1. Common counterfeiting methods of ancient coins
1. Re-casting method. This method uses real money as a model to forge the original product. The water used to cast copper is mostly melted from ancient copper coins or mirrors, so the cast copper is still bronze or red copper. Due to thermal expansion and contraction, the cost of turning is less than the cost, that is, turning a smaller turn. There are a lot of counterfeit money on the market, and some of them may look real.
2. Modification method. Choose a thicker old copper coin, grind off the original text, and engrave another rare coin to make a forgery. There are many such counterfeits. For example, Wu Baht was renamed Taiqing Fengle, Xiaohuoquan was renamed Yongguang Jinghe, etc. You can also choose to add characters or stars and moons with ambiguous copper coins, such as changing the engraving of half a liang to two liang or half and a half, and changing the engraving of five baht to five five or baht baht. Be innovative in various ways.
3. Adhesive splicing method. This method is mostly used for Lianquan, Hebei and Tongwen coins. Take two to several coins of the same type, grind off the missing part, and glue them together to form Lianquan, Hebei or Tongwen coins. Also, grind off the backs of two old coins and put them together to form two-sided characters.
4. Use the old color method. The unearthed ancient coins have been corroded underground for hundreds of years. Some are covered with emerald green, some are red, green, yellow and white, and are mottled. In the coin industry, they are called "pit rust". The ancient coins handed down from ancient times have been used for a long time, and the oil and sweat have entered the surface, and the money body is yellowish brown or brown. In order to achieve the surface effect of being "born in the pit" and "passed down from generation to generation", the counterfeiters alter the color and luster of the counterfeit money. Common methods are as follows:
First, fake green. Because the unearthed ancient coins all have green patina, the forged ancient coins must be given a green patina to make them look more realistic. There are seven ways to forge the patina:
(1) Bury the forged money in the soil, When taken out after two or three years, they will be covered with green rust;
(2) Soak the counterfeit coins in hydrochloric acid or acetic acid, bury them in the soil, and remove them after a year and a half. When it comes out, it will be covered with green rust;
(3) Mix green powder with glue and apply it on the money to become a kind of hard green rust
( 4) Mix green powder with rosin and apply it on the counterfeit money, and it becomes an embroidery similar to hard green;
(5) Coat the counterfeit money with green enamel paint. After a year and a half, The enamel paint dries hard, quite like hard green embroidery;
(6) Use real patina to stick to the fake, so that it looks hard green all over the body;
(7) Put the money Soak in vinegar and add copper sulfate.
The second is the method of forging red rust. Some unearthed ancient coins also have red rust. There are four ways to fake red rust:
(1) Burn the counterfeit money with fire until it is thoroughly immersed in cold water, and then it will have red rust; Soak it in hydrochloric acid or acetic acid and bury it in the soil. After a year and a half, when you take it out, it will have a red and green rust color, which looks like an unearthed ancient coin;
(2) Use glue to mix red and green powder. It can also cause red and green rust;
(3) Use rosin to mix red and green, and apply it on the counterfeit money to make red and green rust;
(4) Mixing red enamel and green enamel on counterfeit money can also cause red and green rust.
The third is to forge ancient laws handed down from ancient times. Ancient coins that have been passed down for generations but have not been buried in the earth often have a dark brown color on the surface. This color is called handed down ancient coins. Counterfeiters usually use the following two methods to counterfeit this color;
(1) Calculate the counterfeit money with fire, take it out and let it cool, so that the surface of the money will turn black, and then put it in clothes and wrap it. After a year and a half, the color will be smooth and similar to real money;
(2) Soak the counterfeit money in hydrochloric acid or sulfuric acid for one or two days. When it is taken out, it will appear black, and then wrapped in a belt. After half a year, the color gradually becomes glossy, just like the ancient coins handed down from ancient times.
2. Identification of styles of ancient coins
1. Pre-Qin coin style. In the pre-Qin period, the main currencies were knives, cloth, round coins, ant-nosed coins (also known as grimace coins), etc. Most of the knives and cloth coins have extremely thin bodies (in some areas, the coins of Yibu, Geyi Fangzubu, Jimo knives, etc. have thicker bodies), and the gate of the knife coins is at the first end. The gates and edges of knives and cloths often have excess copper extruded out of the mold during casting. They are in a natural state because they have not been polished. The edges of some counterfeit knives and cloth coins are smoothed, which is actually superfluous and exposes traces of forgery. Most of the characters on knives and cloth coins are carved on clay molds with a knife. The strokes are made with one knife and will never change. You can even see the signs of the knife falling and retracting. This kind of Warring States calligraphy is smooth, elegant, consistent, vivid and natural. However, due to the forger's lack of in-depth study of the Warring States characters, some fake calligraphy and paintings are dull and the meaning of the writing is completely lost.
