As we all know, although a banknote is just a thin piece of paper, it contains more than tens of millions of silver. How to ensure that banknotes are safe, reliable, error-free, and can be successfully exchanged and settled locally or in other places is a top priority related to the reputation and reputation of banknotes.
In ancient times when technology was still underdeveloped, anti-counterfeiting of banknotes was undoubtedly a difficult problem. However, the ancients had their own unique wisdom. They cleverly set up insurance through various means to deter opportunistic counterfeiters.
Today, we will use the money orders of the famous Shanxi Merchant Bank in the Qing Dynasty to find out how ancient banknotes are protected against counterfeiting.
Above picture_ A money order from the Qiao family during the Guangxu period in the Shanxi Merchants Museum Collection
Today, companies and units have specialized personnel responsible for checks, receipts, and bills. Fill in, it was naturally the same in ancient times. Generally speaking, the person responsible for filling in the amount of the money order is relatively fixed whether it is the head office or a branch of the bank. Therefore, the handwriting on bills became an important means of anti-counterfeiting in ancient times.
The Shanxi Merchant Bill No. will regularly report the handwriting characteristics of the money order writer to each branch every month, so that everyone can identify the authenticity of the money order just by looking at the words on the ticket. If there is a change in the person writing the note, the main number and semicolon will immediately exchange messages so that the recipient of the note can grasp it in time to prevent errors. Ancient Chinese calligraphy is often characterized by one stroke per person and high uniqueness. Even if they are students of the same sect, it is difficult to make every word the same.
Some bill numbers also stipulate that in addition to the person who writes the bill must be fixed, the semicolon shopkeeper must also sign each bill personally, and ghostwriting is not allowed, which increases the difficulty of forgery.
In addition to handwriting, seals are also commonly used anti-counterfeiting methods by ancient people.
Every Shanxi merchant has a stamp on the first side of the money order. Not only does it have different patterns, but it also uses various colors. It not only serves to distinguish it, but also can be used to identify authenticity. Not only that, some well-known bill numbers also use watermarks on money orders. This kind of watermark is hidden in the paper and cannot be seen at ordinary times. It can only be discovered by holding it up and taking a photo. For example, the watermark of the money order issued by Pingyao Weitaihou is "Weitaihou".