So in everyone's impression, what was ancient silver like? Is it a horseshoe-like silver ingot in the film and television drama? If you think so, you may be a little disappointed. It's all tooth marks. It's dark, so you may not find it if you drop it. This is probably the true face of most silver in the past. Don't be fooled by costume dramas.
Although China has a long history of using silver as a trade, the probability of using silver among the people is not high. During the Northern Song Dynasty, with the improvement of technology and the mining of veins, the output of silver reached the peak in ancient China, but the average annual output was only 802,000, most of which was returned to Liao as hard currency. After that, many silver mines dried up and the production capacity decreased.
However, the peak of the real use of silver was in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Why? Mainly because of the development of globalization, western colonists mined a large number of silver mines in America and other places, and Qin Long opened the sea in the late Ming Dynasty, a large number of silver dollars flowed into the mainland with a huge trade surplus, which made ordinary people have a little broken silver around them.
But the basic currency in circulation during the Ming and Qing Dynasties was copper coins. It was not until 19 10 that the Qing court promulgated the monetary regulations and formally adopted the silver standard.
According to calculations, during the Daoguang period, one or two pieces of silver can be exchanged for one or two pieces of silver, that is, 1 000, which can buy almost 70 kilograms of grain. Because the value is too high, it also leads to private transactions, most of which are exchanged by weight with broken silver.
If you are a friend who wears silver jewelry in your life, you may know that it may turn black if you wear it for a long time. This is because substances such as silver in the air are oxidized, which leads to the loss of luster of the oxidized silver. This is on the premise that many silver ornaments have undergone modern polishing and waxing. In ancient times, due to human body fluids and other reasons, silver turned black faster.
The value of silver is also destined to be targeted by criminals. During the Ming Dynasty, the government did not allow people to trade silver openly, which led some small workshops to take the opportunity to make fakes and participate in other metals in silver ingots.
The best way to tell the authenticity of silver is to see if there is one at the bottom. Beehive? That is, the irregular air cavity left by casting, and the second is to bite with teeth. The hardness of silver is softer than other metals, and it will leave traces after being bitten. But from another point of view, the remaining saliva will further promote the oxidation of silver.
So the broken silver left in ancient times became like this, covered with tooth marks and thrown on the ground like a dark stone.
What about horseshoe silver that we often see in ancient times? Some are tributes. For example, after the Yuan Dynasty conquered the Southern Song Dynasty, the collected silver was cast into fifty taels and given to the emperor. Yuanbao? The origin of the Qing dynasty, like the official silver ingot, 52 1 ingot, with such a great value, will naturally not be used in daily life.