Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 58 New Coins

The new coins currently promoted by the imperial court are made according to the design ideas originally provided by Zhu Gaoxu to Zhu Di and Zhu Yuanzhang.

There are three types of new coins, namely copper coins, silver yuan, and gold banknotes.

Copper coins are made of copper alloy and have four denominations: Yi Wen, Wu Wen, Shi Wen, and Bai Wen. One Wen weighs half a coin, Wu Wen weighs three coins, Shi Wen weighs seven coins, and a hundred coins weighs one tael.

Silver yuan is cast from silver alloy and has only one denomination.

The weight of one yuan is equal to one tael, and its face value is equal to one thousand coins, that is, one yuan is equal to ten hundred coins, and so on.

In fact, although the weight of a silver dollar with a denomination of one yuan is equal to one tael, it only contains [-]% of silver (approximately), and the other [-]% is mainly copper and a small amount of tin.

In order to realize Zhu Gaoxu's idea that both copper coins and silver coins were alloys and difficult to imitate, Baoyuan Bureau spent two years and thousands of experiments before using new hydraulic stamping equipment to successfully cast coins that met the requirements.

It is said to be minting, but from the perspective of the manufacturing process of new coins, "coining" is only a key link in the entire coin-making process - embossing patterns.

In the past, old-style copper coins were made by casting molten metal into a mold and solidifying it.

The new coins are completely different from the old copper coins in terms of production technology.

At present, there are many steps in the coin-making process of new coins.

First comes design and engraving, then rolling, that is, rolling the coin material or body into slabs of corresponding thickness, then molding, that is, stamping into a single metal blank, then trimming, softening, cleaning, and finally minting. That is, the pattern is "imprinted" on the front and back of the coin's metal blank to become a real coin.

Compared with the old coins made by pouring metal slurry, the new coins are equivalent to machine-made coins, which are pressed by machinery instead of manually molded and cast by manpower.

Because the new coins are stamped with moderate pressure, and the coins are cold-pressed into various characters, patterns, and patterns, their colors are bright and natural, the depth of the patterns is moderate, the edge lines are even in thickness, the spacing is also consistent, and the details are clear and precise. , no clutter.

Zhu Gaoxu believes that it is only a matter of time before the new currency replaces the old currency.

Everything is difficult at the beginning. As long as you get a good start, it will be easier to optimize anti-counterfeiting methods in the future.

One pound in the Ming Dynasty was equal to 16 taels, which was about 37 grams in later generations. Therefore, the weight of one tael was about [-] grams in later generations. Although it was not heavy, it was not light either.

The imperial court had a limited amount of silver yuan exchange, and each person could exchange up to 100 yuan of silver yuan per day.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's knowledge, the Ministry of Revenue plans to suspend the exchange after exchanging 200 million silver yuan this year, and can only exchange copper coins or silver with the court. Previous treasure banknotes are not within the scope of exchange.

"Tsk, tsk, there are gold threads embedded in the paper, and the material looks like something from an immortal family."

Shopkeeper Xu also picked up a gold note, looked at it carefully and praised it.

Shopkeeper Liu held the gold banknotes, felt the subtle lines on the surface of the gold banknotes with his fingertips, and exclaimed: "The gold banknotes issued by His Highness King Yan are really extraordinary!"

The gold banknotes are made of mulberry bark synthetic paper with gold wire embedded vertically. The denominations are [-] yuan, [-] yuan, [-] yuan, and [-] yuan.

One hundred yuan and one hundred yuan are both embedded with one gold thread, and five hundred yuan and one hundred yuan are both embedded with three gold threads.

As the denomination increases, the length and width of gold banknotes will also increase, and the embedded gold wire will also become thicker.

"This imperial statue has a kind-hearted but majestic face, resolute eyes but not domineering, extraordinary heroism, broad shoulders, and no anger or authority between his brows. He must be a great man in the world!"

Shopkeeper Liu looked at the portrait of the emperor printed on the gold banknote and admired it.

"Gang leader, is the statue of the emperor on this gold banknote the current emperor's icon?"

