A Rare Print 'The Great Ming General Currency Precious Note”, by Thomas Leech.The top panel of the notes printed face bore a six-character title translating as “The Great Ming General Currency Precious Note.” Below this was a rectangular framework of dragons and arabesques surrounding two smaller panels. The upper of these was divided into four parts: at the top, the characters for “one Kuan;” to the right and left, seal script characters reading “Great Ming Precious Note” and “generally current under heaven;” between these, a political representation of the value of “one kuan” (1,000 copper “cash” bundled as ten strings of 100 coins each).In the lower panel of the HungWu notes appeared a proclamation which may be translated as follows: “The Board of Revenue, by petitioned imperial sanction, has printed the Great Ming Precious Notes to circulate and function as copper coinage. Counterfeiters will be beheaded. Whoever is an informer will receive two hundred and fifty silver liang as a reward, and also the entire property of the counterfeiter. HungWu: __ year, __ month, __ day.” All the known specimens of the HungWu one kuan notes (thought to number something over one hundred) seem to be unissued “remainders,” which never received their validating dates and administrator’s signatures or seals. These rare Ming Dynasty treasures, and this souvenir facsimile, definitely serve as trenchant mementoes of civilization’s ongoing struggle with the evils of economic inflation.

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