Jianbao life

Chapter 204 Silver Coins (continued)

The other people present, seeing Chu Chen's surprised expression kept flipping through the silver coin, and finally took out a magnifying glass to look at it carefully, they couldn't help being a little curious, is this silver coin very precious?

When Chu Chen finally confirmed the authenticity of this silver coin and put down the magnifying glass in his hand, Zhao Heyan quickly asked: "Cousin, why have you looked at this silver coin for so long, is it rare?"

Chu Chen replied with a smile: "Of course it is rare. This kind of silver coin is also called "Ben Province" silver coin. It is different from ordinary Jingchu Guangxu silver coins. This is the only example in the history of coinage."

"Furthermore, after it was released, the common people did not accept it because of the difficulty in circulation. As a result, it could only be withdrawn from circulation soon and destroyed and recast. There are basically very few of them that have survived to this day."

"That's it!"

After listening to Chu Chen's explanation, Zhao Heyan took the silver coin into her hand, flipped through it for a while, then looked at the other silver coins beside her, and said, "Isn't this silver coin just a silver coin? The weight is about the same, so how can it be difficult to circulate?" ?”

Chu Chen laughed and said, "It's because you didn't understand the special situation at that time. If you have time, I'll tell you what happened."

During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, the shortage of copper raw material supply became more and more apparent since the Xianfeng Dynasty, which caused the exchange rate between copper coins and silver to fluctuate and become unstable, and rapidly developed to the trend of "money is expensive and silver is cheap".From the 20th to the 22nd year of Guangxu, in just two years, the silver coin dropped from 840 coins to [-] coins.

This situation has caused confusion and unrest in the circulation field.Therefore, under the auspices of Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang at that time, the Jingchu Mint issued this special silver coin with the word "this province" on the back to stabilize the exchange rate of money and silver in Jingchu.

At that time, it was enforced in the form of administrative orders that one yuan of the newly minted "provincial" silver coin was converted into one thousand Wen, and all local official revenue and expenditure must use this silver coin.Merchants and people should pay various taxes, and they must also use the exchange rate of [-] to [-] to exchange them into "provincial" silver dollars at the official special agency, and then pay the taxes.

The main purpose of this administrative measure is to promote the stability of private price comparison through the unified pricing of silver dollars and coinage formulated by the government.However, due to the ups and downs of the silver and money ratio at that time, it was not only the congenital defect of the silver and money double standard currency system, but also caused by the national and even worldwide changes in the supply and demand of silver and copper raw materials.

In this case, it is certainly not possible for compulsory administrative intervention in one region and one region to be effective.Therefore, the implementation of this decree was strongly resisted by the people. People used various reasons not to exchange the "provincial" silver dollars, which were overvalued by [-]%, so that this local regulation was stranded shortly after its implementation.

Speaking of this, Chu Chen said: "So under the circumstances at that time, this kind of silver dollar was recycled and melted in large quantities before it reached the hands of the common people. Even if it was kept in the world, most of it was worn or stamped. , except for the current one, I haven’t seen any other ones until now, and I haven’t heard of them anywhere.”

"Cousin, that means, this silver coin is an orphan?"

"That's not necessarily the case. After all, this kind of silver coin has also been issued. Maybe there are silver coins of this quality in other corners, but the number should be very few."

Having said that, Chu Chen turned his head and asked Mrs. Wen, "Grandma Wen, was your family from Jingchu before?"

Mrs. Wen was also a little stunned at this time. She didn't understand why silver dollars were precious or not. Except for the different patterns on them, weren't they all the same?The difference is dozens of yuan at most, can one silver dollar still sell for tens of thousands?

Hearing Chu Chen ask her, she came back to her senses and replied: "Yes, my mother's family used to belong to Jingchu, and these silver coins are all money from my dowry. Let me ask you, young man, how can this silver coin be used?" How much is it worth?"

"This……"

If it was someone else, Chu Chen might be able to earn a little more with peace of mind, but facing this face that has experienced many vicissitudes, if he asks the price like he usually does in the antique business, his conscience will not be able to bear it, but if he tells the truth I don't know if this old man can bear the trick of fate with love.

"Grandma Wen, this... If I tell you, don't..."

Before Chu Chen finished speaking, his cell phone rang. Seeing that it was his uncle's number, he quickly picked it up. After saying a few words, he hung up the phone and said to Zhao Heyan, "Xiaoyan, You go and pick up your father, he is at the intersection where he came in just now."

After Zhao Heyan went out, the old lady Wen said: "Young man, you are afraid that I won't be able to take it anymore. Don't worry, I won't fall for my granddaughter. Just say it."

