Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2066 Fake Silver Dollar

Now that there are experts in the industry to help, Master Zhang, who presided over the matter, suddenly cheered up.Hao Erye called them together to make counterfeit coins here for almost a year, and the labor and materials spent thousands of taels of silver, so far there is no decent result.

They are all ancestral counterfeiting crafts. Forging calligraphy and painting is a "business" that can be put on the table. They do everything from forging government horse cards, tickets, and lawsuits to ordinary people's contracts in private.All kinds of means are full of tricks.However, it stumbled on this Australian treasure.

From paper, printing ink, engraving... almost every process, the Australians have set countless difficulties.These difficulties far exceed the accumulation of these people's hundreds of years of family experience, which is why they have had little success so far.

"How much did you spend for these trial tickets?" Hao Erye asked.

"There are about [-] sheets." The manager said, "Every family took some of them. However, many of them were not used, and more than half of them were returned—they said it was 'not useful'."

"The banknotes are really not easy to use." Hao Erye nodded and said, "Shi Weng didn't approve of it at the beginning..." He sighed, as if he felt a little regretful for being involved in this muddy water.

"The rest of the counterfeit money and tax stamps..."

"They were all pulped to make resurrection paper, and the plates were burned."

"Where's the account book and ID card of the thief?"

"It's all hidden. There is nothing rare about these originals, except for the steel seal on it, I don't know how it was made."

"Didn't it mean that the steel stamp was pressed directly on the paper?"

"The difficulty lies in the impression." The manager said, "I tried several times, but they didn't work. I tried to make a few, but it seems to be the same thing at first glance, but it doesn't stand up to closer inspection."

"This matter still needs to let Lao Qiu put some thought into it."

"I'm afraid he's also a poor donkey." Hao Erye said and reminded:

"You have to be careful about this matter. If the Australians get it, they will make money but spend it..."

"Little one understands!" The manager responded, and asked again: "Master, next..."

"You guys keep trying. For the engraving, I think I'd ask Lao Qian to stop for a while. It probably won't work with wood. You have to find another object to carve. First, you should thoroughly understand the pattern of the banknote and enlarge the size to trace it. Come down—the clearer the better!"

Hao Erye came out of the workshop and stood silently in the yard for a long time without saying a word.Hao An didn't dare to speak, but stood by.It took a while to hear Mr. Hao say: "Hao An, you said that we men are here to meddle in this matter. Is it right or wrong?"

Hao An bowed his head for a while before saying, "Is the master's business not going well?"

"Do you still need to ask this if you're happy?" Second Master Hao took a deep breath, "If it wasn't for Master Wang's kindness to protect him back then, it's hard to refuse, and I really shouldn't have come!"

However, Hao An knew that this was the master's hypocrisy: With the power of Master Wang, Second Master Hao had no courage to refuse at all; what's more, Second Master Hao was so bold and reckless when he helped others to make a false confession and lost his wind, and was caught by his opponent. A patron is not sent to the official - otherwise the bones would have rotted away!
"My lord, don't be discouraged. A thousand days of sailing can never be smooth sailing every day. This time Shi Weng specially sent someone here—he knows the details of the Kun bandits the most, maybe there will be a turning point."

"You're right." Hao Erye said, "Come on, let's go to another place."

The two master and servant stepped out of the yard, entered a narrow passage, and reached the end after a short walk.A lot of firewood was piled up.Hao An moved the firewood away, but there was a small door on the wall.He knocked a few times, and a window on the door suddenly opened.

Hao An raised the lantern to the eyebrows so that the people inside could see him clearly.After a while, there was the sound of the latch being unlocked.

Here is another courtyard.The yard was full of charcoal, and there was a big pit beside it, which was filled with charcoal ash.

In the middle is a work shed that is ventilated on all sides. At this time, the lights are bright, the fire is raging, and the sound of "jingling" can be heard endlessly.Hot air mixed with charcoal ashes hits the face.It's like a blacksmith's shop.

This is the backyard of a jewelry store.The workshop was working at night, and the appearance of Mr. Hao did not arouse the ideas of the craftsmen.

"Let's go, let's go! The silver water is coming!" With the shout, a red-hot cauldron was pushed over from the stove along the shelf on the beam.

Second Master Hao stepped aside and watched the pot of silver water being poured into the mold.The smoke filled the air, and the smell of charred toner mixed with tung oil rushed into the nostrils.Indescribably choking.However, the casters seemed to be completely unaware of it.After a while, the silver water cooled, and the craftsmen took apart the mold and poured rows of round silver cakes out of the mold.An elderly master with gray hair carefully picked up a piece of silver cake with pliers, "It's useless! Recast!"

Hao Erye stopped him: "Master Qiu, what's the matter? I think it's pretty good!"

"Yo! Master! When did you arrive?" The man called Master Qiu put down the pliers in his hand, and took out two delicate silver coins from the table beside him—"Look, Master."

