Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1709 Minting Technology
In fact, most people in the Government Affairs Council, including those in the Finance Department, are in favor of the "Mithril School", but the objective facts cannot be reversed, so the final approved plan is to cast silver dollars and implement the silver standard system.

After setting the tone, the Mint officially started construction.In the past, all kinds of paper securities issued by Delong were printed in printing houses.Since coins are to be produced now, it is of course impossible to set up an additional workshop in the printing factory as in the past.It is necessary to find another place to set up a factory.

According to Caijingkou's opinion, the new mint is located in Hong Kong. Whether it is the market for minting coins or the source of currency materials, Hong Kong, which is close to Guangdong, is obviously more suitable than Lingao on Hainan Island.Caijingkou predicts that once it lands on the mainland, there will be a huge demand for new currencies. If the mint cannot supply enough nearby, it will be embarrassing if there is a storm of insufficient currency.

Although Hong Kong lacks resources, it has convenient transportation, and it is more convenient to transfer various materials than Hainan.In terms of safety, it can also be called peace of mind.

After consultations with the elders of the Planning Institute and the Industrial Port, the basic size of the mint and the required equipment were finally finalized.

The Hong Kong Mint is divided into two phases, divided into minting and printing branches. After completion, a complete design and manufacturing capacity of securities, banknotes and coins will be formed.Due to time constraints and the fact that Lingao Printing Factory already had the ability to print banknotes, it was decided that the first phase of the project would be the Mint.

The mint includes a small metal smelting workshop, a mint workshop, a metalworking workshop that designs and manufactures dies for stamping coins, as well as independent supporting steam power, factory buildings, security and other supporting facilities.

According to preliminary calculations, the main equipment that needs to be newly manufactured are: smelting furnace, plate pressing machine, punching machine, cleaning machine, edge curling machine, pressing machine, and scaling lathe.With the exception of a few devices, most require design and manufacture from scratch.However, machinery manufacturing is no longer a problem for machinery factories now, and basically everything can be self-made.

After several months of construction, the factory buildings and equipment have been generally installed in place, and coins and fuel are currently being mobilized.The workers have also arrived one after another, and it can be said that everything is ready.In the meeting room of the Ministry of Finance in Lingao, the final work meeting before the official start of construction was held.

Although it is called a working meeting, it is actually very important. The final details of the new currency: from the currency itself to the manufacturing process, must be finalized at this meeting and put into practice.

Finance Minister Cheng Dong stood up and cleared his throat.

"Comrades! Some time ago, our new currency system reform plan has been approved by the Central Council of Government Affairs and the Senate. The Ministry of Finance asked the industrial sector for opinions on the issue of producing our own coins. After receiving affirmative answers from you, we will send you, comrades The idea of ​​the plan is formally written, and it is this memo in everyone's hands."

Cheng Dong's eyes flicked around everyone's faces. Some were listening to him intently, while others were studying the documents in their hands.He continued with satisfaction: "With the approval of the Government Council, we will officially implement the production of new coins. We will have the ability to mass-produce stamped metal coins within a month, and produce the first batch of coins available for circulation." Conference room There was a hum of approval.

"Next, I will make some brief explanations on the memorandum. If you have any questions, please bring them up at this meeting. The mainland strategy will be launched soon. You may already know that our new banknotes are already being printed in batches. At present, it has been shipped to Guangdong to be issued and used. However, without the support of coins, it may be difficult for this kind of banknote to circulate, so we have to produce the finished product as soon as possible.”

None of the people here have ever worked in the mint, but they still know the general process of minting coins.Strictly speaking, modern coins are not "cast", but the product of "stamping".It is actually manufactured by stamping a metal sheet on a steel mold with a punch, which is "cold working".So the portion is accurate and the pattern is beautiful.

Silver coins before the emergence of modern mints were "cast" both at home and abroad, which was a kind of "thermal processing".Including the Spanish silver dollars that flowed into China in large quantities in this time and space: the cross coat of arms COB was actually cast.The difference is that the patterned characters on Chinese coins are directly cast by molds, while most European coins are first cast out of silver cake blanks, and then beaten with hard molds to suppress the patterns, commonly known as "strike silver coins".

Because COB is a silver coin, although there are certain rules for color and weight, in the actual casting process, the situation of stealing color and weight loss also happens from time to time, which is similar to China's silver taels, so COB has been in China for nearly 200 years. Circulation by weighing silver bullion did not play a role in counting silver coins.The Senate received a large amount of COB during wars and trade, and most of the silver paid by merchants from Ming Dynasty was COB that was cut into pieces for use.