Hearing what Mrs. Wen said, Chu Chen was still a little worried, but thinking about it, they would have to face it sooner or later, so he said:
"Because this kind of silver coin has never been traded before, I can only get a relatively average price based on the preciousness of this coin and the previous auction records of rare coins, which should be around 80."

When Mrs. Wen heard the price of 80, she just felt a thud in her head, went blank, and stood motionless in a daze.

Seeing this, Chu Chen quickly helped old lady Wen to sit on the stool, stroked her back, shouted, and finally pinched her.

Although Wen Xuelan was a little dazed when she heard the price, she was only fifteen or sixteen years old, and she was still a little ignorant about some things. Under such circumstances, her ability to bear was undoubtedly better than her grandma. Sad, he hurried forward and called out to Mrs. Wen together.

After three or five minutes like this, the old lady Wen said "wow", and started to cry, complaining about herself and the injustice of fate.

When Zhao Qirui and the others walked in, seeing this situation, they were also a little puzzled, didn't they mean buying antiques, why did they look like this?

Seeing this, Chu Chen walked up to them, explained the reason with a wry smile, then sighed and said: "Hey, I almost did something bad with good intentions, if something happened to the old man just now, I will feel guilty for the rest of my life. "

Zhao Qirui patted him on the shoulder and said: "You didn't do this on purpose, and now people are fine, so don't feel guilty. When encountering such things in the future, think about it more, so that people can be psychologically prepared before telling Her situation may be better."

Chu Chen shook his head. He was still too young, and he was a bit rough in handling things. He would learn from this lesson in the future.To do good deeds, it is not enough to have a good intention, but also to have a suitable method and timing, and fully consider the actual situation and tolerance of others.

Seeing Wen Xuelan comforting Mrs. Wen there, Zhao Qirui took Chu Chen to the yard, and asked excitedly: "Where is that "provincial" silver coin? Show me it, I haven't seen the brand new one yet." pass."

After receiving the silver coin from Chu Chen, Zhao Qirui hurriedly observed it carefully. After a long time, he breathed a sigh of relief and praised: "It is indeed the real thing. This kind of coin without stamps and wear is rare even if it is not unique."

Hearing this, Zhao Heyan asked strangely: "Is there any fake silver coin?"

Chu Chen laughed and said, "How can there be no fakes? As long as they can make money, there will always be some criminals who will use their brains. Not to mention the present, but in the 40s, the Shanghai stock market Qianshang Ping Yulin successively There are three counterfeit copies of this one-dollar coin."

"Among the three editions, the first two editions were discarded because they were too clumsy. But for the third edition, he colluded with the mint staff. In the mint, he used professional machinery and Hubei Guangxu one-yuan ordinary coin waste molds to add The degree of word transformation is extremely high, and it is almost possible to confuse the real with the fake."

"However, although this kind of silver coin looks similar, there are still flaws to be found. The character "Province" on the back of the counterfeit is slightly different from the character "Province" on the face of the coin, while the characters "Province" on the face and back of the real coin are consistent. As I said just now, there is only one version of genuine silver coins in the "Province", and there is no second version, so the authenticity is self-evident."

Finally, Zhao Qirui added: "Also, I have never seen a genuine product without a stamp before, and those fakes are all without a stamp, so whether there is a stamp or not has become a reference for distinguishing fakes at that time, but Not to mention it was then, even now, if you come across an unstamped provincial silver coin, you should be cautious."

"Oh, that's the way it is. I didn't expect there to be so many fakes for one type of silver coin. Dad, you still let me learn antiques. Let me tell you, don't think about it! I don't want to squat in the pile of fakes all day long." Zhao He Yan pouted and said.

"You girl..."

Zhao Qirui wanted to say something else, but thinking about his mischievous daughter, apart from her mother, he really couldn't control her, so he said helplessly: "Forget it, you can do whatever you want, anyway, it's up to you." You can't calm down, don't try to learn how to be a good antique."

Zhao Heyan laughed and said: "Anyway, both of you know about antiques. Why don't you just ask you to buy antiques? One is my father and the other is my cousin. You won't refuse, right?"

Seeing what she said, what else could Chu Chen and Zhao Qirui say, they could only helplessly look at each other and smile.

Chu Chen and the others waited for a while, and seeing that Mrs. Wen's mood had stabilized, they walked in together.

Mrs. Wen wiped away her tears and said apologetically, "I'm sorry for wasting your time."

Chu Chen and the others quickly said that it was okay, and then Chu Chen said: "Grandma Wen, let's sign the agreement, but I don't know how you want to pay the money, can I write a check?"

"Cheque?"

"Yes, after all, these sums add up to more than 100 million. The bank is closed today, so it's inconvenient not to use a check. Of course, you can also choose to trade tomorrow." Although Chu Chen wants to get the things as soon as possible, he can't be forced other people trade.

(End of this chapter)