Silver in the Song Dynasty came in many forms, the most common being ingots, which came in several sizes.
The large ingot weighs fifty taels, while the small ingots vary in weight, including twenty-five taels, twelve taels, seven taels, three taels, etc.
The two ends of the large ingot are mostly arc-shaped and girdle-shaped, with chiseled characters on them, recording the place name, usage, heavy liang, names of officials and craftsmen, etc.
Silver ingots from the Song Dynasty have been unearthed many times. In 1955, 293 pieces were unearthed from Shizhaishan, HS City, Beihu, ranging in size, with a total weight of about 3,400 taels.
In 1958, 5 pieces were unearthed from BLZQ, Zhaowuda League, Inner Mongolia.
In addition, the court of the Song Dynasty also minted many gold and silver coins, which were used as money for burials, rewards and gifts, money for spreading accounts when getting married, or money for laundering children, etc.
The "Qingyuan Tongbao" silver coins unearthed in Changsha, Nanhu, and the "Taiping Tongbao" coins handed down from ancient times belong to this category.
Many silver coins also appeared in the Jin Dynasty. For example, in the second year of Cheng'an (1197) of Zhang Zong, "Cheng'an Baohuo" silver coins were minted.
It is divided into 5 levels from one to twelve taels, and every tael is discounted by two guans.
Also, this was the beginning of legal counting of silver coins in our country.
In the Jin Dynasty, people mostly used silver to discuss prices, and transactions were all done in silver.
In 2005, five gold-era "Cheng'an Baohuo" silver ingots were discovered in Heilong Province, with face values of one and a half and a weight of 59.3 grams.
The handwriting, treasury charge, and shape of this gold-for-silver coin are almost identical.
In addition, silver ingots from the Zhenglong, Dading and Fenghe years have also been discovered.
In the Yuan Dynasty, the role of silver in currency became increasingly developed.
At this time, not only silver was used for loans, salaries, awards, merit, labor remuneration, large transactions and taxes, but also commodity prices were expressed in silver.
Even the reserves for issuing banknotes are made of silver and are based on silver.
During this period, silver had established its currency status and became one of the popular currencies in the Yuan Dynasty.
Its form is still mainly ingots, which are in the shape of flat weights, and the largest ones are fifty taels.
On it are many inscribed names of places, supervisors, treasury envoys, treasury deputy, treasury officials, scales, silversmiths and other names.
Starting from the third year of the Yuan Dynasty (1266), silver ingots were called "Yuanbao".
In addition, in the Yuan Dynasty, "Dachao Tongbao", "Zhiyuan Tongbao", "Yuanzhen Tongbao" silver coins and a kind of temple donation money were also minted.
By the Ming Dynasty, especially after Yingzong ascended the throne (1436), silver had already embodied the two basic monetary functions of value measure and circulation means.
During the Jiajing period, the use of silver became more common. At that time, land taxes, corvee taxes, commercial taxes, salt taxes, customs duties and other taxes were all converted into silver to collect official salaries and treasury expenditures. They were also paid in silver.
In the late Ming Dynasty, not only silver was used for large-scale transactions, but also broken silver was used for small businesses.
At this time, silver finally crowded out paper money and replaced copper coins as the main currency in circulation.
During this period, a monetary system with silver as the main component and copper coins as the supplement was formed.
The main form of silver coins in the Ming Dynasty was silver ingots. The largest ingot weighed five hundred taels, and the average ingot still weighed fifty taels. There were also various small silver ingots and broken silver taels.
The name of the casting place, the weight and the name of the craftsman are printed on the large ingots.
The year number and place name are sometimes printed on the small silver coins.
In addition, silver coins of different sizes were minted in the Ming Dynasty.
Such as "Yongle Tongbao", "Wanli Tongbao", "Tianqi Tongbao", and various "mineral silver" from the Wanli period, etc.
There are many silver ingots of various sizes from the Ming Dynasty that have been handed down and unearthed.
In the Qing Dynasty, silver liang has become the legal standard currency, and silver liang has a primary and secondary relationship with money making.
The status of the silver tael as the standard currency was abolished in 1933 when the two yuan was abolished and converted into the yuan.
