Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 209 Gold Foil and Silver Powder
The use of gold millet paper for the bank note has been settled, so what other anti-imitation methods can be used?

Taichang thought for a while, and then asked: "Meng Hou, among the printed pigments, is there a special one that is difficult to imitate?"

Hearing this, Bi Maokang, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, hurriedly cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I don't know much about the configuration of this paint. However, there are a few old craftsmen in the capital who are responsible for configuring the paint for the repair of the palace and the imperial city. Many of the pigments are almost incompetent to be prepared by the folks, such as bright yellow, bright purple and other colors, few people dare to use them in the folks, so naturally no one has studied how to configure them. It is rather unique and rarely seen among folks.”

Really?
That's great!
Taichang asked with great interest: "How many colors are there that are rarely seen in the folk and have a unique formula?"

Bi Maokang made a rough estimate, and then carefully said: "There should be more than ten kinds. I don't know which color the emperor wants to use. I will ask you later if there is any unique formula."

More than ten kinds are enough!
Taichang said decisively: "Then choose the most unique color of the nine formulas. It doesn't matter what color it is, as long as the formula is unique and the folks can't imitate it."

Ah!
Nine kinds?

Hearing this, Bi Maokang couldn't help but bewildered. Can banknotes be printed in so many colors?
Taichang then asked again: "As for carving, are there any craftsmen with unique skills?"

Bi Maokang said without hesitation: "There are also such things, such as carving dragons and phoenixes. Few people dare to use them among the people. The craftsmen who carve these also have their own unique skills, and they basically stay in the capital to do it for the palace. live."

This is true, who dares to carve dragons and phoenixes everywhere in their own homes, it is purely because they don't want to mess around.

Taichang thought for a while, then nodded slightly and said: "That's it, Menghou, tomorrow you will call all these craftsmen with unique skills, and I will discuss with them again, what kind of bank note will be made?" .By the way, let those who can configure unique paints bring them here."

Is it possible to make bank notes that no one can imitate these days?
really can.

Nowadays, many craftsmen have unique skills, which are basically passed down from generation to generation, and outsiders can't learn them at all.

For example, those who make gold millet paper, prepare paints for the court, and carve ornaments for the court. The unique skills of these people are all concentrated on a silver ticket, and these craftsmen who master the unique skills are strictly monitored. It is basically impossible to imitate it.

The next morning, Taichang visited the meeting hall of Wenhua Palace again.

However, the people participating in the deliberation this time are not yesterday's people. Except for the crown prince and Xin Wang, there are only a few officials who are the head of state Wu Yangchun, Minister of Industry Bi Maokang, and Minister of Household Bi Ziyan. The others are all experienced. Old craftsmen.

When these people saw the emperor, they were all so nervous, not to mention telling them to sit down, they were a little afraid to get up when they were lying on the ground.

Seeing this, Taichang smiled helplessly and said: "I still want to see your skills, how can you show your skills if you don't sit down, sit down, don't waste time."

After hearing the words, all the artisans sat down carefully.

What Bi Maokang recruited were nine old craftsmen who prepared paints and nine old craftsmen who were good at carving, exactly eighteen.

As for how to show off his skills, Taichang ordered people to prepare for it long ago.

Nine sets of the Four Treasures of the Study have already been placed in the middle of the big table, which are specially prepared for these craftsmen.

Seeing that these people had all sat down, Taichang raised his hand and said, "Pour the prepared paints into the inkstone in front of you. Those who are good at carving, use these paints to paint the things you are best at carving on paper."

Naturally, the nine old craftsmen of the paints had already prepared and brought them here.

Just kidding, the emperor asked them to prepare and bring them here, how dare they come empty-handed.

As for painting, those who are good at carving must be able to paint what they are good at carving.

Soon, the nine old craftsmen poured the prepared paint into the inkstone in front of them, while the other nine old craftsmen took off the finest brushes, painted them with paint, and quickly drew on the white paper.

What they sculpt the most in their life is what they are best at, and they are naturally quick to draw. In less than a quarter of an hour, the nine of them finished the painting.

As soon as Taichang raised his hand, he ordered Liu Shiyou to bring over the painted things to have a look, and he couldn't help nodding his head repeatedly, full of praise.

These people are really powerful. All dragons, phoenixes and auspicious clouds are painted extremely exquisitely, and they look like works of art.

If these are printed on a bank note with unique pigments, and the folks can imitate it, then it will be a ghost.

Taichang said with satisfaction: "Well, let's just use these patterns. Auspicious clouds are the foundation, dragon and phoenix are auspicious, holy beasts are everywhere, and strange flowers bloom on both sides!"

So this is ah!

Bi Maokang couldn't help but suddenly said: "Your Majesty, do you mean that these nine patterns are all overprinted on one bank note?"

Taichang nodded again and again and said: "Yes, different patterns are painted in different colors and overprinted on a bank note. If someone can imitate it, it will be a ghost."

