Gu Dingmin, whose net name is Sangu Maolu 001, has been engaged in the collection and research of various types of silver coins, ancient coins, copper dollars, paper money, etc. for nearly 30 years, and is an early member of the Wuxi Numismatic Association. He is the author of professional numismatic books such as "Jiangnan Longyang Illustrated Book", and has a high reputation in the industry.
Testimony of the Silver Age: Gu Dingmin's Silver Ingot Collection
Silver ingots, ancient Chinese currency, i.e. silver molten into ingots. It began in the Han Dynasty, and was minted in all subsequent generations, and flourished in the Ming Dynasty, but it was not the national legal silver ingot currency. It was used as a major currency until the Beginning of the Qing Dynasty. Because "two" is the main weight unit, it is called silver two. Silver is a legal currency, which is not only used in private transactions, but also in the local government's collection of taxes. Thus formed the silver two system.
Ancient vehicles escorting silver music society information
Silver used as currency in the Ming Dynasty was mainly cast into ship-shaped silver ingots (silver dollar treasures), silver bars and code-shaped silver ingots that were cocked at both ends, and crushed silver was used for small transactions. The size of the silver ingots of the yuanbao varies, and the large yuanbao ingots weigh as much as fifty taels and also weigh twenty-five taels. It contains words such as the place of casting, the weight and the name of the silversmith.
The Qing Dynasty implemented the parallel standard system of silver money, stipulating that the system of money was one thousand yuan and one or two silver. Silver is a legal currency, which is not only used in private transaction collections, but also in the local taxes collected by the government. Thus formed the silver two system. The silver two of the Qing Dynasty appeared in the shape of horseshoe-shaped yuan treasures, so they were also called baoyin.
Boxes of silver are placed in the Pingyao Dart Bureau Museum
After the Opium War, the large influx of foreign foreign silver (silver dollars) and the popularity of self-minted silver dollars did not fundamentally change or replace the status of the silver system. After the abolition of the two yuan in 1934, the silver two were no longer used.
Inscription of silver ingots
Silver ingot inscriptions refer to the words engraved or cast on silver ingots when minting silver ingots, and the content varies from generation to generation, including the time, place, use, color, and name of officials or craftsmen.
Silver ingot shape
There have been no uniform strict rules for the minting and distribution of silver ingots in China. From the Qing Dynasty onwards, the shape of silver ingots was more diverse. The shape of the silver ingots of the Han Dynasty was cake-shaped; the Tang Dynasty was generally rectangular strips; the shape of the silver ingots of the Song Dynasty was dominated by collars; the shape of the silver ingots of the Liao, Western Xia, and Jin was similar to that of the Song; the shape of the silver ingots of the Yuan Dynasty was not much different from that of the Song Dynasty; the distinction between the non-inscription ingots was that the circumference was upturned, the middle was concave, and most of the yuan ingots had no inscriptions; the length of the ming dynasty silver ingots was shorter than that of the Yuan Dynasty, but the thickness was increased, the corset waist was smaller, the arc at both ends disappeared, and the circumference increased, especially the two ends were more prominent, forming a double wing From the Qing Dynasty to the 22nd year of the Republic of China, silver ingots withdrew from the monetary field, and the shape of silver ingots can be roughly divided into several categories, such as yuanbao shape, circle type, rectangle shape, square shape, weight shape, arch shape and so on.
Shanxi's treasury of silver music and art club information
Gu Dingmin collects silver ingots
Tongzhi year month Taiyuan Province
The development of the Ticket Number Industry in Shanxi in the Qing Dynasty brought great wealth to the Jin merchants, and the minting of silver ingots also became one of the businesses of the ticket numbers, and with the wide opening of various ticket numbers in the country, the Shanxi Silver Ingots also blossomed all over the country and enjoyed a high reputation.
Liuyang County Qian Gongshen Tongzhi picked up one year and two months
Turtle Treasure (king of ingots) is shaped like a turtle
Hunan silver ingots mainly have two styles, namely yuanbao shape and weight shape. The Shape of the Yuanbao Fifty-Two Ingots in Hunan is very unique, its wings are low, the ingot surface is smooth, and the bottom is oval, which looks like a turtle shell, commonly known as "turtle treasure". The ingots are smashed with 4 stamps, which are place names, chronicles, silver trumpets or silversmith names. There are not many such silver ingots in existence, xianfeng, Tongzhi, Guangxu nian have been found, casting all over the prefectures and counties of Hunan, such as Liuyang, Changning, Yiyang, Taoyuan, Anhua, Changsha, Guidong, etc., is the upper solution of the local government.