Since the Warring States period characters are difficult to imitate, every time the forger gets real money, he will make a fake one. This kind of counterfeit money is more difficult to identify. However, through careful observation, you can find that the counterfeit money is generally thicker and the copper is thicker. Of course, some of this type of counterfeit money are also extremely finely cast, so you must carefully observe the appearance of the entire money and the authenticity of the rust pieces in order to make a correct judgment.
2. Coin style of the Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the three-baht currency was not in circulation for a long time and few survive. The forger took five baht and re-engraved it, but the three baht is lighter and smaller than the ordinary five baht. The writing of the word "baht" is also obviously different from the five baht, making it easy to identify. There are also fakes that are recast with money, but there are very few that can be mistaken for the real thing. There are many ordinary half-liang and five-baht coins from the Han Dynasty that have survived. The counterfeit products seen so far are almost all special coins of half-liang and five-baht coins, such as "two liang" and "five-five" coins. or authentic casts). Counterfeiters generally use the method of re-engraving real money, and some are made of sand, such as the fake "five-five" and "Pingping five-baht" coins, but the re-engraving is not precise and the texture is rough. The coin-casting craftsmanship of the New Mang Dynasty was very particular, and Wang Mang's money was said to be a master of coin-casting. However, if you look closely, you can see that Wang Mang's coins are also very fine. Take the famous Liuquan Shibu as an example. Some have slanted outlines, thin and straight strokes, and are particularly exquisitely made; others have flat characters and poor production. There are two types of ten cloths: through-through (that is, there is a center line between the round through and the first end) and unthrough-through. Generally speaking, Qianwen at that time was mainly composed of hanging needle seals, and its strokes were smooth and sharp, and the layout was symmetrical and appropriate, all of which were excellent. Among the six springs and ten cloths, except for the big spring, the small spring and the big cloth, there are many fakes. There are counterfeit "Youquan 20" coins that have not seen real money and are only reproduced according to old records. They are poorly made and easy to identify; there are also counterfeit "Zhuangquan 40" coins that are made from old coins; there are also counterfeit coins that are copied from real coins. Yes, although this kind of counterfeit money is more exquisite, compared with the real thing, the text lacks vitality and can eventually be identified. Although no one has forged the Daquan fifty coins of the New Mang Dynasty, some special items such as Daquan five bahts are also counterfeited. The real Daquan five baht is a reformed coin minted at that time, and the original character "十" is still faintly visible; there is also a Daquan fifty baht with auspicious words on the back, such as "Changle Weiyang", etc. The calligraphy is vivid and unique, and cannot be faked. Imitation, but very rare.
3. Coin style of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. There were many types of coins during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. The habit of matching baht to each other in money writings has been broken. Some country name coins, year name coins and ancient language coins appeared, such as "Fenghuo", "Hanxing", "Liang" "Create a new spring", "Daxia Zhenxing", "Yongguang", "Jinghe", "Tianqing Fengle" and so on. This type of money is often counterfeited because it is a rare commodity. The "Fenghuo" coins are made by poor casters, but the writing is vigorous and clumsy, while the counterfeit ones are similar and mysterious, and the authenticity is easy to compare. The diameters of "Hanxing", "Yongguang" and "Jinghe" are between 1.55 and 1.7 centimeters, the diameters of "Liangzao Xinquan" and "Tianqing Fengle" are between 2 and 2.2 centimeters, and the diameters of "Daxia" The diameter of "Zhen Xing" is between 2.2 and 2.3 centimeters. If the diameter is larger than this, it is basically fake money. "Han Xing" can be read directly horizontally, and the writing can also be divided into seal script and official script. "Yongguang" and "Jinghe" are extremely rare. No new ones have been unearthed since liberation. Moreover, the coins are small and large, and are easy to be damaged and destroyed. Therefore, there are only a handful of exquisite and intact ones in existence. Of the two, "Yongguang" is particularly rare. Forgers It was often remade with five baht from the Six Dynasties, but the shape and writing were unrecognizable. The text of "Liangzao Xinquan" is small and straight, and has its own style. Unfortunately, there is often residual copper flowing between the strokes, and the money text is not very clear. If you find a particularly clear and regular "Liangzao Xinquan", you should observe it carefully to see if it is genuine. Most of the "Taihe Five Baht" in the Northern Wei Dynasty were made of raw materials, while most of the fake ones were made of mature materials (this does not mean that all the mature Taihe Five Bahts are fakes). All popular ancient coins handed down from generation to generation, whether carried or collected, are tied up with ropes. After a long period of friction, both sides of the coins will be as flat as a mirror. If they are artificially aged, the outline of the characters will often be worn away and the characters will be lost. Spirit.
