In film and television dramas, we often see dignitaries take out a silver ticket to pay, and the silver ticket seems to be just a piece of paper, which only has a specific amount and some words and patterns.
So we have a question, so how are these silver tickets counterfeited? What happens if someone forges a silver ticket? In fact, silver tickets have a variety of anti-counterfeiting measures, and the most important thing is some of the words, so what are the words, let's find out.
The history of counterfeiting of money is probably similar to the history of the manufacture of money, and money, as a general equivalent, sometimes has purchasing power of several times or even ten times its own value, and such huge profits can easily lead some unscrupulous people to create counterfeit money to disrupt the market and seek huge profits. This is true of metal money, and it is also true of paper money.
The origin of the silver ticket
As we all know, money is generally used as a metal currency as a general equivalent. Because the metal is strong and durable, and because some of them do not have many reserves on the earth, some are difficult to mine, and some are difficult to separate, they have value in themselves. Historically, countries have generally used metal currencies to exchange goods as general equivalents.
But metal money also has its drawbacks such as bulky, easy to wear and tear in the transportation process, so in people's lives need another form of money. During the Northern Song Dynasty, a paper currency, the first silver ticket in Chinese history, appeared, and its name was Jiaozi.
Before the Northern Song Dynasty unified the world, it experienced a long period of division between the north and the south. After the unification of the Northern Song Dynasty, it was worried that the south would rebel again, so it took all the copper from the south to the north. In this way, even if the South had the idea of rebellion, it did not have the financial resources to buy the required military supplies, and it could not rebel, but such behavior brought great trouble to civilian commerce.
Because there is no copper, only iron can be used, but the value of iron is low, so you have to carry a lot of iron money for each transaction. Some traders need to bring iron money for a horse-drawn carriage to pay for their north-south trade, which is neither convenient nor safe.
Thus, under the wisdom of the working people, a new form was adopted. The currency is stored in the local money houses in advance, and then through certain vouchers, the merchant can withdraw money from any money bank to use for his own trade. This voucher slowly evolved into Jiaozi, the earliest silver ticket in Chinese history.
Silver ticket anti-counterfeiting
During the Northern Song Dynasty, jiaozi was initially owned by the people, but only circulated in the major money houses of the people. But gradually the scale became larger and larger, more and more merchants borrowed money, and the bank no longer became a place to store money, but became a banking exchange institution.
Due to the lack of advanced management experience, with the infinite expansion of the scale and lead to the rupture of the capital chain; on the other hand, it is also due to the increasing number of people forging various vouchers, more and more incidents of fraudulent and false collars, and the reputation of the bank is declining day by day, and eventually bankruptcy.
At the same time, the government saw the huge potential of such banknotes and thought it was profitable, so it took over this business, and with the intervention of the government, the silver bills had more stringent anti-counterfeiting measures.
Probably during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, silver bills began to be issued officially and gradually circulated throughout the country. Silver tickets draw on the experience of private cross-making, and the government has a series of anti-counterfeiting measures during this period.
1. Paper. The paper for silver stamps is not printed on ordinary paper, but on specific paper. Generally speaking, the production of silver tickets is made of Sichuan paper, which is a complex paper process, high production cost, and is exclusively for the use of the court, which is not seen by the people at all. And the feel is very different from ordinary paper, so it is difficult for the people to imitate this kind of paper.
2. Clip printing. In the special paper, in the process of making silver tickets, a special anti-counterfeiting line is also put into it. Just like the anti-counterfeiting line in today's banknotes, the materials for making this line are kept secret, and the production process is only officially owned.
3. The paper used for silver tickets is also printed with a specific pattern, which is printed in the process of paper production, and the depth, style, shape and size of this pattern are specific. The craftsmen of the government do not care about the cost, and the craftsmanship is meticulous. Folk workshops are shoddily built only for profit, and what they create is very different.
4. In addition, the replacement of silver tickets is also very fast. Generally, it will be re-printed and reprinted in 1 to 2 years, and the old silver tickets will be destroyed. In this way, even if the people can get the latest version of the silver ticket production method, they have not yet started. It may have been replaced, and this version of the silver ticket is useless.
5. In addition to the above anti-counterfeiting means, there is also a most important one: there is a line of small print on the silver ticket. There is no special provision on the content of this line of small characters, but it is the most core means of anti-counterfeiting of silver tickets. This line of small print is also the most difficult part of the silver ticket to copy and the most difficult to counterfeit.
This line of small characters was first carved out on a wooden board by the master carvers of the time, and then printed on a silver ticket. This work is very demanding on the engraving technology, this line of small characters is very small, and the number is also very large, dense, it is almost impossible to see exactly what is written on it, let alone copy or forge.
Each master carver has a different approach, just as everyone we have now has a different handwriting signature. These master carvers are actually craftsmen of the government, directly managed by the government, and it is impossible to forge them without permission. Therefore, this line of small characters has become the most core and intuitive means of testing the authenticity of silver tickets.
6. At the same time, the punishment imposed by the government on forging silver tickets is very strong, and counterfeit silver tickets will be directly executed, and the whistleblower will also have a considerable income.
If someone can meet all of the above conditions, he will not be able to take risks because of this. Because there can be so many skilled and skilled craftsmen, then he can work in other industries to earn a greater income. For ordinary workshops or ordinary people, but that line of small print. I can't even see it clearly, so how can I imitate it?
summary
The production of silver tickets has its specific era background, which greatly facilitates people's lives. And for the future market of paper money, there is also a lot of impact. Although when he first came out, the anti-counterfeiting measures may not have been perfect, so some people took advantage of the loophole.
However, with the continuous improvement of the anti-counterfeiting technology of silver tickets, by the middle and late period, silver tickets are actually impossible to forge, especially on silver tickets. That line of small characters that are difficult to reproduce is the top priority of anti-counterfeiting.
Hard work and prosperity, honesty and trustworthiness are the only sources of wealth creation; through fraud, it must be the punishment of the law and the destruction of the family. Therefore, although the silver ticket has been around for a long time, there are not many cases of counterfeiting.