Taigu County, Qianyuansheng
Zhou Xingjingbao
During the Qing Dynasty, the Taigu ticket number was popular in commerce, but the silver content was uneven, and the Taigu people opened their own silver furnaces to purify. Taigu has four times a year bidding period, each quarter of the goods sold on credit to a fixed day to settle the previous quarter of the payment, so each bid period taigu ancient city is naturally full of silver, but after the bidding period of all kinds of silver is various, Taigu merchants in order to facilitate the future operation of these silver color unified to 998 reached the peak, due to the development of Taigu business at that time, the annual reforged silver in Taigu is even more incalculable, slowly all over the country began to circulate the silver made in Taigu, Later, even the taxes collected by the government were made by Taigu.
In the old days, the financial industry in Taigu had specialized silver treasures, and the masters waited until the yuan treasure reached 998 colors after the finalization before they could be marked with the four words "Zhou XingJing Bao". Therefore, Taigu "Zhou Xing Jingbao" has a very high reputation in the country. Most of the "Zhou Xing Mirror Treasures" made by Taigu are fifty-two.
Qing Northeast "Craftsman Gao Ming Guangxu Thirty-one Years Kuancheng Tongshuncheng"
Silver ingots fifty two
Kuancheng, also known as Kuanchengzi, ruled Changchun County, Jilin Province, Qing Daoguang for five years, moved from Xinlitun to Changchun to rule this. In the 31st year of Guangxu,31, the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Beijing was established as a commercial port, which was the meeting point of the railways in the Middle East, Southern Manchuria, and Kyrgyzstan.
Qing Dynasty Shandong "Guangxu Year and Month Xiesheng Silver Furnace Huimin County"
One silver ingot of ten taels
The original light product text carving mold has characteristics
In the Qing Dynasty, there were two kinds of casting of silver ingots: official casting and private casting. Official casting is the official silversmith of the official government or the silver furnace of the official set up, most of these silver furnaces are attached to the cloth envoy treasury, salt warehouse, official silver money bureau, customs, gold bureau, etc., and its business is to cast the silver of different shapes and colors collected in one way to facilitate the retention and dissolution of the national treasury. This kind of official ingot is generally called lesson silver. Usually, the name of the ingot casting mechanism (some are official silversmiths, some are official silver numbers), place names and chronology are usually placed on the surface of the ingots. In order to facilitate the deduction, some magistrates also set up their own silver shops and monopolized them. "Provinces, prefectures and counties are stripped of money and grain, for example, with the names or shop numbers of the state and county and silversmiths.
Private casting is mostly presided over by silver stoves. "The furnace room is specialized in smelting silver and casting treasures, the south is called the silver furnace, and the north is called the furnace room, on its name, there are slight similarities and differences." In the Qing Dynasty, the silver furnaces for casting silver ingots were divided into north and south, and all of them were mainly engaged in casting silver ingots, but in addition to casting ingots, the furnace houses in the north also engaged in deposit and exchange business, and the northern provinces did not set up valuation bureaus, so the furnace houses also assumed the responsibility of identifying and verifying colors.
In the early Qing Dynasty, the government had some control over the opening of silver furnaces, stipulating that business licenses must be issued with the permission of the Ministry of Households. In each place, the number of silver furnaces is limited and cannot be increased arbitrarily, such as Beijing, where only 26 are allowed to open. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the government's laws and regulations could not be seriously implemented, and the private establishment of silver stoves in various places occurred from time to time, and the official government did not interfere and let it go, so the people called the silver stove "private furnace".
"Republic of China Year Month Foot Color Naturalization City Fan Chang" Wu picked up two silver ingots and one piece
The middle band of flowers is rare
Anyi County Daoguang on the silver
Rare
A ship-shaped silver ingot weighing about 1888 grams, with the left and right ends cocked, the middle is a groove, and the ingot surface has three vertical stamps, one stamp writes "Daoguang Thirty Years december" chronicle, the other stamp writes "Anyi County" records the name of the place, and the other writes "Ma Wannian" is the name of the caster. Silver ingots are in good condition, most of them are silver primary light, and there is a black paste in the part. The silver ingot has obvious casting marks on the inside and outside, and there are large honeycomb-shaped holes in the bottom of the outer side.
This article has been published by the author's permission, and the collection map is provided by the author