Hao Erye waved his hand: "I don't understand this. Tell me, I'll listen."

Lao Qiu picked up the first silver coin and held it in his palm.On the front of the silver dollar is the word "one yuan" in regular script, and there are patterns of wheat ears around it.There is a line of small characters below, "Central Reserve Bank", and there are several Australian patterns that I don't recognize, like tadpole patterns.Turning over the back, above a circular pattern with a streamer, is a star-shaped pattern with four rays of light shining.It's amazing that there are fine teeth rolled on the edge of the silver dollar!I don't know how it was engraved on it.

"My lord. This is a one-dollar silver coin issued by Australians on the street. The steward specially obtained new money from Delong. Look at it: the surface is clear, smooth and clean, without any burrs. Each coin weighs six cents and seven It is divided into seven centimeters and five cents, seven centimeters and eight centimeters, one centimeter, two to five microns in thickness, and a diameter of one inch and one cent. It contains sterling silver, five cents, nine cents, two cents, eight centimeters, ten cents, eight to five microns - in fact, it contains less than [-]% of silver, probably only It's like looking at the color at most."

This is a cliché.Hao Erye has heard him say it more than once since he took over the deal.But Lao Qiu is the first brand in this business, and he is getting older, so he just listens to the nonsense of relying on the old to sell the old.

"Master, let's take a look at this again." Master Qiu exchanged a silver dollar and said, "How about the quality?"

This one is heavy in the hand, and the weight is almost exactly the same. Under the light, the patterns on both sides are clearly distinguishable, almost lifelike.As for the fly in the ointment, first, the surface of counterfeit coins is not as smooth as real coins, with obvious wavy fine lines--this kind of fine lines are the characteristics of high-purity silver ingots, and the so-called "grained silver" commonly known as "grain silver" comes from here.However, this "high quality" feature has become an insurmountable problem in imitating silver dollars.Therefore, even the pattern is slightly rough; the second is that the hobbing teeth on the edge of the silver coin are uneven in thickness.

"This is not bad, at least [-]% similar." Hao Erye said.

"This is the most similar one, but unfortunately it takes too much work." Master Qiu shook his head regretfully.

Hao Erye already understood a little bit: "Is this hand-carved?"

"Exactly. It was made by expert craftsmen. They also engraved the molds for the coins. The craftsmanship is undeniable, the first one in Guangzhou! They also specially used [-]-grade sterling silver. The effect is not as good as Kun A thief is something that contains less than [-]% silver!"

Hao Erye picked up the two silver dollars and looked at them carefully: this kind of fake silver dollars made out of labor and materials not only looks rough on the outside, but also far less luster than real silver dollars.

"The silver used by Australians is obviously different from ours." Master Qiu said, "Look at this, it really has no silver streaks, no pores at all, and is dense and firm. We made it, not to mention all silver streaks, there are many more. The stomata cannot be as fine and smooth as they are."

Lao Qiu said and picked up another piece: "This one was just cut out from the mold, the mold was made by those masters, and it was cast... It's just... It's just..." Old Zhang said two things in a row: Simply," but couldn't say anything.

Hao Erye took this "silver pancake", the patterns on it were vague, not to mention the delicate patterns and handwriting on the silver dollar.Moreover, the shape of this silver dollar is obviously not as regular as the real one.

"How much silver does this contain?"

"It's also [-]-year-old sterling silver!"

Hao Erye muttered: "Pure silver. Could it be... Australians added some unknown ingredients to the silver to cast such beautiful and clean silver dollars?"

"The little ones have thought about it too." Lao Qiu said and took a few silver pancakes without patterns, "Master, please look, this is a trial product that we have mixed with different proportions of impurities. The effect...is not as good as Sterling silver."

And they also discovered a very troublesome problem: the shape of silver coins cast from silver is completely different from that of copper coins. Although copper coins are cast with rough edges, they are roughly the same size and fit the mold.The cast silver coins vary not only in size but also in shape.

"Master Li was the number one master in the Guangdong Baoquan Bureau in the past. The money and fan made by him were uniform in size and thickness, but no matter how we tried, it was wrong." Try the real Australian silver dollars and see what they do with them.So the little one smelted a crucible of real silver dollars. "

"...The resulting silver cakes are the same as those made before! It seems that the Australians also used ordinary silver, but they have a way to cast them that we don't know."

Hao Erye watched these semi-finished and finished products over and over several times, feeling very anxious.He thought it would be easier to counterfeit silver coins.After all, the pattern of this silver coin is only delicate, so if you ask a master gold and silver craftsman to make it, it is almost the same.However, the current situation is the same as that of the banknotes: little progress has been made, and even the most basic materials have not been passed.

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Next update: Volume 179 - Guangdong and Guangxi Raiders Chapter [-]

(End of this chapter)