Why did no one fake the ancient silver ticket? Ancients: You take a good look at the seal on it, how to make it?
In costume films and television, we often see rich people who spend money with a lot of silver tickets to squander and show off. We can't help but ask, is the silver ticket made of paper reliable? It will not be fake, after all, the ancient anti-counterfeiting technology is very weak, and in fact, there have been silver ticket fraud cases in ancient times, but with the gradual improvement of anti-counterfeiting technology, the possibility of fraud has basically been eliminated, do not believe you look at the seal on the real silver ticket in ancient times, see how to build?
Since the Northern Song Dynasty, the earliest paper money "Jiaozi" appeared in the Sichuan region, which is the earliest paper money in the world, the earliest was only used as a stub, and later found to be very easy to use, easy to carry and trade, and gradually promoted. Later, the Song Dynasty government successively printed and issued several types of paper money, such as Jiaozi, Qianyin, Guanzi, huizi, etc., and also opened the world's first official institution responsible for paper money issuance, "Yizhou JiaoziWu".
During the Song and Yuan dynasties when paper money was just born, counterfeiting activities also reached a very widespread point. In order to combat counterfeit money, the Dynasties of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties enacted severe torture penalties, and later the top of the banknote was printed: "The counterfeiter is executed, and the first informant is rewarded with five ingots of silver." However, in the face of huge interests, there were many people who were desperate to take risks, until the Ming and Qing dynasties began to gradually disappear. Why did the arrogant criminal activity of counterfeiting paper money come to an abrupt end, and what anti-counterfeiting measures were taken, there are roughly the following methods:
First, control the printing materials
During the Song Dynasty, the officials responsible for banknote making found that Sichuan paper was bright and white, durable and complex in technology, and it was generally difficult to forge, so the "squeaky" Sichuan paper became a special paper for printing money, and the private sector was prohibited from purchasing. The paper used for the issuance of banknotes in the Qing Dynasty was mainly made of Koryo paper (circulating in other provinces) and white taiwanese paper (Beijing tickets) as raw materials.
Second, exquisite patterns and overprints
Ancient banknote printing patterns are very complex, print fine patterns, paper money patterns to houses, flowers and birds, characters, or the use of famous calligraphy and paintings, etc.; Qing Dynasty treasure banknotes to more to the dragon pattern mostly, outside the pattern sidebar, because of the complex graphics, counterfeiters are not easy to imitate; in order to be safe and anti-counterfeiting, silver bills with red, blue, black and other colors, which is about the beginning of two-color and multi-color overprinting.
3. Multi-stamping anti-counterfeiting
Ancient paper money, especially the earliest privately issued Jiaozi, must be officially recognized in printing and use, that is, the official will record the amount of money received on the Jiaozi, and after signing and deferring, it can be used as cash. When circulating, the imperial court issued a mark to each provincial capital and county Qianzhuang, and finally the qianzhuang issued another seal to the people, although the procedures are cumbersome, but it can also eliminate counterfeiting to the greatest extent.
Fourth, frequent replacement of ticket versions
Counterfeit banknotes were rampant in ancient times, and the government had to replace the version of the banknotes. The banknotes were originally printed on woodblocks, and later replaced by copper plates. After a year of use, the banknote version is replaced with a new version and the old version is destroyed.
5. Secret detention technology
The Jin merchants of the Qing Dynasty adopted secret detention technology to prevent counterfeiting, for example, the Rishengchang ticket number was changed for a total of 300 sets of secret detentions between 1826 and 1921. According to historical records, there has not been a single case of being impersonated.
6. The people shall establish money readers
The local government has set up money readers in the money bureau, who are specifically responsible for identifying the authenticity of silver bills, popularizing relevant knowledge, and charging a certain fee, which is a very effective method in the historical background of the relatively backward economy and culture of the ancient mainland.
7. Anti-counterfeiting seal
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Jin merchants in order to use a more absolute method of anti-counterfeiting, specially designed a micro-carving seal, the content of the micro-carving is Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface" complete one, is three hundred and forty or fifty words, the carving is very fine, the anti-counterfeiting function of this micro-carving seal belongs to the micro-carving anti-counterfeiting, it takes a high level of carving to carve out, especially in the carving, but also deliberately carved a few words, so that people who want to imitate it is more difficult, I can make this seal, I am afraid that there are few in the world, that is, it is difficult for me to reproduce, which makes many counterfeit silver ticket holders prohibitive.
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Reference: History of the Silver Bill