Bai Jinfu asked Zhu Gaoxu respectfully.Zhu Gaoxu looked at the portrait of the emperor on the gold banknote and said very seriously: "Although I have seen the emperor today, it was on the street. It was far away and I couldn't see clearly. However, this emperor statue should be the image of the emperor today. It can’t be wrong. Otherwise, who is qualified to wear the Wu Sha Yi Shan Crown?”

He said this, but in his heart he knew better than anyone else who the emperor on the gold banknote was.

A few years before he became the Crown Prince of Yan, Zhu Gaoxu gave many suggestions to the craftsmen of the Military War Bureau, which greatly improved the imperial firearms and greatly increased their power.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy about this, and naturally allowed Zhu Gaoxu to intervene in Baoyuan Bureau's minting of new coins.

Minting has never been a trivial matter for the imperial court.

In particular, anti-counterfeiting is related to the credibility of the court's coins.

It would certainly be a good thing if, with Zhu Gaoxu's efforts, the anti-counterfeiting of coins in the Ming Dynasty could be raised several levels.

Fortunately, the master craftsmen of Baoyuan Bureau lived up to Zhu Gaoxu's trust and spent three years developing special inks and papers, plus paintings by master painters, engravings by master engravers, and anti-counterfeiting methods. , so that a series of processes for new coin minting are now quite mature.

Zhu Gaoxu still remembers what happened after he presented a gold banknote sample similar to later banknotes to Zhu Yuanzhang in the Qianqing Palace after the New Year's Eve dinner last year.

At that time, under the light, the emperor's portrait on the gold banknote came to life. After Zhu Yuanzhang saw it, he was filled with joy and immediately expressed his intention to reward the craftsmen of Baoyuan Bureau, especially the painter who painted the emperor's portrait.

The style of the gold banknote is similar to that of later banknotes. On the front is the denomination written in official Chinese characters. On the right side of the denomination is a portrait of Zhu Yuanzhang wearing a black gauze winged crown and leaning slightly sideways.

Between Zhu Yuanzhang's portrait and the lower edge of the banknote, there is a row of small regular script written horizontally from right to left, with the content "Printed by the Royal Bank of the Ming Dynasty", next to it is the cipher text in Chinese Pinyin.

There are different patterns printed on the back of the gold banknote according to the denomination. One hundred yuan represents Qutang Pass, two hundred yuan represents Guilin landscape, five hundred yuan represents Mount Tai, and one hundred yuan represents Fengtian Temple.

"There are more than 60 kinds of old Tongbao coins in four categories, with many formats and varieties. Now the court has simplified the complexity and unified the currency system. It only issues copper coins, silver yuan, and gold banknotes, and clearly stipulates the face value exchange between the three. Proportion and its convenience are probably the ones who feel most deeply about it right now, probably us businessmen.”

Bai Jinfu admired the gold banknotes and couldn't help but sigh.

"Strange, why haven't you heard of the 'Royal Bank'?"

Shopkeeper Xu found that gold banknotes of various denominations were all signed and printed by Ming Dynasty Royal Bank, so he asked this question.

Shopkeeper Liu frowned and said: "I remember that in March of the first year of Hongwu, the imperial court set up the Baoyuan Bureau and began to mint 'Hongwu Tongbao' coins. It still followed the style of Dazhong coins and made fifth-class coins. At that time, I was only more than ten years old. To this day, It has been 31 years, but this is the first time I have heard of the ‘Royal Bank’.”

"As far as I know, this Royal Bank is a new government office established by the imperial court. It is responsible for the printing, issuance and recycling of gold banknotes. It seems that the imperial court is determined to implement the new currency. Otherwise, how could it establish a new government office?"

Zhu Gaoxu expressed his views in a timely manner and deliberately revealed some important news.

"What the gang leader said is absolutely true, and I also think this is true."

Shopkeeper Liu knew that someone in Gang Leader Zhu's court in front of him must know many secret things, and in his opinion, Gang Leader Zhu's current analysis was indeed very insightful, so he agreed.

But at this moment, someone said something rather harsh.

"These new copper coins and silver coins will not have circulation problems, but I am worried that over time, the gold coins will be reduced to the status of today's treasure coins, and their value will no longer be, and then we will be in trouble."

Everyone turned sideways and looked at the speaker.

PS: The first update today, the next update will be around [-] or [-] pm.

(End of this chapter)