great weight; pricelessness; 1000 pieces of gold
Literary or classical term. Literally '1000 kin' (a unit of weight) or '1000 pieces of gold', used figuratively for something of immense value or importance. In modern Japanese, it is mostly found in set phrases like 千金の重み or 千金に値する.
His single word carried the weight of a thousand pieces of gold.
This information is worth its weight in gold.
Standard kanji spelling for the figurative sense of great value or pricelessness.
Rare kanji spelling; 鈞 is an old unit of weight. Mostly encountered in classical or literary contexts.
From Chinese 千金 (qiānjīn), literally 'a thousand gold'. The reading せんきん is the on'yomi. The kanji 鈞 in the variant 千鈞 is an ancient Chinese unit of weight, reinforcing the sense of great weight or value.