First of all, it is not difficult to understand the process of making fake money.
Forging ancient coins is generally divided into two steps: the first step is to make money blanks, and the second step is "counterfeiting", that is, counterfeiting.
The main means of making money blanks are casting, engraving, digging and splicing.
First, the so-called casting is to use real money as a mold and turn copper into sand to cast new coins. A large number of counterfeit precious coins appear in the market, all of which are made in this way.
There are also some so-called "invented money" that there is no such money in history, but Qian Shang threatened that this kind of money is a rare product of "publishing spectrum" in order to make money (what is not recorded in the ancient money spectrum is called "publishing spectrum"). Cheat collectors. This kind of money is to carve some words different from common ones when making a money model. Then turn it over. For example, the author once saw a "nine-character knife" at a spring friend's place, which is no different from the general "six-character knife" except that there are three more words. Its rust color and writing breath are very close to the six-character knife, and the casting is very fine and confusing. If it weren't for repeated identification by coin experts, many people would have been fooled.
The author also has a "Duanping Yuanbao" (see photo) which belongs to this kind of "making money". Ten ring looked at Duan Pingyuan's money at Baosteel, but there was no score. According to Ma Dingxiang's annotation, Ding's "Illustration of Ancient Money in Past Dynasties" criticized: "The top ten iron coins of Duanping Yuanbao Ring are rare." Explain that there is only this form of iron money, but no copper money. If there is copper coin, it must be an iron mother. But this money, with plain words, suspicious rust color and skewed body, is by no means mother money.
Fake money cast with real money is not easy to be seen by skilled people, but if you distinguish it carefully, you can still see that the strokes of the characters are relatively thick, and the details of vertical, horizontal, left and right are blurred. Copper is also different. When the sand is turned, the rust spots on the original real money are printed on the sand mold, and the original cast fake money blank has the original rusty copper block. By comparing the two Liu Hua in the picture, the difference in words is obvious.
Most of the counterfeit money seen in the market is easy to identify. Some are extremely difficult to judge, such as a "national treasure" character and rust color. It is not easy to see the problem: a Yuan Dynasty treasure "Zhongtong Yuanbao" seal script Xiaoping asks for 2000 yuan, and its workmanship is also very fine. The details of the two dollars are questionable. These will be discussed with several scholars through further testing methods, so don't make a deal easily.
Second, the method of lettering is to engrave one or two words from ordinary ancient coins to make them rare and valuable coins. For example, five baht, take out the two vertical lines of five words and change them into "three baht" Change "Grand View Bao Tong" Xiaoping into a fictional rare coin "Datong Bao Tong". Carve out the words in the middle of the "three-character knife" and add words to it, and it becomes a precious "six-character knife" After engraving, it will be used in the old way, which is often difficult to identify and needs special care.
The same is true of some marked coins, such as putting the word "Chuan" on the back of the ordinary "Bamboo Slip Bao Tong" and engraving the moon and the stars with flowing copper. Replace ordinary Kaiyuan money with Huichang Kaiyuan's "rare" products, and so on.
3. Digging and mending method: Dig out one or two words on the face of ordinary coins, and then subsidize the words on other coins with paint, glue or solder to raise their prices. This kind of counterfeit money often confuses some experts, because the words are old and the copper is basically the same, which is difficult to identify for a while. On the 49th page of "Illustration of Coins in Past Dynasties" edited by Ding, there is a half-coin with the sun and moon marks on the back. And "two pairs" and "half-half-half" are all digging up forged fake money. At that time, and these two coin experts were cheated into the coin list. Explain how clever this counterfeiting method is, and collectors should pay more attention to it if it is also used to counterfeit coins such as "Five-Year Plan" and "Thai baht".