4. Tang Dynasty coin style. The currency of the Tang Dynasty was mainly Kaiyuan money. The Kaiyuan in the early Tang Dynasty was large and exquisite, while the Kaiyuan casters in Huichang were rougher. The inscriptions on the back include "Chang", "Jing", "Luo", "Yi", "Jing", "Xiang", "Lan", "Yue" and "Xuan". ", "Hong", "Tan", "Jiu", "Run", "E", "Ping", "Xing", "Liang", "Guang", "Zi", "Fu", "Gui", There are 23 types including "Dan" and "Yong". The fewest people carry the word "Yong" on their backs. The word "Yong" can be divided into top, bottom and big or small, but the characters are mostly bloated and flat, and there are few exquisite ones. The forger may have taken the Huichang Kaiyuan with the vague inscription on the back and changed it into Kaiyuan with the word Yong. Therefore, when identifying, you should pay attention to whether there are any traces of knife carving around the word "Yong". If it is a forger, it is a different matter.
The inscription on the back of Huichang Kaiyuan was printed on the mold with a small stamp before casting. The upper, lower, left and right positions were not strictly fixed, and sometimes the money surface protruded a lot. In addition, there are Huichang Kaiyuan inscriptions whose inscriptions are unclearly printed or cannot be accurately interpreted at the moment, but they are indeed genuine and not forged or forged. There are few Dali and Jianzhong coins from the Tang Dynasty, and some are forged, but realistic imitations are rare. The production of Dali and Jianzhong money was not as good as that of Kaiyuan money in the early Tang Dynasty. There are also large and exquisite ones for large swords, and most of the small ones for construction coins are thin and meaty, and there are very few large and thick ones.
5. Five generations of coin styles. During the Five Dynasties, the separatist regimes in various places set up furnaces to cast coins of various types. Due to the continuous wars, the authorities, in order to cope with financial difficulties, either cast large coins, or cast iron, lead and low-quality alloy coins. Therefore, in the Five Dynasties, there were many large coins, iron coins, and lead coins. There's a lot of money, but the production is fine and rough. For example, most of the "Tianfu Yuanbao" from the Later Jin Dynasty were thin, shoddy and crudely made; the "Zhou Yuan Tongbao" from the Later Zhou Dynasty was extremely exquisite and similar to the Kaiyuan Yuan in the early Tang Dynasty. All the "Zhou Yuan Tong Bao" large coins and small coins with dragons, phoenixes, Buddha statues, roosters and other patterns on their backs were imitated by later generations and were by no means popular items at that time. At the same time, Ma Yin's "Qianfeng Quanbao" large iron coin has a very large difference in fineness and roughness. Very few large copper coins of "Qianfeng Quanbao" have been handed down from generation to generation. The characters on the counterfeit coins seen are too artificial and lose their interest. The authenticity can be seen through careful identification.
6. Song Dynasty coin style. In the Song Dynasty, a new type of coins was generally minted every time the year name was changed. The amount and types of coins minted were rare in previous dynasties. During the 300 years of the Song Dynasty, Xiaoping and Zheerqian were mainly used, and large coins were also used occasionally. Their outline and size had certain standards. Since the seventh year of Chunxi in the Southern Song Dynasty, Qian's backs have been marked with numbers, and the style of Qian's writings has gradually been dominated by Song style. Generally speaking, the coin workmanship of the two Song dynasties was exquisite, especially in the Huizong period. The unique thin gold style can be seen in the Qianwen, and the delicate calligraphy is matched with exquisite workmanship. Often make counterfeit products pale in comparison. Another feature of Song Dynasty money is that there are many editions. For example, Xuanhe, Zhenghe, etc. have hundreds of editions. In addition to different sizes, the Jiading iron coins of the Southern Song Dynasty were red and had more than 10 types, including Tongbao, Yuanbao, Chongbao, Xinbao, Yongbao, Zhenbao, Zhenbao, Zhengbao, Zhibao and Wanbao. The distinction between place, date and value is truly unprecedented in all dynasties. No one has forged ordinary Song Dynasty coins, but there are more fake coins from Kangding, Zhihe Chongbao Beifang, Guo, Tongbao from Sheng Song Dynasty, Jingkang and other types. Whenever you encounter such coins, you must treat them with caution and carefully observe whether there are any traces of forgery. , is it consistent with the large number of ordinary Song Dynasty coin shapes? There are three styles of Lin'an Prefecture money cards in the Southern Song Dynasty; one is with upper and lower corners; the other is with upper and lower corners; the third is with upper and lower corners. Counterfeiters in the Qing Dynasty took the money and sanded it, and the fakes were almost identical to the real ones, except for the rust color and color paste, and some characters were out of shape.