There were many types of names and forms of silver coins in the Qing Dynasty, and silver coins in various places also had their own names.
It can be roughly divided into 4 types. The first type is Yuanbao, commonly known as Baoyin, which is horseshoe-shaped and weighs fifty taels;
The second type is the medium ingot, which is mostly hammer-shaped and weighs about 10 taels. It is also called small ingot;
The third type is small ingots or ingots, which are shaped like steamed buns and weigh one, two to three or five taels. They are also called small ingots;
The fourth type is broken silver, which has names such as drop beads and lucky beads. The weight is less than one tael and the fineness can reach fine.
Then there are the silver coins of the Qing Dynasty. In the late Qing Dynasty, due to the large inflow of foreign silver coins, the market was flooded.
In order to resist the foreign dollars, regain the rights and interests, and make up for the shortcomings of silver and money production, they began to imitate silver dollars on their own.
During the Daoguang, Xianfeng, Tongzhi, and Guangxu dynasties, various styles of "silver cakes" and "silver coins" were imitated and cast in Hujian, Wanwan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Dahai, Nanhu and other provinces.
In the eighth year of Guangxu's reign (1882), Linji Province first tried casting silver coins with a new machine, which was called "Changping". It was soon abandoned and has not been officially used.
In the 5th year of Guangxu's fourteenth year, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, was ordered to establish a money bureau in Guangdong Province, purchase machinery, and cast "Long Yang".
Seeing the profits, various provinces followed suit one after another and set up factories one after another, creating the "Long Yang" of their own provinces.
In the second year of Xuantong (1910), the "Currency Regulations" were promulgated, stipulating that the silver dollar was the standard currency and the unit was the round.
The silver coins of the Qing Dynasty have the words "Guangxu Yuanbao", "Xuantong Yuanbao" or "Qing Silver Coin" on the surface, and the dragon pattern is engraved on the back.
Each coin weighs seven cents and two cents, and contains 9.6-9.7 percent pure silver.
They are used individually in circulation. According to statistics, although the total number of silver coins cast in the late Qing Dynasty reached 280 million, most of them were made by private citizens.
Looking at the last silver dollar, a smile appeared on Chen Wenzhe's face. This time he gained a lot.
This last silver dollar is probably the most exquisite ancient coin.
It is a "Guangxu Yuanbao", the earliest machine-made coin in my country, and one of the top ten honorary products among modern machine-made coins in my country. It is commonly known as "Long Yang".
It is named after the dragon pattern on the back of the coin, which has important practical and historical significance.
In addition, due to factors such as the late Qing Dynasty and the repeated wars in the Republic of China, some of the more precious Guangxu Yuanbao silver dollar varieties have become scarce and have high collection value.
Therefore, even though many silver coins from the Qing Dynasty have been circulated to this day, there are still many collectors flocking to them and competing to raise their prices.
Especially this kind of Guangxu Yuanbao made in Beiyang, this is a special edition: Beiyang 34-year-old Long-tailed Dragon Edition Long-tailed Dragon with Changyun.
Coin collections are generally divided into three categories: banknotes, gold and silver commemorative coins, and ancient coins.
Among ancient coins, the silver dollar has always been a hot topic.
Because silver coins are precious materials and have high artistic value.
The Beiyang Machinery Bureau first minted silver coins in the 15th year of Guangxu's reign. The face value was only "one yuan". It was a sample silver coin made by the Jincheng government and was not circulated.
It was not until the 22nd year of Guangxu's reign that silver coins began to be minted and circulated.
"Made by the Beiyang Machinery Bureau in the 22nd year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty" has five face values: "one yuan", "five jiao", "two jiao", "one jiao" and "half jiao".
It is a set of silver coins denominated in yuan in our country.
In July 1903 AD, it was proposed that silver coins should be manufactured exclusively by the main mint, with the four bureaus of Nanyang (Jiangnan), Beiyang, Guangdong Province, and Beihu as branch factories.
This kind of silver coin has precious material and high artistic value. It is made of precious metal or silver alloy.
The most important thing is that it is beautifully made, with sophisticated patterns, clear text, rich content, brilliant silver, and pleasant appearance.