, round' together with round coins appeared in the 19th century under the influence of the Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight (Spanish real de a ocho, dólar, peso duro, peso fuerte, or peso), a silver coin worth eight Spanish reales. It was minted in the Spanish Empire following the monetary reform of 1497. It was widely used as an international currency because of it was consistend standard and milling characteristics. Some countries countermarked the Spanish dollar so it could be used as a local currency. In the Far East, it also circulated in the form of the Philippine peso, within the Spanish colonial empire through the galleons that transported Mexican silver pesos to Manila, where they were exchanged for Philippine and Chinese goods, since silver was the only foreign commodity China would accept.

In Chinese, these coins were called 'silver yuan' (银圆) or 'Western yuan' (洋圆). The specifications of the Spanish dollar became a commercial standard in the Far East. Later, United Kingdom issued colonial currencies such as the Hong Kong dollar (香港壹圆, 1866) and the Straits dollar, with the same specifications, i.e. a weight of 7 mace and 2 candareens (approx. 27.22 grams or 420 grains) and a fineness of 0.900 (90%). The names of these coins in China, Japan and Korea derive from 圓, meaning 'round or circular object' in Chinese; this link to the silver coins surviving in the modern names of the Chinese, Japanese and North and South Korean currencies, namely the yuan, yen, and won.

The first locally minted silver dollar, or yuan, accepted through Qing China was the 'silver dragon dollar' (龍銀圓) introduced in 1889. On 27 June 1871 the Meiji government officially adopted the yen as Japan's modern unit of currency under the New Currency Act of 1871. The Korean won was introduced in 1902.