When the color is dull, it turns black after a long time. The fake ingots made of real silver can't produce natural patina like the old ingots because of their short time. Its color looks like it has just been baked, and it is very lively, especially at the bottom and sides. In order to cover up this feature, counterfeiters often coat silver ingots with a layer of chemical drugs, so that the surface of silver ingots becomes black or other colors of flower patina.
Inscription of silver ingot
Inscription of silver ingot refers to the words carved or cast on silver ingot when casting silver ingot. The content of each generation is different, generally including silver ingot casting.
Time, place, purpose, color, name of official or craftsman, etc. At that time, in order to ensure the quality of silver ingots, the inscription was engraved with a signature, indicating that it was responsible for the silver ingots handled. Because of this, it has become an important basis for us to identify true and false silver ingots today. First, the inscriptions of past dynasties have their own characteristics. The inscription of silver ingots in each historical era is closely related to the monetary economy at that time, which is consistent with the history of the government using silver as currency at that time. For example, there are few inscriptions on silver ingots in Han dynasty; In the Tang dynasty, the characters of silver ingots began to increase; The inscriptions on the Song, Jin and Silver Ingots have obviously changed compared with the previous ones, and they are more widely used. Many silver ingots began to indicate the use, location, color, craftsmen and other inscriptions. The use scope of the Yuan Dynasty was further expanded, and inscriptions such as tax, silver corvee and silver tax appeared. Inscriptions in the Ming Dynasty mostly involved tax and silver, including location, time, use, weight, craftsmen, casting supervisors, escort officers and so on. The inscriptions on silver ingots changed the most during the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.
Inscriptions can be roughly divided into three categories. One is that silver ingots related to taxation, settlement and tribute belong to official ingots, regardless of these silver ingots.
Whether the official furnace casting (at that time, the official bank entrusted the silver building and silver furnace casting) was an official ingot. Another kind of inscriptions are silver ingots such as silver houses, furnace households, companies and banks, which belong to commercial banks; The third category is in the name of an individual, and the silver ingots cast are private silver. At present, only a few pieces of silver ingots of different specifications cast by Dai Chuanxian, president of Xikang Gold Separation Furnace have been found. The second is the engraving or casting method of silver ingot inscription. Generally, the inscriptions cast on the mold are at the bottom of the silver ingot, which belongs to the silver ingot before Yuan Dynasty. At present, there are not many such inscriptions, and those with such inscriptions are very precious. At present, most of the inscriptions are engraved. Inscriptions in seal cutting can be divided into yin engraving and yang engraving. Time is roughly divided by the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty. The front is mostly in yin, and the back is mostly in yang. The inscription on the inscription was carved with a chisel after the silver ingot was cast. The words are concave and the font is very irregular. More strokes, less painting, ghostwriting and simplified characters. Generally speaking, there are no famous writers to write them. This is related to craftsmen's carving and carving skills, but it reflects the characteristics of the times. If the inscription on the old silver ingot is not found in the collection, with this feature, it is necessary to use a high magnification magnifying glass to check whether the inscription is newly engraved. The newly engraved characters will hurt the patina beside the characters, and the patina of the characters is also inconsistent with that of the whole silver ingot. If the patina of the whole shell of the silver ingot is damaged, pay special attention to the words engraved on the back.
Most of the silver ingots in Yang Wen are vermilion and pressed by steel when the silver ingots are not completely cooled. So the inscription is convex, and Yang Wen's lettering is neat and beautiful, and the content is concise and concise. The figure is completely integrated with the shell and patina of the whole silver ingot, and there is no trace of pressing on the back and side of the silver ingot. However, in recycling, it is often found that some old silver ingots have traces of suppression on the back or side. This is because: 1, it is in. 2. Some silver ingots with good reputation were not recast after being inspected by local appraisers, but were sealed locally and circulated locally. There are many pressing marks on the back or side of this kind of silver ingot, but the bottom or side of the pressed silver ingot has become natural with the whole silver ingot after participating in circulation. At present, counterfeiters use this situation, adding words or changing words to ordinary ingots to make them the treasure of silver ingots. The identification of this fake ingot depends on whether the shell of the whole silver ingot is consistent, whether the lettering on the front is consistent, whether the lettering is consistent with the surrounding patina, whether the back or side is consistent with the wear of the whole silver ingot after being padded, and whether the pressing marks are new.
Snow white, still inconsistent with the surrounding after several years, if the padded part or the whole silver ingot is painted with black and other colors, it is very likely to be a fake ingot.