This method is indeed good, but it is a bit troublesome. One bank note plus the words on it needs to be engraved with ten templates, and it has to be printed ten times!
If it is to print general things, no one will do it like this. It is too much to overprint two or three colors.

Of course, printing banknotes is different. This is all about printing money. Why bother?
The next step is to determine the size of the banknote and the material of the engraving template.

This size is for reference. At first, the Daming Banknote was one foot long and six inches wide, but Taichang felt that it was a bit too big, so he changed it to nine inches long and five inches wide.

This size is almost the same, and it coincides with the meaning of the Ninth Five-Year Supreme. Whoever dares to imitate it will be killed without mercy!

As for the engraving template, Taichang still uses pure copper.

Because the wooden formwork is not done well, it is estimated that after printing for a month or two, the thin lines should be blurred, and the printed banknotes will be inconsistent, and the formwork of Baisteel is too difficult to carve, so, Pure copper is the most suitable.

The next step is to engrave the template.

In order to prevent these people from being lured into counterfeiting bank notes, Taichang specially asked Luo Sigong to vacate [-] yards in the most densely populated street of Jinyiwei in Dashiyongfang behind the Jinyiwei yamen, and let these [-] families move in.

They arrange paints and carve stencils in the yamen of Baochao Department of the Imperial City every day, and, without special circumstances, they are not allowed to leave the area where Jinyiwei lives!

These craftsmen originally served the court, and they have almost never left the capital in their life, so they have no objection to confining them to a certain area.

Even, they were so excited after they moved into their new home.

Scholars, farmers, businessmen, apart from merchants, the lowest status is artisan households, but artisan households are not as profitable as merchants, so even if they live in the capital for a lifetime, they cannot afford to live in a good yard.

The yard vacated by Jin Yiwei is much bigger and more beautiful than the one they used to live in. They are naturally very excited to live in it.

In less than ten days, they carved out the first set of stencils, and the nine special pigments and the thick ink for printing were also ready, and they waited for the golden millet paper to arrive before they could start printing silver notes .

When Taichang received the news, he took Bi Maokang and Bi Ziyan to the Yamen of the Baochao Department and asked them to try printing on mulberry paper.

It is a bit troublesome to print this banknote. The paper needs to be fixed in a copper square frame, and then the engraving templates of each color are pressed into the square frame. Each color has to be printed vigorously for a while. After the paint is dry, the next color can be printed. It takes at least half an hour to print a silver ticket!

Of course, it will be different when printing in large quantities. Just prepare more standard copper frames, cover a large table or even the entire room, and then each person will hold a template and print them one by one, with a fan behind. After one engraving template is printed, the first one printed at the beginning must have been done long ago, so that there is no delay in time.

It's trial printing right now, so you don't need to worry about efficiency, just print out samples.

More than a dozen craftsmen worked hard for more than half an hour, and the first bank note was finally printed.

This silver ticket has exquisite patterns, bright colors, and exquisite matching. It really looks quite high-end and elegant.

The problem is, the words printed in this thick ink are a bit cheap!

How Taichang looked at it, he felt that the black characters did not match the exquisite pattern of the entire bank note.

He looked carefully for a while, and then asked: "Is there a way to make this black ink more beautiful? I mean, add something to make this black ink look different."

This really exists.

An old paint maker carefully cupped his hands and said: "If the emperor thinks the ink color is not good-looking, you can add some gold leaf powder or silver leaf powder to it, so that it will be printed with stars, which is very beautiful."

Great idea!

These craftsmen are really powerful, and they can come up with a solution casually.

Taichang immediately asked with great interest: "Do you have these gold leaf powder and silver leaf powder?"

The old craftsman shook his head repeatedly and said: "Your Majesty, that thing is expensive, and it is very troublesome to make. There is no villain. In the past, every time I needed it, the villain would go to the Inner Palace Supervisor to get it."

This is easy to do.

Taichang immediately said to Liu Shiyou who was behind him: "Go to the Inner Palace Supervisor and get some gold leaf powder and silver leaf powder."

After a while, Liu Shiyou came over with two exquisite small porcelain bottles, one golden and one silver, which were extremely beautiful.

Taichang weighed the two bottles in his hands, thought for a while, and handed over the small silver bottle to the craftsman, and then solemnly said: "Just print on this one, let me see how much silver foil powder is needed .”

Hearing this, the craftsman hurriedly took the lettering mold, took a small plate, poured some thick ink, then took the small silver bottle and carefully poured some silver powder into the plate, and then carefully painted it with a fine brush. After stirring, it was painted on the words on the mold.

Immediately afterwards, he took the sample of the bank note that had just been printed, stuck it in the copper frame, and then carefully printed the sub-model.

Taichang took a look at the reprinted bank notes, and it was indeed full of stars, which looked quite high-end and elegant.

This banknote only uses a few grams of silver foil powder at most, and the minimum denomination of the banknote is one tael, and the highest is 100 taels, which is not a loss at all.

He nodded in satisfaction and said, "Well, that's it, just add some silver foil powder to the thick ink."

(End of this chapter)