It's good to have a shoulder to rely on, but the terrain is too high, and if you continue to blow cold wind against the window like this, Zhang Nan will have to worry about whether she and Xiao Nizi will catch a cold.

The scenery is almost visible, so let's withdraw!

Downstairs, a short distance, walk to the location of the remains of the old castle.

Charlize Theron saw that Manager Wang was still holding a cleaned silver bar in his hand, so he asked Zhang Nan: "Didn't you say that ancient cultural relics should not be over-cleaned, why are they all burned with fire this time?"

In the morning, she was woken up by Zhang Nan's "bang" knock on the door, and only after a long time did she go out of the door, only to see that he was directing a worker to burn something with a blowtorch, and when she got closer, she realized that it was a silver bar.

It has been buried in the ground for a long time, and the silver bars are like iron bars, and they will light up as soon as they are burned: Wang Fangming took two out of the basement at that time, and handed them to Zhang Nan yesterday.

The two silver bars are about the same shape and size, and each weighs about 250 grams.

There is no mark on it, it is a little ugly, and several large cuts of different shades are cut with tools such as axes, which is very rare in ancient silver bars in China.

Zhang Nan told her that this was the silver bar made in the vicinity, and that it was supposed to be in the 13th and 14th centuries, because after the 14th century, no country in Europe used such a trade exchange.

Could it be that later a European tyrant had the habit of collecting silver raw materials?

No, this is the silver bar as money, because it has been cut with a knife or an axe.

From the 13th century onwards, silver mining in Europe increased dramatically, and several new silver mines were discovered.

At the same time, the most famous Italians in the business industry at the time found a big problem: it was becoming more and more difficult and troublesome to do business using only the original currencies that were already popular in European trade!

The reason for this is that the monetary system has not kept pace with the pace of economic development, and the increase in the supply of precious metals has led to a general increase in the price of goods, and the purchasing power of even full-value currencies is declining.

On the other hand, the deterioration of the various types of trading currencies that were more popular on the continent at the time deteriorated, as the coins of this precious metal wore out in circulation and generally had to be reminted every half century.

It was supposed to be refurbished with new gold or silver, but at that time, the rulers of various countries were not so honest and would not use their own gold and silver to make up for the wear and tear of the currency caused by other people's and historical reasons.

What to do?

It's smart to add relatively cheap copper to the gold and silver coins when recoining.

The Middle Ages were called the Dark Ages by Westerners, but the question of money was a mess: by the 13th century, the true content of the hundreds of gold and silver coins in circulation in these countries was almost gone, and it was almost the same as copper coins!

“... At that time, Italian merchants had to come up with the idea of using expensive spices and pepper as trade payments instead of precious metal coins.

It's really forced, like a kind of silver coin called the Dener, which has been in large-scale circulation in Europe for hundreds of years at that time, and many countries have minted and reminted it.

A 'standard' denier coin should theoretically contain 1.2 to 1.4 grams of silver, but by the 13th century, the best deniers on the Italian market had a maximum silver content of 0.25 grams, most of which were already copper, and could not be called silver.

At that time, the larger business used a frightening number of coins, and there was no way, so the merchants came up with silver ingots or bars in the weight of the mark as an exchange, and one silver bar was equivalent to more than 2,400 deniers. ”

Charlize Theron also asked the question, "Is the mark a unit of weight?"

How much does it weigh?"

He was a South African, but he hadn't studied much of the ancient history of Europe, especially when he arrived in the United States: he had an older brother who had a large private collection of antiquities, and she really didn't have much interest in history class, so she just had to go home and listen to him.

Besides, there are only two real historians in the manor, and the level is even higher than that of the history teacher in the school - she is only interested in what she likes, and she is not very interested in textbooks.

"The unit of measurement in ancient Europe, which was equivalent to 8 troy ounces of sterling silver at the beginning, which is now 249 grams, has evolved into half a pound.

In 1192, after the capture of Germany, King Richard the Lionheart of England paid a ransom of 150,000 marks to the Holy Roman Empire before being released, which is equivalent to 37 and a half tons of silver today.

However, the weight of this mark has also changed in various parts of Europe, for example, the Vienna mark is about 280 grams, the Prussian mark is more than 233 grams, and the Portuguese and Spanish marks are 230 grams.

These silver bars should all weigh one mark, and burning them depends on the approximate purity, and there is no more below. ”

Zhang Nan had another idea at that time: I don't know if the Europeans at that time were stupid, or they were too shrewd - a silver bar or silver ingot of such a weight and volume in Huaxia would definitely indicate the casting time, who the casting party was, and the approximate purity was indispensable.

The ancients in the West let the silver bars go on the bare board, maliciously guessing that it was probably because the purity was not enough to try to deceive people, or if the whole European world was doing this!

Bad enough!

Good faith guess...

A bunch of fools, simple lettering methods are not used, and they deserve to worry about receiving inferior currency or even encountering fakes in every transaction.

"There are so many big holes up there, and the silver bars on the good end are ugly like this. ”

Xiao Nizi is an aesthetic expert, and she is very repulsive to all ugly precious metal products, and these two silver bars look like dogs have gnawed, and they look awkward.

Zhang Nan smiled: "I use a blowtorch on the construction site, and the surface of the silver will oxidize after a long time, and it will become faster when it encounters salts and acids."

As soon as it is burned, it turns white, and I think the silver content of these silver bars is more than 9 percent, which should be the high-quality silver bars produced in southern Germany, Bohemia or Hungary.

Seven or eight hundred years ago, merchants didn't have blowtorches at hand, and it was not convenient to find a blacksmith shop, so what do you think is the easiest way to test the purity of silver bars?"

Charlie is not a little fool, and immediately understands why there are so many "dog teeth" on these silver bars.

"Hehe" smiled, "Slash it." ”

By the way, this is how merchants in the Middle Ages inspected silver bars and ingots with severe discoloration on the surface.

The weight will be lighter if you scratch it, but the loss of a knife or an axe is basically negligible. Although a silver bar may take years, or even decades, to be examined with a knife, because silver does not change color in a short time.

But after a long time, these one-mark silver bars, which were used as currency, basically became "dog's teeth".