Until the 18th century, machine-stamped earth double-column coins from Spain flowed in, because of the standard color and shape, exquisite patterns, and easy to carry. The fraudulent methods of the coin are greatly restricted, the weight of the silver coin is guaranteed, and it can be valued by piece. It is no exaggeration to say that the silver dollar can replace the weighing of broken silver and become the accounting standard in coastal areas during the Qianlong period. Circulation has contributed to the opening of Hongmeng.

The reason why Cheng Dong pushes the mechanism of silver coins is largely because of the success of the circulation of the two pillars of the earth in China: it is not that there is no demand for counting silver coins among the people, it is just that the conditions are not met.The Earth Double Pillar Coin has achieved such a great success purely through commercial circulation, which fully demonstrates the superiority and feasibility of the mechanism silver coin.

The minting plan proposed by the Ministry of Finance is to mint three kinds of silver coins.They are one dollar, half dollar and quarter dollar.Issue banknotes of equal value at the same time.All small denomination currency notes are issued in units of 10 cents, 5 cents, 2 cents, 1 cent and half cents.One dollar is exchanged for one hundred cents.

The reason for issuing half-cent coins is mainly because the exchange rate of one tael of silver on the market is as high as several thousand coins. Even if it is "good money" Song money or Yongle money, the exchange rate is seven to eight hundred coins. If the value of 1 point is too large, it will be difficult to take on the role of small tokens.

The silver dollar as the benchmark currency is stamped from an alloy of 87.5% silver and 12.5% ​​copper, each weighing 27 grams and 31mm in diameter.The size and fineness are roughly the same as the Earth Shuangzhu, Yuan Datou and Mexican Eagle Ocean that were widely circulated in China in the old time and space.

As for half yuan and quarter yuan, in addition to the corresponding reduction in size, the silver content also decreased year-on-year, and the silver content rate of half yuan and quarter yuan was reduced to 60%.

The reason why the silver content of auxiliary coins is low is that the casting cost of auxiliary coins is almost the same as that of one yuan, except for the coin itself.But the circulation value has been discounted.

The silver and red copper used as casting materials are smelted by the non-ferrous metal smelter in Lingao using electrolysis to obtain 99% pure materials.To ensure that the fineness and color matching of coins are accurate.

"There is nothing wrong with the ratio and size," said Liang Xin, who was in charge of making the mold. "But what about the mold? I have never made a mold for coins. This pattern is quite complicated. Although it is not a miniature sculpture, it is still small enough... "

On the table is a pattern of silver coins drawn by the elders who studied art.On the front is "one yuan" in regular script, surrounded by a pattern of wheat ears, and below is the year of issuance in small Arabic numerals.The reverse side is the earth illuminated by the morning star.Around the globe is a streamer with four words in Latin: SPQM (senatus populusque magnus great senate and people).

The other half dollar and quarter dollar have the same pattern except for the different denominations on the front. The half dollar on the reverse side is the holy ship, and the quarter dollar is the national emblem pattern that the elders privately called "the iron fist chrysanthemum".

"You don't need to worry about pattern engraving, we have skilled craftsmen to do it. First make it bigger, and then use the scaling method to make smaller ones." Although Wang Luobin has become the chairman of the Senate, he is still impatient in this regard Itching to come to the meeting in person.

The designed coin pattern is first made into a three-dimensional plaster pattern by the sculptor.The plaster figures are huge, usually between half a meter and a meter in diameter.Such a large volume allows for finely detailed coin patterns.Once the pattern is made, plaster is used to make an inverted mold, which is then carefully covered with extremely thin gold leaf by naturalized craftsmen.This gold-leafed mold was then sent to electroplating, where a thicker, stronger layer of copper was applied.

The copper-plated reverse was placed on a scale lathe, which was used to transfer the pattern on the reverse to a steel master that was the exact size of the coin.The scale lathe is actually manufactured using the principle of leverage, and is equipped with a platform that uses a four-bar linkage mechanism to control the clamping mold.

The cast is placed on a revolving stand, and a stylus is pressed against the cast.As the inverted mold turns, the stylus moves up and down on the ups and downs of the patterned surface.The motion of the stylus is transferred by a lever to a small diameter hard ball end mill that rotates on the other side of the lathe.Every time the stylus turns around on the inverted mold, the cutter head also leaves a circle of patterns on the surface of the steel workpiece.When the stylus has swept every part of the inverted mold, the cutter head will process a proportionally reduced master mold.After this master mold was trimmed, it was used to press coin dies.

Since the steel used in the mold is quite hard, the pressing process cannot be completed at one time.Every time one-fifth of the stroke is pressed, the mold needs to be taken out, put into the tempering furnace for tempering, and then pressed after the material becomes soft until the pressing is completely completed.Each completed coin die can press approximately one hundred thousand coins.Only twenty molds are enough to press [-] coins in one day, and all the gold and silver in the Senate can be pressed into coins in a few weeks.

(End of this chapter)