Two sets of blocks and seals for paper notes Big blocks

China was the first country in history to use paper notes, which appeared officially in the early Northern Song period (690–1126) as jiaozi. The first emperor of the Yuan dynasty implemented a policy of uniform paper notes. The Zhongtong current paper notes (tongxing baochao) were issued in the 1st year of the Zongtong reign (1260) and continued to be in circulation when the Zhiyuan current paper notes of 11 denominations were issued in the 24th year of the Zhiyuan reign (1287). Zhiyuan paper notes were in circulation for over 60 years.

These bronze blocks and seals for Zhiyuan paper notes are of two denominations, erbai (two hundred) wen (a unit of currency) and wubai (five hundred) wen, in both big and small notes. The layouts of the two sets of blocks are basically the same with certain variations.

The big rectangular block of two hundred wen is headed “Zhiyuan tongxing baochao [Zhiyuan current paper notes]”, in a row between two flaming pearls. The central panel, reserved on a floral ground, is divided into two sections. In the upper section is the denomination of “erbai wen” above two vertical strings of coins, flanked by “Zhiyuan baochao [Zhiyuan paper note]” on the left and “zhulu tongxing [off limits]” on the right written in Phags-pa script, and with “zi liao” and “zi hao” in regular script, respectively. In the lower section is a declaration made in the name of the Office of Supervisor of the Department of State Affairs, all together 79 characters in regular script, stating that the Zhiyuan paper note is legally issued and this common tender has no time limit. It also remarks that anyone making fake notes will be sentenced to death whereas a wu ding (five ingots) reward will be offered to the first delator. On the other hand, the big block of five hundred wen has three strings of coins.

The small blocks have also denominations of “erbai wen” and “wubai wen” in the head. The body of the former features a floral background and two strings of coins in a cross, but that of the latter is a zigzag background and three strings of coins in the same arrangement as the big block of five hundred wen.

The square seal for erbai wen paper notes has a stemmed knob, however, the two columns of Phags-pa inscription cast in relief is indecipherable. The seal for wubai wen paper notes has three columns of inscription, which seems to be “Tiju Zhiyuan baochao tongxing zhi yin [Seal of the Supervisor for issuing Zhiyuan paper notes]”.

In issuing paper notes, the big and small blocks were imprinted with ink on the two sides of a mulberry paper by Yuan authorities. To thwart the production of fakes, seals were imprinted many times on both sides of the notes, sometimes beyond the marked edges.

Bronze blocks for Yuan paper notes, precisely only “Zhiyuan tongxing baochao”, are known in three places, Pingshan and Cixian of Hebei and Jiexi of Guangdong. It is also possible that these examples here might be illegally made blocks and seals from the Yuan period, used for producing fake Zhiyuan paper notes rather than official ones.