China's modern mechanism silver coin, commonly known as the "silver yuan", is a heavy color in the modern financial system of the mainland. From contact, imitation to self-casting, as a step of innovation for Chinese currency close to the world, it has gone through vicissitudes, twists and turns, and treasures are repeated, and old Jiangnan is an example.
Silver is expensive, cheap, and the awakening of modern money is self-help
Foreign silver yuan, introduced to China since the Ming Dynasty, is called "foreign money" and "pancake" by the people. In the late Qing Dynasty, thanks to the advantages of unified specifications and well-made circulation, foreign money was widely circulated in China, and there were various varieties. Because they could not read, the people were mostly called according to their pattern characteristics.
Mexican Eagle Ocean
One of the widely circulated foreign money
There are big buns, small buns, puff heads, bat double pillars, and horse swords.
——In the ninth year of Daoguang, the Daoguang Emperor approved the performance
The prevalence of foreign money has contributed to capitalist aggression and plundering of China's economy and threatened the circulation and use of its own currency. In the thirteenth year of Daoguang (1833), Sun Lanzhi wrote a table to the matter: "The customs duties of the Grain and Salt Administration and the civil trade in Di Ding Cao are all due to the low money and silver, so that the merchants and people are in difficulty. ”
Lin Zexu also noticed this problem, and put forward a series of currency reforms such as "establishing a national silver standard currency system, gradually restricting the circulation of all foreign money, setting up institutions, and independently minting silver coins", but failed to arouse the real attention of the Qing court.
Portrait of Lin Zexu zhang zhidong
On the 24th day of the first month of the thirteenth year of Guangxu (February 16, 1887), Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Liangguang, asked for the new method to manufacture silver and copper coins, which were named "Guangdong Money Bureau" after the survey and construction of the factory, and entrusted Liu Ruifendai, the minister in Britain, to sign a contract with the Birmingham Mint to purchase the machine.
This batch of machines is very large, and there is no comparison among European countries... - The third volume of the late Qing translation of "The Process of Minting Money" is recorded
Sketch of the Heydon Mint
In the fifteenth year of Guangxu (1889), Guangdong became the first province in China to set up a factory to produce imitation Western-style coins with special minting machines, and the Guangdong Money Bureau became the cradle of the Chinese mechanism silver circle. Since then, many provinces have followed the example of setting up factories to cast silver yuan, including "Jiangnan Province".
Sketch of Guangdong Money Bureau
There is a birth road made in Gangnam Province
"Jiangnan Province" is the only province in China that indicates its place of origin in currency but has no real name.
The so-called "Jiangnan Province" was originally the southern direct subordinate of Nanjing, the Ying Tianfu of the Ming Dynasty. In the second year of Qing Shunzhi (1645), the Jiangnan Chengcheng Envoy Department was established along the Ming system, which had jurisdiction over the entire territory of present-day Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Anhui, as well as parts of Zhejiang and Gansu. In the early years of the Kangxi Dynasty, it was renamed Jiangnan Province. Sometimes there is a saying that "the world's talents, half of them are out of Jiangnan".
Since then, jiangnan province has been divided into two provinces, namely Jiangsu and Anhui provinces.
Kangxi 4th Year • Full Map of Jiangnan Province
In the twenty-second year of Guangxu (1896), Liu Kunyi, then the governor of Liangjiang, set up a bureau to make silver yuan on the grounds that "the production of money is insufficient, the turnover is not enough, the foreign round is marketed, and the interests and rights are spilled", and the Qing court set up a bureau to make silver yuan, which was approved.
The following year, He first sent Liu Shifang and others to the Hubei Yinyuan Bureau to learn minting techniques and began to recruit workers; he also ordered Gui Chongqing to build a factory on the qinhuai river in Jiangning (present-day Nanjing).
Photograph of Nanjing Xishuiguan during the Republic of China
Because at that time, Suzhou already had a mint with a special minting mechanism for copper circles, and its copper circles were marked "Made in Jiangsu Province", in order to avoid confusion, the new factory was named "Jiangnan Minting Silver Circle Money General Bureau", and Jiang Sirui was the general office. At this time, it had been more than 200 years since the establishment of Jiangnan Province was abolished.
Jiangnan Minting Silver Circle Money General Bureau
The General Administration has set up a total of two factories in the east and west, the east factory mints silver yuan, the west factory specially mints money, and the equipment and silver and copper coin molds are ordered from the Birmingham Mint. In the same year, the East Factory began to cast the chronological version of the "Guangxu Yuanbao" silver yuan, that is, "Old Jiangnan".
Treasures in the world, old Jiangnan appeared in the spring auction of the three provinces
During the operation period of Jiangnan Factory, it was the autumn of the country's troubles, so the operation was not smooth and suffered repeated disasters, and it was discontinued in 1929. The "Old Jiangnan" silver circle cast in its early years has been able to rank among the great treasures in the ups and downs of history.
According to the famous coin collector Geng Ed, the old Jiangnan version can be divided into two types: tooth edge and herringbone edge. In Zhang Huang's 1981 catalogue of Chinese silver dollars and silver coins, the light-edged copper seven-cent and two-cent sample coin was disclosed for the first time. It wasn't until a goodman auction in 1991 that the guangbian old river south made its debut.
Geng Ed 丨 Zhang Huang
According to research, Jiangnan Dragon Silver is molded by the Birmingham Mint in the United Kingdom. Among them, the old Jiangnan version has a dragon pattern coil on the back, and other dry branch chronology versions do not. In this spring auction of the three provinces, there is a Jiangnan Province-made old Jiangnan Guangxu Yuan Treasure Kuping Seven-Dollar Two-Cent Silver Coin Herringbone Bian Ri Provincial Edition appeared.
Lot 0091 Gangnam Province Made Old Jiangnan Guangxu Yuan Treasure Treasury Ping Seven Coins And Two Cents Silver Coin Herringbone Bian Ri Province
PCGS AU 58
Colorful pulp, clear dragon scales, natural state.
And a Jiangnan Province-made old Jiangnan Guangxu Yuan Treasure Treasury Ping Seven-Dollar Two-Cent Silver Coin Herringbone Border Provincial Edition.
Lot 0092 Gangnam Province Made Old Jiangnan Guangxu Yuan Treasure Treasury Ping Seven Coins And Two Cents Silver Coin Herringbone Border Province
PCGS XF 45
Original flavor of the pulp, the state is natural.
After a hundred years of wind and rain, the old Jiangnan has returned to its homeland and appeared in the spring auction of the three provinces of Nanjing, which must be said to be fate. Tracing the history, the nation is fluttering; looking back at the present, Guotai Min'an. Time and space change, although the coin has changed its appearance, the heart of inheritance has not changed.