7. Liao Dynasty coin style. The coins of the Liao Dynasty have their own special style. The money text is read in a convolutional manner, the characters contain eight points, the writing style is clumsy, and the copper color is redder. From Tianxian in the Liao Dynasty to Tianqing in the Liao and Song Dynasties, in the past one or two hundred years, the text and shape of money have been inherited from one continuous line, which shows that the money cast in the Liao Dynasty has obvious tradition. Very few coins of the early Liao Dynasty, such as Tianxian, Yingli, Baoning, and Tonghe, have survived. Forgers have no way of finding blueprints, so there are also very few counterfeit coins. There is a fake Tonghe Yuanbao, which is far from the Liao Dynasty style and is easy to identify.
8. Jin Dynasty coin style. The coins of the Jin Dynasty are famous for their exquisiteness, which is related to the fact that the Jin people mastered the technical power of money casting in the Shaanxi furnace of the Song Dynasty. The Taihe Tongbao of the Jin Dynasty is extremely rare for large sums of money. Over the past few decades, only two editions have been found. The calligraphy style is very good, and the outline and text are slightly fat and thin. I once saw a kind of fake money that imitated the fine-print version and was cast better. It was obviously made from real money. However, in order to cover up the traces of new casting, the outer wheel was hammered and deformed. Most of the Taihe Tongbao in Xiaoping regular script are made of white copper, which is also very rare; the Taihe coins in seal script have not been found authentic; the three Taihe coins in seal script are indeed genuine, but they are extremely rare in the world; the Cheng'an treasure copper coins have not been found genuine.
9. Yuan Dynasty coin style. Paper banknotes were widely used in the Yuan Dynasty. Except for the Mongolian Dayuan and Zhida Tongbao, early coins had a small mintage. In some eras, only temple money is handed down. This small temple money is not used as currency and was formerly called support money. The larger the currency value of Zhizhengquan banknotes in the late Yuan Dynasty (that is, the larger the shape of the money), the misalignment of the face and back caused the text and outline to lean to one side, but it was natural and not artificial. The writing on the back is relatively complicated and mostly unclear. Forgers often use real money to recast it. Due to poor reprinting, the writing on the back is blurred, which is very different from the genuine one. There is also a kind of counterfeit, although it is deliberately imitated, the text on the back is very clear, but it also loses the powerful and natural style of the original coin. Except for special envoys, the amount of coins minted in the past dynasties has been in the thousands or tens of thousands. It must be skilled workers who can operate it freely according to the process. It is better for counterfeiters to imitate wantonly, focusing on one thing and losing the other, and self-defeating.
The coins of the Peasant Rebellion Army in the late Yuan Dynasty, such as Tianqi, Tianding, Tianyou, Longfeng, etc., are not only excellent in calligraphy, but also exquisite in casting. The casters of Dayi Tongbao are not as good as the above four types, so it is said to be "exquisite in heaven's determination and indiscriminate in righteousness". There are occasionally exquisite Dayi Tongbao, but they are very few. There are counterfeits in the above five kinds, among which Tianqi and Longfeng are the most popular ones. There is a kind of counterfeit Tianqi Tongbao money that is made from Tianding Tongbao with the word "ding" changed to "qi". There is an obvious sense of incompatibility between the characters "tian", "tong" and "bao" in the counterfeit product and the word "qi".