The "bright" and "half-half" money in The Picture of Ancient Money in Past Dynasties are counterfeit money, which was pointed out by Mr. Ma Dingxiang in his annotation. Because there are rubbings on the spectrum, it is difficult to judge the method of forgery. It is preliminarily concluded that it belongs to "patching" because if it is divided into two and a half parts and then welded, its trace is obvious, and Ding and Dai, two old-timers in the spring industry, may not make this mistake. It's hard to come to this conclusion, because the original currency has never been seen.
Generally, soldering or silver welding is often used in splicing, and some cut off part of the original money and weld another part of it for money. Some are two identical coins that are thinned and then welded together, which becomes a rare "back-tied" coin.
After the fake money is completed, the next step is to "do the old". "Doing old" is mainly coloring and painting fake rust.
The rust color of ancient coins generally includes "pit rust", "mercury ancient" and "handed down from generation to generation". The "raw pits" are red, green, blue and yellow, some are thin and thick, some are even and some are uneven. People who forge counterfeit money make great efforts to forge rust, and many people pretend to be "pits". The method is to heat the money blank and soak it in different concentrations of acid and salt. After a day or two, it will become "colorful". Either glue and rosin are used to mix pigments, or paint is used to smear them, and then fine sandpaper is used to polish them, which becomes "raw pits" of different colors.
"Handed down from ancient times" refers to ancient copper coins that have not been buried or unearthed for a long time and have been repeatedly rubbed by people. Bright luster, oily black or pure green, pure green. Counterfeit money is generally blackened with lampblack, or packaged with black paint, and then waxed and polished.
There are also some counterfeiters who pickle fake money, bury it in the soil, rust it for a while and take it out as a "pit".
"Mercury ancient" is black and shiny, much like a layer of mercury on a black background, which has a strong reflective feeling. This rust color is generally difficult to fake.
Knowing the method and process of forging ancient money, we can find a way to identify the true and false.
Distinguishing between urinating and defecating is mainly to distinguish between shapes and listening to sounds.
One way to distinguish shapes is to distinguish characters. Words first look at "breath", and "breath" is style and charm. Coin figures in different periods have different writing styles and charms. For example, the characters before the pre-Qin dynasty were called "bronze inscriptions" and "big seals", which were the characters on cloth coins and knife coins. After the Qin Dynasty unified the six countries, Xiao Zhuan was used. These two kinds of seal scripts are different. The former is more concise and thick, and the brushwork is tortuous. If the word "Xiao Zhuan" appears on the knife cloth, it is doubtful. In addition, Wang Mang's "cloth" uses "hanging needle seal", Northern Zhou Sanpin uses "jade grain seal", Tang Dynasty Qian Wen uses official script, and Northern Song Dynasty money is "matching money" with seal, official seal and official seal. I've seen a lot of these, and I'm familiar with them, so I can understand their Qian Wen style and recognize the "fabricated" fake money. For example, there is a "Yuan You Yuanbao". After investigation, it was found that the "Yuanbao" was not cast in Yuan You during the Northern Song Dynasty (because Qian Wen was not allowed to recast the word "Yuan"), and the word "Yuan" was blunt. The other three characters were different from those of Qian Feng in the Northern Song Dynasty, so it can be concluded that it was counterfeit money.
Distinguishing characters depends on the composition of the characters on the money surface, whether they are coordinated and unified, and the characters are often diametrically opposed when carving and splicing. Words are not harmonious, just like calligraphy If it were not written by the same person, the style of the book would be different.
See Qian Wen, but also to see whether the handwriting is clear. When casting money, you should use real money to make molds. The real money used is not a carved mother, but it is generally worn out. The counterfeit money was turned out, although the copper coins were new and the handwriting was blurred. Therefore, whenever you encounter a rare currency with vague handwriting, you should pay attention. This "Yongtong Quanbao" money is not only a fictional money (it is a fake ancient money in the Southern Tang Dynasty, and there was a "Yongtong Quanbao" in the precious coin at that time, which was similar in size and shape), but also the writing style was not uniform, with three characters of official script and one character of seal script, and the handwriting was also very vague. For example, "Tong" basically belongs to sub-seal, but the strokes of "Zhi" are also ambiguous. Some coin collectors may ask: "Real money will be blurred after a long period of wear and tear, and the handwriting of fake money will be blurred. What is the difference between the two? "
In fact, this is not difficult to distinguish, mainly refers to the wear and tear of money body steel. The handwriting of real money is vague, and it is certain that the whole money body is greatly worn at the same time, and the two should be synchronized.
