Master Archaeologist

Chapter 269 Shi Fan
How much do two boxes of gold biscuits weigh?
This question, if asked Chen Han before.

He definitely couldn't answer it.

After all, having grown up so much in this life, the heaviest pure gold utensil he has ever touched is a gold necklace from his mother, weighing more than 300 grams.

He couldn't imagine the weight of the gold cake that would take two large boxes to fill.

However, it is different now.

He has seen the world.

Because there are too many gold cakes, horseshoe gold, and gold plates between the inner and outer coffins, the weight is too heavy.

At the beginning, when Chen Han, Zhuang Yunpeng and two other strong archaeologists wanted to carry it away to the laboratory, they couldn't even lift it!
Four strong men with an average height of more than 1.8 meters and under the age of 35 did not lift up!
Later, after two more people were added, the two boxes of gold cakes were safely lifted and sent to the emergency protection room for cultural relics on the west side of the main coffin chamber!
"It is said that the density of gold is very high, and this time I really felt it."

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Chen Han sighed and said, "I have used up all my energy."

The gold in Haihunhou's coffin was more and heavier than they imagined. It was really a miracle in the history of archaeology.

It is estimated that all these golds add up to more than 100 kilograms, more than 200 catties!

Panting, he returned to the main coffin.

Before Chen Han could take a break, an archaeologist who was cleaning up other areas in the main coffin room called out an exclamation, which caught his attention again.

"This is? Qian Fan?"

Archaeologists from the Jiangxi Institute discovered a stone model for casting five baht coins in a lacquer box in the main coffin chamber.

This is an incredible discovery!
Chen Han hurried over, looked at Qian Fan in the hands of the archaeologists, and had a shocking guess in his mind.

"Could it be that Liu He minted coins privately?"

Fan, that is, mold.

Stone casting is a kind of casting method, and the word "five baht" can be clearly seen on the stone casting unearthed this time.

Although the material of the stone fan is not particularly good, and it can be seen that it has not been fully finished.

In other words, the stone fan had not been used before the death of the owner of the tomb.

But this finding is even more questionable.

The archaeologist who discovered Qian Fan said suspiciously: "Could it be that Liu He was afraid that the money would be spent and kept it for himself "behind him"?
"Or did he have the idea of ​​minting coins privately before he was alive, and he should bring this "evidence" into his grave after death?"

Chen Han shook his head: "The material of this stone fan is not good, and it is easy to break. Casting money with a stone fan is not a long-term solution."

"In the Western Han Dynasty, most of the coins were made of mud."

"Moreover, as early as the time of Emperor Wenwen of the Han Dynasty, the imperial court explicitly prohibited private coinage from stealing coins."

"Since casting five baht coins privately was a capital offense at the time, why did the owner of the tomb dare to be a stone fan?"

"That's not necessarily true." Professor Li, who heard the discussion between Chen Han and the archaeologists of the Jiangxi Institute, walked over with his hands behind his back, took a look at the stone fan, and said flatly: "Things like the law have always been for the nobles. It’s just a fig leaf.”

"Although the private minting was strict during the period of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, in fact, during the period of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, there was still no restraint on the private minting of coins by princes and princes."

"Liu Bi, the king of Wu who launched the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion at that time, was the biggest private coiner in the Western Han Dynasty. The coins privately coined by the State of Wu, because of their high copper content, even passed through the entire Western Han Dynasty. Even the Southern Sanyue was cast by the State of Wu. Copper coins."

"There is also Deng Tong, the eunuch favored by Emperor Han Wen, who also wantonly privately coined coins in the middle of Shu."

"Princes, kings and lords from all over the country more or less have their own behavior of minting coins."

"In the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, this kind of behavior of privately coining currency by nobles only slightly improved after Emperor Wu of the Han severely cracked down and unified the currency specifications."

"However, this only made the nobles from all over the place refrain a little. They changed from minting money privately on the bright side to secretly minting it by themselves."

"Anyway, for the princes and even the princes and kings, this kind of thing is not a big crime, at least the crime is not a crime of death."

"Liu He used to be the king of Changyi before his death. Perhaps the first generation of Changyi kings did the private minting of currency. Liu He just imitated his father's doing so."

"Perhaps when he was the Marquis of Haihun, the Emperor Shangao was far away, so he had the idea of ​​wanting to mint currency privately, so he ordered people to create this money model."

"It's just that he passed away before he officially implemented this behavior."

"So I had no choice but to bury this secret in the ground forever."

Liu He's Marquis of Haihun only worked for four years in total, and a few months of time to take office, construction of the Marquis' Mansion and other things had to be removed.

In fact, Liu He's real time as Haihunhou is not long.

There was a plan to mint currency privately, but he died before he could do it.

This explanation is still reasonable.

After all, Liu He was definitely not very respectful to Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty.

It seems normal for him to do some private minting of currency without telling Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty.

You must know that minting currency, whether it is in ancient times or modern times, is a matter of huge profits.

After all, copper coins are not 100% made of copper, but are mixed with other alloys.

As long as the ratio is adjusted a little bit, the money is cast, which is equivalent to earning.

The more you mint, the more you earn
This is also the reason why the central government prohibits private minting and wants to nationalize the right to mint, and the reason why private minting has been prohibited in successive dynasties.

Anyone can cast this thing.

Then it will be the same as in the early Western Han Dynasty. Three baht, four baht, five baht, and half two baht will be mixed in the market, and various copper coins with insufficient copper content will also be used indiscriminately, leading to the collapse of the country's monetary system.

And these lessons are actually left over from the early and middle Western Han Dynasty.

It is not surprising that Liu He, who lived in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, privately wanted to do some private currency minting.

Under Professor Li's explanation, both Chen Han and the archaeologists at the Jiangxi Institute accepted this explanation.

As for Qian Fan itself, there is nothing unusual about it.

A lot of Qian Fan in the Western Han Dynasty were unearthed.

Even in the central area of ​​Shu, an official mint workshop of the Western Han Dynasty was unearthed, and a batch of coin models, both stone and mud, were unearthed.

This thing is not very unusual.

After inspection, the stone fan was put into a box and packed.

Stoneware, pottery and other utensils that are less likely to be oxidized by the outside air do not need to be rushed to the cultural preservation room at the back. They can be placed in the cultural relics preservation box on the spot. sent to the rear.

Anyway, the structure of stone is very stable.

Let alone 2000, even if it is left for 1 years, there is no need to worry about damage.

The original stone axes and spears from the Neolithic Age have been dug up intact in modern times, not to mention the stone models from the Western Han Dynasty.

Chen Han also looked away, followed Professor Li back to the side of the main coffin, and followed up with the archaeological cleanup.

(End of this chapter)