Silver ingot molding
There are no uniform and strict regulations on the casting and distribution of silver ingots in past dynasties in China, and free casting is allowed. As long as it adapts to the circulation environment and folk customs at that time, there is no regulation on the shape of silver ingots on the premise of ensuring quality. Especially since the Qing dynasty, the shapes of silver ingots have become more diverse, and each province has its own advantages and the results are the same. There are many kinds of silver ingots in China. The shape of silver ingots in the Han dynasty was pie-shaped, and in the Tang dynasty it was generally rectangular, both pie-shaped and boat-shaped. The shape of silver ingots in Song Dynasty is mainly collar, which is wider and thicker than that in Tang Dynasty. Compared with the Tang Dynasty, the four corners of the front face are slightly warped, showing a heavy shape, and the two arcs at both ends form a waist shape. The silver ingots of Liao, Xixia and Jin are similar in shape to those of Song Dynasty. The shape of silver ingots in Yuan Dynasty is not much different from that in Song Dynasty. The difference between ingots without inscriptions is that the periphery is inclined and the middle is sunken, and there are many ingots without inscriptions; Compared with Yuan Dynasty, the length of silver ingots in Ming Dynasty was shorter, but the thickness increased, the waist became smaller, the arcs at both ends disappeared, and the periphery increased, especially at both ends, forming a pair of wings. From the Qing Dynasty to the 22 nd year of the Republic of China, silver ingots began to withdraw from the currency field, and it was difficult to count all kinds of silver ingots. But it can be roughly divided into ingot shape, circle shape, rectangle shape, square shape, weight shape, archway shape and so on.
The weight and sound of silver ingots
Before the Qing Dynasty, there was no uniform regulation on the casting weight of silver ingots, but the weights of the two kinds of silver ingots were different, such as 42g in Tang Dynasty, 39g in Song Dynasty, 36.6g in Yuan Dynasty and 37g in Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, it was generally between 34 and 38 grams. In addition to the common weights of 520, 120, 250 and 520, there are 320 and 420 silver ingots, that is, how much money is left in these silver ingots and the inscription of Thai baht. This is called silver.
It is determined by the nature of the amount, but if the weight of the collection does not meet the standards at that time, it is necessary to be vigilant. However, during the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, there were basically uniform regulations on the weight of silver ingots. Usually, there are five, twelve and fifty-two kinds of silver ingots, and the following five are broken silver, which is mainly limited to market circulation, spare parts and other purposes. So at present, there are 320,420, 120 or even more than 220 silver ingots in the Qing Dynasty, which should be fake ingots. According to historical records, China's 65,438+000 treasures of silver were minted in Hubei Province in the Qing Dynasty alone, and their whereabouts are unknown. The 500 Liang Treasures of the Ming Dynasty were taken away after Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing in 1900, and have already disappeared. Listening to the sound of silver ingots is mainly to prevent fake ingots from cladding. For the silver ingot in question, take another silver ingot and knock it. If there is a hollow sound or a broken sound, it should be a silver ingot.
Formation conditions of silver ingots
Due to different casting processes, the conditions of various silver ingots after molding are also different. Nowadays, the manufacturing technology of fake silver ingots is often inconsistent with the past. So the conditions after molding are different, even more so if it is not real silver. For example, it is a silver ingot with two wings of fifty taels. After molding, the wings are well-defined and bright. There is often a small notch in the center of the spindle surface, but there is no notch in the center of the die obliquely fixed on one side. The bottom and side of this mold are generally honeycomb-shaped, and the ingot surface protrudes into a silver ingot shape without silk grain. There are mainly Guangdong and Guangxi, Yunnan trough silver, archway silver, Henan waist ingot, Shanxi Jintai ingot and so on. This kind of silver ingot is characterized by smooth surface overflow, curved corners on four sides and thick lines on the side. The silver bottom of the groove is not obvious, or even not, but there is a honeycomb at the bottom of the archway ingot. Three, the ingot surface is concave without silk grain, and there is a papillary silver ingot in the center, which is mainly a twelve-round ingot type represented by Sichuan, with obvious honeycomb at the bottom. Fourth, the ingot surface is slightly concave and filiform, usually broken silver. When the fineness of silver reaches more than 9, it will have a silky shape. If the fineness is less than 9, the lower the layer color of silver, the more silky it is. The size, number and depth of the honeycomb on the bottom and side of the silver ingot are used to identify the authenticity.
Another important foundation of silver ingots. Where the honeycomb is deep and dense, the hole is round and bright, there are pearls and colorful luster, it must be real silver ingots. Silver alloy silver ingots generally do not have the above characteristics. If the honeycomb is grayish black, it may be a fake ingot such as lead. Naturally formed honeycombs must have large holes and different depths, while artificial honeycombs are just the opposite.
Three measures to identify ancient silver ingots
With the gradual increase in the price of silver ingots in recent years, the phenomenon of counterfeiting has become more and more serious. Investors need to be skilled in identification, especially beware of "real goods and fakes".
■ "Real goods and fakes" are hard to prevent.
At present, there are many ways to forge silver ingots in the market, and the main classification is to reduce the fineness and weight of silver. After subdivision, first, lead and tin are used, and their surfaces are bluish black, which is convenient for collectors to identify; Second, when casting, the copper block is solidified in the silver ingot, and the surface is silvered, which is large and light, and the feel is obviously different; The third method is lead pouring, in which a small hole is dug at the bottom of the real silver ingot, the silver is taken out, then lead is poured in, and then the hole is sealed and welded. Careful observation shows that there are traces of sealing welding in the hole. The latter two methods need to be identified by investment experts according to their handfeel, otherwise, they will be identified with the help of precision instruments.