10. Ming Dynasty coin style. The characters and shapes of the coins of the Ming Dynasty were different in the early and later periods. In the early period, the characters were narrow and the characters were tall and elegant; in the later period, the outer characters became wider and the Qian characters were mainly in Song style. Dazhong and Hongwu coins in the early Ming Dynasty were representatives of the early styles. At that time, all bureaus were casting them, and they were divided into five styles: Xiaoping, Zheer, Zhe3, Fifty, and Ten. There were many versions, such as the word "Tong". There are single and double dots, and there are several types of backs, including commemorative value, commemorative place, and bare back. The coins minted in various places form their own system, with different calligraphy styles, and the number of surviving coins varies greatly. The counterfeiters have changed the common Zhejiang and Henan versions into the rare Beijing, Ji, and Hubei versions, so that the characters on the front and back do not match, exposing weaknesses. For example, the characters on the back of the counterfeit Dazhong Tongbao are completely in the Zhejiang version's font. . Another example is the counterfeit money Tianshun Tongbao, which was recast from the Dashun Tongbao in the late Ming Dynasty. Tianshun was in the early and mid-Ming Dynasty before Hongzhi, so there should be no money trend in the late Ming Dynasty. In fact, no Tianshun Tongbao was minted in the Ming Dynasty. Qian Wen of the Ming Dynasty avoided Zhu Yuanzhang's "Yuan" taboo. They were all called Tongbao, and read directly (that is, the two characters Tongbao were on the right and left); until the Qing Dynasty, Qian inscriptions still mainly read Tongbao directly. It was not until Xianfeng issued large coins that the title of Yuanbao and Chongbao was restored.
3. Identification of copper color of ancient coins
The copper quality of ancient coins mainly includes red copper, bronze, brass, white copper, etc. Red copper has the highest copper content, generally above 90%, and is purple-red in color. Bronze is a copper-tin-lead alloy, and its colors include deep red, light red or water red, bluish white, yellowish and other colors. Brass refers to copper-zinc alloy, and its color can be light yellow or golden. White copper refers to copper alloy, which is often found in modern machine-made coins. There are some copper-colored and silver-white ancient coins with square holes, which are also customarily called white copper coins, but in fact they do not contain or very little. It is still a kind of bronze, but it contains more lead and tin, which causes the change of copper color. In order to respect the custom and facilitate identification, it is still called white copper coin.
Because the coining methods, copper resources, and ingredient distribution in different historical periods are different in different places, the copper color of ancient coins also varies greatly. The quality of ancient coins is generally obtained by chemical analysis, but this destructive test has no practical significance for the identification of ancient coins, so the copper color of ancient coins is more important in identification. The copper color of pre-Qin yuan coins is deep red, close to red copper. The copper color of Daobu coins is mostly light red. Another characteristic of pre-Qin coins is that the coin body is thin. Forgers often infiltrate too much lead to increase the fluidity of the copper melt. This kind of counterfeit copper is dark red in color, soft and easy to deform. The casting period of half liang and five baht is longer, and the copper color is also different in shades. The Taihe five bahts that have been handed down for a long time have exposed copper, deep red color, and extremely fine texture, with almost no blisters on the surface. The gold rim of a large-character version is slightly lower, while the copper color of the fake version is lighter and the copper is thicker. The Tiande Chongbao from the Five Dynasties has a slightly bluish-white copper color. Tiance Talisman treasures often have a black oxide layer on the surface, and the copper inside is mostly water red. The copper color of Yongan One Hundred and Yongan Thousand is slightly yellow, and most of the copper colors of Southern Tang coins are also yellowish.
In the early Northern Song Dynasty, the copper color of iron mother such as Song, Yuan and Taiping was light yellow or slightly yellow. In the later period, the copper color of iron mother such as Shaosheng, Shengsong and Daguan was darker, while in Xuanhe, Jingkang and Jianyan, the copper color was darker. Xiaoping iron mother is mostly white copper. The color of Jianyan Chongbao is deep red, while the copper color of Tiemu in the Southern Song Dynasty is mostly yellowish. The copper color of Liao coins is deep red or purple. The copper color of Xifu coins is water red. The copper color of yuan coins is mostly deep red or light red, while the temple donation coins are also yellowish. Before Jiajing, bronze was used to cast money, but after Jiajing, brass was mostly used. This is related to the mastery of zinc refining technology. The copper color of carved mothers (ancestor coins) in the Ming and Qing Dynasties is mainly golden. In the Qing Dynasty, Xinjiang coins were made of red copper, so they were called Xinjiang red coins. Xianfeng Baofu Bureau coin is made of red copper, but the Baofu Bureau coin has a wide rim and is made of red copper. Two types, the outer edge width is the same as that of ordinary 100-dollar coins. It is said that Baofu Bureau's large coins are made of copper cannon materials. The copper colors vary in shades, but they are mainly light red copper. Xiaoping iron mother and some pieces of ten to twenty coins are made of white copper. The Xianfeng Baohe and Baoshaan coins worth 500 and 1,000 yuan are made of red copper, and the 10 to 100 yuan coins are made of brass. The brass Baoshaan coins worth 1,000 yuan are fakes. Baoquan, Baoyuan and Baogong are counterfeit. There are two kinds of coins: brass and red copper.
