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In ancient times on the mainland, in order to be convenient to carry and facilitate trading, most merchants gave up the real money and silver of white flowers and chose to use silver tickets.
Many people may wonder, isn't the silver ticket just a blank piece of paper with some patterns drawn on it, and then stamped, why is there no artificial fake in such a simple process?
The role of the silver ticket
In ancient China, money banks were mainly used as the operators of lending institutions, and their main function was to store and manage wealth for individuals and merchants, and the way to withdraw deposits was also very simple.
Wealthy merchants or dignitaries and nobles deposit their coins or gold in the form of currency and deposits, and the money bank will issue vouchers to these depositors, and this is what we call silver tickets.
Now look at the role of the silver ticket, a bit like our bank card, also a bit like a storage book, but the difference is that the current bank card can not be circulated in the market, can only be stored, and the ancient silver ticket is like a circulating currency, can be bought and sold.
In costume TV series, we can often see such a plot, the big guy in the TV series often takes out a silver ticket of 10,000 taels from his arms and puts it on the table very proudly to show his status.
And the transaction between merchants is also directly traded with silver tickets, so is there really 10,000 taels of silver tickets in history? Only 10,000 taels can be owned?
Archaeological experts, once found a silver ticket of the Qing Dynasty in the ancient tomb, but the denomination is only one or two, this silver ticket appeared in the Xianfeng period, the role is to encircle and suppress the Taiping army's military expenses.
Theoretically, the official silver ticket can be exchanged for silver taels and money, but in practice, whether it can be realized, or whether it can be exchanged, depends on the credit of the imperial court and the local government.
However, in addition to the official silver tickets, there are some private institutions such as money banks and silver numbers, which have also issued a lot of silver tickets in order to attract business, and some silver tickets are light and easy to carry, which just solves the difficulty of metal silver and inconvenient carrying, so silver tickets will be widely used in ancient times.
However, the silver tickets issued by private individuals, the printing quality is simple and rough, in which the face value is their own handwriting, and at the same time, it also lacks the necessary anti-counterfeiting measures, which also creates a certain amount of confusion in the market, but in order to make the silver tickets circulate smoothly, the ancestors still worked anti-counterfeiting.
In the face of such a crime as counterfeiting silver tickets, each dynasty has a different method in the anti-counterfeiting mark, and it is very exquisite.
Most of the silver ticket patterns in the Song and Yuan dynasties are houses, flowers and birds, and most of the characters are framed with patterns, and the lines on the top are also very particular, including how many circles are drawn, are particular, and in order to prevent forgers from finding out these, the silver tickets will be made every once in a while The patterns on it will be changed in a different way, but it is relatively fine, and it is really not visible if you don't observe carefully.
When it came to the Qing Dynasty treasure banknotes, most of the patterns were dragons, auspicious clouds, and the outside was also a pattern sidebar, but because the graphics were too complex, it was difficult for counterfeiters to imitate.
But then again, although the pattern is more difficult to draw, but after all, it is drawn by people, if these people who draw the pattern want to forge the silver ticket is not easy, if you think so it is very wrong, the wisdom of the ancients should not be underestimated.
In order to ensure that Jiaozi (silver ticket) is guaranteed in anti-counterfeiting technology, the government of the Northern Song Dynasty also set up a special department that is the "Papermaking Institute".
The main responsibility of this department is to produce jiaozi, that is, the production of money, from the issuance, printing, anti-counterfeiting, exchange and production of banknotes, all of which are managed by special people, and in order to prevent the staff from ventilating, they are all carried out in batches, and they never communicate, and they do not even meet in person, and they are very confidential.
Later, in the Southern Song Dynasty, the papermaking institute was divided into two groups, and these people who printed and painted were completely independent, and the two became mutually contained.
In addition, the raw materials of ancient silver bills are also an important part of anti-counterfeiting, and the raw materials of ancient banknotes are not as thick as the blank paper we see in the TV series, which is not as thick as the A4 paper we use now.
