Qian2 in Chinese / Japanese...

錢 is the simplest way to say “money” in Chinese.

It can also mean cash, coins, or currency. It's also a surname, Qian, in China.

This also means coins in old Korean Hanja and Japanese Kanji (though they use a slightly alternate form in Japan, as seen to the right). In both Japan and Korea, this can simply mean “one cent.”

On the left side of this character is a radical, which means “gold” (or metal, depending on context).

On the right are two repeated radicals which currently mean “small” or “narrow” but used to kind of mean “tools” or “weapons.”

It's a bit of a stretch, but you could suggest that money = “gold weapons” or “gold tools” in Chinese. Many Chinese people would argue otherwise depending on what they know of or the way they understand the etymology of the right side radical. I've seen some who say it means “industrialized gold,” but I take that to mean “raw gold turned into coins.”

This can be the Chinese ancient surname Gan or current surname Qian. In Japanese, it can be the surname Nukui, Susumu, Ken, Kan, Kawaki, Kawai, Inute, or Inui.

The meaning of this character varies a lot depending on context. These meanings include dry, clean, foster, adoptive, heaven, male, masculine, enduring, or continual.

The “Gan” version of this character was converted to Simplified Chinese as 干 in 1965. However, the “Qian” pronunciation is not associated with 干. Though to add to the confusion, there is an unrelated Simplified Chinese character 千 that romanizes as “Qian” and is also a surname.