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World's Oldest Banknote

The World's Oldest Banknote

Chinese 1 Kuan From the Ming Dynasty ca. 1368 - 1399

China is blessed with one of the world's oldest continuous civilisations, because of this fact many inventions originated in China in one form or another. Forms of money were being used in China prior to the advent of the creation of coins in Asia Minor in the 7th century BC. Researchers now know that forms of paper money were used in China during the 8-9th centuries AD - though the earliest examples were probably more closely akin to what we would now term a cheque or negotiable receipt than actual paper money. There are some very early examples extent, however there is still debate over their actual usage in commerce.

Until some fairly recent discoveries, academics did not have much to go on in identifying when paper money was first used, other than it was noted by Marco Polo in his travels in China in the 13th century AD that they were using paper as money instead of the customary coins. Despite the fact that it had been written about, no examples were known until a fortuitous discovery in 1936 when workmen dismantling a statue came across a bundle of 14th century paper money. Not knowing the significance of their find, they dispersed the large pieces of dark coloured paper by selling examples to passersby for nominal sums. Several westerners, missionaries, diplomats etc. heard of the discovery and purchased examples of the ancient printed paper. Unfortunately for later researchers, nobody kept track of how many notes were in the hoard, or if there were different varieties, denominations etc. As many of the examples were in the hands of foreigners, most of them subsequently would leave China and thence remained rather enigmatic and unavailable for further research. It was not until the discovery of some archived government edicts from early in the Ming Dynasty that authorised and described the paper money in it's production that academics finally had something to tie the enigmatic paper money with having been officially issued.

In fact the paper money issues in 14th century China were fairly significant, and perhaps in testament to later scenarios with paper money driving inflation, that is in fact what would result. In the early part of the 15th centuries paper money became so prevalent that inflation became rampant, and paper was severely discounted vs. cash coins. Wisely fearing the potential consequences of rampant inflation the Imperial government banned further issues of paper money and examples were called in and or destroyed or were lost to time. Until the discovery ca. 1936, no known examples were identified.

These 1 Kuan or 1,000 cash notes remain somewhat enigmatic to this day, their mulberry bark paper with it's distinctive dark blue adding to the allure of them. This note has 1 Kuan in Chinese characters at the top centre of the note, and shows 10 strings of 100 cash coins, an aide to those illiterate or semi-literate. The bottom text of the note has an anti-counterfeiting message, the accused could be decapitated, and the person reporting them would be rewarded with 250 taels in silver and the entire property of the accused.