The economic prosperity of each dynasty is different, and the paper used to produce silver stamps is also different, most of which are made of plant fibers, and the raw materials are trees, but the mining and excavation of the raw materials of paper are also different.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the paper used to make silver coins was Sichuan paper, which was very expensive, the fibers in it were delicate and uniform, the texture was flexible and tough, and this paper also had high durability and stability, and was not easy to deform and be damaged, making it very suitable for high-end purposes such as making important documents and currency.
In addition, the production process of Sichuan paper is very cumbersome, the manufacturer can not only improve the authenticity and durability of the silver ticket, but also increase the difficulty of the forger, there is a very important reason, because few people use such a large financial resources to buy this kind of paper, you must know that ordinary people do not even have a piece of toilet paper, let alone this Sichuan paper.
The Ming Dynasty used higher-grade mulberry paper, while the Qing government used special white paper or Korean paper to print silver stamps.
The speed of the issuance of ancient banknotes is also very fast, about seven years to issue, almost after the issuance of the last edition of banknotes, the government immediately began to prepare for the issuance of the next set of banknotes, engraving, paper materials are almost at the same time, and the previous version of the banknote master will be destroyed.
Expensive raw materials, coupled with the rapid replacement of banknotes, so that people who want to make counterfeit money out of reach, even if someone wants to counterfeit, but the replacement is too fast, the silver ticket in the hand will become "waste paper".
However, some people may be curious that these silver bills are official, and how they distinguish the authenticity from those of some private banks.
In ancient times, the person in charge of the bill of exchange to fill in the amount of the bill of exchange is fixed, and each bill bank also regularly informs the notes of the bill of exchange writer to each semicolon, so as to supervise each other and consolidate, so that everyone can identify the authenticity of the bill of exchange at a glance.
This is why people in the past had the ability to distinguish handwriting, we often see in TV dramas which prince inherited the throne, relying on the old emperor's edict to ascend the throne, in order to prevent tampering, some people specifically look at whether this is the emperor's handwriting.
But in ancient times, there were also some people with superb writing skills, and there will also be people with super imitation ability, how to prevent these people from taking advantage of the void?
In addition, the bill bank also stipulates that in addition to the bill of exchange writer is fixed, the semicolon shopkeeper must also write and sign on each bill, which also increases the difficulty of forgery from the other hand, and the handwriting on the bill has become an important means of anti-counterfeiting in ancient times.
In order to prevent some lawbreakers from forging the handwriting on it, the ancients also worked the seal.
The seal is not only the country's top carving master, the carved pattern is complex, but also difficult to imitate the pattern, and the carving is pure hand, it is difficult to complete without decades of skill.
Not only that, but the bill will also be stamped with large and small watermarks, seals, and these watermarks are also stamped layer by layer, and one less will not work.
The production is excellent, coupled with the perfect system, so that these criminals who want to forge it have to think about whether to implement it.
However, if you are careless, maybe someone will be lud to forge it for the sake of profit, but the end of these people is not good.
The ancient silver ticket system also has a certain relationship with the strict laws of ancient times, which have almost "zero tolerance" for counterfeiters, and each dynasty has strict punishment measures for counterfeiting.
The Northern Song Dynasty for the counterfeit money, exile, at least four years, to the Southern Song Dynasty, for the counterfeit silver ticket is more severe, directly the counterfeit money maker to death, the Ming Dynasty, for the counterfeit money, is an important criminal evidence, directly by the "Zhulian nine clans".
In addition, the ancients were very clever and adopted the method of killing people, and each silver ticket of the ancients also had the words "the forger shall be put to death" written on it, which was used to deter those who tried to forge it.
Whether from the manufacture of silver tickets, or the legal system, counterfeiting silver tickets is not only complicated manufacturing process, but also very difficult, even if someone wants to counterfeit, but once found will lose their lives, even their families will suffer, so the ancient people did not dare to make times.