If the copper body of money is relatively new, the shape is relatively complete. And if the handwriting is blurred, it can be determined that it is a new counterfeit currency.
The second way to distinguish shapes is to distinguish copper rust. There are many kinds of rust in the pit. Colors are yellow, red, blue, green, black and so on. Some are all green rust, some are partial rust, and some are rusty.
Generally speaking, the closer the rust, the looser and shallower it is. Many coins handed down from ancient times have no lead color, but the color is very dark and simple. Although some of them are polished very brightly, the difference between copper and ordinary new steel can be seen at a glance.
Ancient coins buried for hundreds of years are deeply corroded by underground moisture, and often penetrate into the coins instead of staying on the surface. This kind of rust, called "bone rust" by ancient coin collectors, can not be removed not only by hand, but also by metal tools.
Before the Han and Tang Dynasties, cloth coins, knife coins and coins unearthed from raw pits were mostly this kind of "bone rust". If we come across this kind of money, hold it in our hand and gently dig it with our fingernails or matchsticks, it will fall off, revealing the color of copper coins, which is likely to be fake money.
Many counterfeit money, because it has been soaked in acid and salt, has a "pink-green" rust color, and the rust layer is thin, bright and harsh, which is easy to identify.
Some counterfeit money is rusted with glue, oil knee and paint, but its texture is rough, neither delicate nor uniform, and it is a small particle or paste deposit. Experts call it "a knot in one's heart rust", and dig hard with nails, revealing the background color of the original steel. This is also an effective experience to distinguish authenticity.
Identifying counterfeit money depends on the quality of copper. Ancient coins of different times were made of different copper. From the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Han and Wei Dynasties, it was mainly bronze. Money in Ming and Qing dynasties was mainly brass. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, various generations also used white copper. In Qing Dynasty, Xinjiang used copper to cast coins.
The colors of copper are white, yellow, red and cyan, mainly because of the different compositions of copper alloys. Pure copper is rarely used to make money. It is mixed with metals such as tin, zinc and lead. The color of copper coins varies with the doping of non-ferrous metals.
Every dynasty has a strict formula for casting money. Therefore, observing the copper color is also an aspect of distinguishing the authenticity of ancient money. For example, many knife coins and cloth coins sold in the market now can be seen under the rust color. Coins before the Qin dynasty were all bronze, and they were definitely fakes.
Because of this, some clever counterfeiters melted three ordinary coins and half a penny with copper when casting rare knife cloth in the pre-Qin period. This becomes a bronze knife cloth, which is difficult to identify.
Another way to tell the authenticity of ancient money is to listen to the sound besides seeing Qian Wen and rust with your eyes.
The older the ancient coins are, the duller the sound they make when thrown on the concrete floor. Generally, the knife, cloth and piano are all silent. Before the Ming and Qing Dynasties, money was scarce, especially in the Qing Dynasty, which lasted only one or two hundred years. The sound was bright after the coin was thrown and collided.
If you throw Qi's "six-character knife" and Qin's "three-hole cloth" on the ground, the sound will be very bright. It is doubtful.
In a word, identifying genuine and counterfeit money is a comprehensive technology. If you have some knowledge of calligraphy, metallurgical casting and chemistry, it will be more convenient and save a lot of trouble, and then you can be familiar with the historical background of casting money in various dynasties.
Facts have proved that some people with low educational level have finally mastered the rules and become experts through long-term practice, repeated exploration and accumulated experience.