ancient chinese cash notes – the …（中国古代现金笔记u2014u2014u2026）.pdf

ANCIENT CHINESE CASH NOTES – THE WORLDS FIRST PAPER MONEY PART II John E. Sandrock Min Dynasty Paper Money In contrast to Yuan heavy reliance upon paper notes, the follow-on Min and Ch’in dynasty economies were based principally upon copper cash coins and silver. Paper money was occasionally issued by the Min government; however little effort was made to control and maintain its value. The first Min paper money appeared in 1374, the product of the Precious Note Control Bureau (the name was later changed to the Board of Revenue) specifically set up for this purpose. The notes themselves were called “Ta Min T’un Hsin Pao Ch’ao”, Great Min Precious Notes. Emperor T’ai- tsu’s reign title was Hung-wu. This nien-hao appeared on these notes and on successive Min issues, regardless of the fact that all Min emperors had their own reign titles. This was an honor given to the founder of the dynasty. Ch’uan Pu T ’ung Chih refers to sixty different notes issued between 1368-1426. In all probability there were many more. From the beginnin these notes were inconvertible and could not be exchanged for coin. Notes of the Hung-wu reign (1368-1398AD) were issued in denominations of 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 1000 cash. One strin of paper (1000 cash) was the equivalent of 1000 copper coins or one ounce of pure silver. In 1389 smaller value notes of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 cash were printed to facilitate trade. It is reported that the mulberry bark paper used to make the T’ai-tsu notes