The copper color of the salty and plump Chinese Zhejiang coin is slightly golden, and the copper is fine and dense, and the calligraphy is dignified. The counterfeit coins are in ordinary regular script, the copper is light yellow, and the copper is thick. The above lists the copper colors of some ancient coins, but does not include special circumstances.
4. Identification of ancient coin shapes
In the shape of coins, the coin fonts mostly show the consistency of the times. Each coin character has its own characteristics, but it is still a character from a historical period and has the uniqueness of the times. This rule can also be used as one of the basis for identification. To determine whether a coin font is correct or not, the first step is to see whether it conforms to the characteristics of the times, and the second step is to see whether it conforms to the characteristics of this variety.
For example, some "Eastern Zhou" and "Western Zhou" round coins have the text in small seal script, and there are also "converted" coins in small seal script, which are obviously fakes. The Xiaozhuan style was promoted nationwide after the unification of the Qin Dynasty, when the "scripts were written in the same script". The two-week Qian script during the Warring States Period should have the basic writing style of the Three Jin Dynasty's two-week bronze script; the Hua Qian script should have the characteristics of the Qi script. Another example is that Qianwen in the Song Dynasty has a "Fangtou Tong", and Qianwen in the Ming and Qing Dynasties also has a "Fangtou Tong", but the degree of squareness is different, and there is a process of change from not very square to very square. The words on a coin are written by the same person and should be consistent with each other. It is difficult to do this with counterfeit coins made using the splicing method. Someone used the Yongli money of King Gui of the Southern Ming Dynasty and changed it into the Dali money of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. The gap between the two fonts is hundreds of years, and no matter how sophisticated they are, they can be distinguished. The coining of money in each period resulted in some specific phenomena either out of necessity or regulations. Ruqi's knife coins have a higher outline to protect the money and have a high point in the middle of the back. Without this feature, it is probably a fake. Another example is the Qianfeng Quanbao, Dali Yuanbao, Jianzhong Tongbao, and Baoda Yuanbao of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms of the Tang Dynasty. The money text should be read in reverse, and the coin text must be read falsely, because "the system is not the same." The same coin shape has also changed successively.
Yan's Ming Dao coin has an early curved back, and the two vertical channels on the handle do not go up. The Ming characters are long and narrow until they reach the root of the handle. In the later period, the coin chime of the Ming Dynasty sword was folded, and the two vertical lines on the handle were intruding on the blade body, and the Ming characters were often off-center. If the clear characters are long and narrow and the body shape is folded, or if the clear characters are flat and round and the body shape is curved, it must be a fake because the shape of the characters does not match. Marks such as stars, moons, juxtaposition patterns, and grain patterns are also noteworthy features of the shape of ancient coins. The stars, moon and other symbols cast on the coins were deliberately made by people at that time. The casting of stars began with the Banliang coins of the Qin Dynasty, and the casting of moon shapes and four-step patterns began with the Five Baht coins of the Western Han Dynasty. The four-chu pattern began to be cast on the five-baht coins of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Stars and moons were still found on Chongzhen coins in the Ming Dynasty. After the Sui Dynasty, coins with the four-chu pattern no longer appear. The four-chu pattern seems not to have appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty. These marks are most diverse on the five-baht coin. Take the five-baht coin as an example. The red and flat five-baht coins of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty were cast with half-diamond patterns. The five-baht coins of Emperor Wu were cast with upper and lower half stars starting with the coins of Emperor Wu, and ending with the coins of Wang Mang. The five-baht coins of the Western Han Dynasty had four-faced patterns until Wang Mang's coins. Judging from the coins unearthed to this day, this system no longer existed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The four patterns on the back began in the "Daquan Fifty" period of Wang Mang, and there was no such system in the Western Han Dynasty. The five-baht and Wang Mang coins of the Western Han Dynasty do not have moon patterns. The five-baht coins of Emperor Ming and Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han Dynasty have moon patterns, but they are rare. Anyone who does not meet the above conditions is mostly fake money.