A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 454 The undercurrent behind the counterfeit silver coin case
Several patrol inspectors held the man down, and then took the silver coin from his hand. The leading patrol inspector picked up the silver coin and weighed it in his hand, then blew it hard and put it to his ear to listen.

After a while, he blew again, then listened again, three times in a row, and then handed the silver coin to another inspector next to him for inspection.After the inspection was completed, he nodded to him and confirmed: "It's fake!"

Even though silver coins have been issued for several years, they are still not popular on a large scale. They are only found in Luoyang, the capital of China, the Five Capitals and some big cities.

The leading inspector said to the man: "How brave you are to use counterfeit money. The saint has repeatedly issued strict orders that daring to make counterfeit money is a serious crime. This is a credit to my brothers!"

"San'er, tie him up and wait for the government office!"

"okay!"

"Master, Master, I didn't make this money. The villain was also cheated. Master, please let the villain go." The man begged to no avail, and was forced to be tied up.

"If you didn't create it, you have to take it back and investigate! Tie it up!"

After the inspector tied up the man, he said to the vendor next to him: "You found this man using fake money, right? There is a reward according to the system. Are you going to go with him to the government office to receive the reward or come back tomorrow?"

"I'm going to collect the reward now!" When the vendor heard about the reward, he immediately became excited. He called a few familiar friends to help him look at the stall, and then happily followed him to collect the reward.

After more silver coins circulated, counterfeit money naturally appeared.You must know that even broken silver can be counterfeited, let alone these silver coins?In the past, copper coins had a lot of bad money. How could those people endure such huge profits like silver coins?

Therefore, in order to crack down on counterfeit money, Wang Xin ordered that anyone who reported counterfeit money would be rewarded, with a minimum reward of one silver coin. If he provided clues that could catch the counterfeiter, he would be rewarded with a thousand silver coins.

Because of this, the vendors in Luoyang City are all wide-eyed, and will report it immediately if they find someone using fake silver coins.During this period, hundreds of people across the imperial court have been arrested for using counterfeit silver coins.

Fake silver coins have not been around for a long time, mainly because it is very difficult to counterfeit silver coins.The silver coins of the imperial court were not like copper coins. After the copper material was melted, it was poured into the mold to cool. Finally, the mold was dismantled and the corners of the copper coins were simply polished.

Silver coins are pressed, which is made by using water-operated machinery. Due to process problems, the pressure of the coin press is limited, and the silver plate needs to be heated and softened before being pressed.Also due to process problems, the pattern of the silver coin is not particularly clear when pressed, so simple manual engraving is required.

After such processing, the pattern of the silver coin will be very clear and beautiful. After weighing and comparison, the silver coin will be considered completed.

The main difficulty in making silver coins is the coin press. This kind of machine can only be made by Daqian Luoyang craftsmen and supervisors. Each set of coin presses is numbered and it is impossible to spread it. This is why fake silver coins are so popular among silver coins. They appeared one after another two or three years after their release.

The counterfeit silver coins discovered by the court are not one kind, but several. The worst-quality silver coins are cast. There are bubbles on the surface of this fake silver coins. They look very different and are easy to identify. The other types are The quality of fake silver coins also varies.

Moreover, the silver content in fake silver coins is much lower than that of real silver coins.In order to give fake silver coins enough weight, lead and copper, or tin, are added to them.After adding lead and tin, the silver coins become softer and easier to shape after heating, and the color change does not change too much.Therefore, most of the fake silver coins are doped with lead and tin. The patterns on the surface are blurred and far less clear than the real silver coins. The color is also darker. It looks like it is caused by wear and tear after being circulated for a long time, but you can tell it by blowing it. true and false.

The sound of real silver coins is very pleasant, and fake silver coins also have sounds, but if they are mixed with too much copper, the sound will become sharp, and if they are mixed with too much lead and tin, the sound will become dull.

During this period, the court arrested a large number of people who used fake silver coins, but it is still unclear where the fake silver coins came from.

The people arrested by the court for using counterfeit silver coins were interrogated, but not much information was obtained.Many of these people did not know whether the silver coins were real or fake, but obtained them from other people through trading and other methods.

When the court brought people to arrest those people, those people refused to admit it. Because there was no direct evidence, the court had no way to do it for a while.Or some people just can't be found.

Because most of the people arrested by the court were after the third, fourth or even more transactions of silver coins, it was difficult to catch the mastermind.

After Wang Xin saw the arrest of the counterfeit silver dollar crime, he returned to the palace that night and ordered someone to ask about the current stage of the counterfeit silver dollar case.After the chamberlain sent the file, Wang Xin looked through the file and found that the progress of the case was a bit slow, and frowned.

In fact, many officials do not pay much attention to the counterfeit silver dollar case.After all, although there is a word "false" in the fake silver dollar, there is still silver in the silver dollar. Seriously speaking, this fake silver dollar still has some value.This is different from counterfeit money that has no value in the real world and will have no future generations.

In addition, although the imperial court minted a large number of silver coins every year, the supply still exceeded demand, so these fake silver coins were circulated as currency.Many officials in the court felt that it was not a bad thing.Of course, it is not ruled out that these officials have other ideas in mind.

You must know that people who can make bad and counterfeit coins have not been common people since ancient times.Do ordinary people have such skills and courage?Moreover, counterfeit silver coins require silver and copper materials, which are not available to ordinary people.

The only people who can do this are officials, powerful men, nobles, or people who are inextricably related to them.The imperial court's profit from minting silver coins was about [-]%, and the profit from these fake silver coins was at least double.

The emergence of these counterfeit silver coins has seriously damaged the authority of the imperial court and also harmed the interests of the people. Counterfeit silver coins will not harm nobles, officials, or powerful people, but will ultimately harm ordinary people.

Wang Xin looked through these files and found that the trial officials had been conducting the trial for two months, but no useful information came out. He immediately issued an edict to urge them, and sent the court lieutenant, the embroidered cloth envoy, and the patrol censor to assist in the trial. .

He now wondered whether the officials responsible for the trial had contact with those people, or had received hints from certain people.At the same time, secret guards were also sent to investigate these matters.

When it comes to the moral integrity of officials, he has always been low-key.

(End of this chapter)