On the bank of the Huaishui River, Yuwen Wen was looking at a knife coin in his hand, this knife coin was found in a dock fort warehouse, the style is special, the fame is very great, and there is a loud name, called "Jin Wrong Knife".

It is also called "a knife flat five thousand", which does not mean that this knife coin is an ancient artifact, and it can destroy five thousand people with a wave (swing of the knife) in the hand, but as a knife coin made by the reform of the new mang currency system, a knife coin is topped with five thousand five-baht coins.

Xin Mang, that is, the new dynasty built by Wang Mang, a relative of the Western Han Dynasty, and the knife coin "Jin Wrong Knife" issued by the new dynasty is a representative of this short-lived dynasty.

Knife coin "gold wrong knife", divided into two parts of the ring handle and the knife body, the ring handle is a hole round money, the ring text is said to be "one", the next is said to be "knife", the word is engraved in the shade, the word is filled with gold, it is the gold wrong process, and it is polished, so that the word and the money face are level.

The knife body is cast with the three characters of "Ping 5,000", in which "Ping" means "value", which means that the value of a knife coin is equal to 5,000 pieces of five baht coins.

The shape of this knife coin, in Yuwenwen's view, is like a microphone in later generations, and it is a little inappropriate to use it as currency, but after the fall of Wang Mang's new dynasty, Jin Cuo Dao changed its identity and changed from currency to collectibles.

Of course, the value of collectibles cannot be evaluated in terms of actual value, according to today's market, a gold wrong knife, in the "collector" can be sold for nearly the same money, in another form of the initial achievement of "one knife flat five thousand" effect.

Wang Mang issued the knife coin "Jin Wrong Knife", which used the gold wrong process that was very popular in the Han Dynasty, and inlaid (wrong) gold on the bronze coin, so the "Golden Wrong Knife" is actually a kind of inlaid coin (two-color coin).

The large-scale circulation of inlaid coins only appeared in the "modern era", it can be said that the "golden wrong knife" is the ancestor or prototype of the inlaid coin, but with the fall of Wang Mang's new dynasty, the Central Plains to the "modern" before there has never been a circulation of inlaid coins.

The reason for this is probably the cost problem, and the coinage of all dynasties cannot bypass the cost problem.

Yu Wenwen has learned that the cost of minting a hundred copper coins with a face value of one penny is not less than one hundred and ten yuan, so the more coins minted by the imperial court, the more they will lose.

In order to ensure the credibility of the copper coins and the face of the imperial court, the coins minted by the money prison are all copper coins of full color, and one hundred copper coins can be circulated on the market, and they are used to be melted into copper and then sold, and the income is not less than one hundred wen.

Not to mention that good money with good color will be stored in thousands of catties, and there are fewer and fewer good coins (good money) on the market, and more and more bad coins, which is the so-called bad money driving out good money.

This leads to a vicious circle, that is, no matter how many copper coins the imperial court mints, it cannot meet the needs of circulation, and the more it is minted, the more losses it will have, and it can only be filled with iron coins or money with low copper content, resulting in damage to the credit of the currency.

The weight of the money minted by the imperial court became worse and worse, leading people to hide more good coins for later use, and the phenomenon of bad coins driving out good coins was more serious.

There is no solution to this problem, because there is a shortage of copper in the Central Plains since ancient times, and the so-called "shortage" does not mean that the copper output of the Central Plains is low, but that the demand for copper is far greater than the annual output of copper, and in fact, it is a serious contradiction between supply and demand that produces the problem of "lack of copper".

The demand for copper is large, and the imperial court strictly controls the mining and sale of copper in order to mint copper coins, which leads to copper coins becoming the best source of copper for the people, resulting in the strange phenomenon of melting 100 good money into copper materials and selling them more profitably.

This contradiction between supply and demand has always existed, and it will not be possible to solve the problem unless giant copper mines can be mined on a large scale and copper production can skyrocket.

In order to solve the currency problem, Yuwenwen racked his brains and finally found a reference from the golden knife: making two-color coins (inlaid coins).

Yu Wenwen held the golden knife in one hand and took out a two-color coin in the other, which was brought by Sima Zhang Dingfa from Xiyang and made for the workshop "experimental coin", which was very well-made.

This coin is white on the outer ring, yellow on the inside, and the style is novel, made of white copper and brass, and Yuwen Wen can pat his chest and say that this kind of two-color coin (inlaid coin) is unique in the world once it is in circulation.

Two-color coins, also known as bimetallic coins, inlaid coins, and sandwich coins, were originally a new style of "modern" coins, which were inlaid with two different metals as a means of anti-counterfeiting.

The two-color coin in Yuwenwen's hand is inlaid with brass with a color like gold and white copper with a color like silver.

Someone may be able to imitate this two-color coin, but the cost is bound to be very high, so the cost has become the biggest reliance on the anti-counterfeiting of the two-color coin.

Counterfeiting two-color coins, not only to look similar, but also durable, can not be pressed by people, so that the ring and core of the two-color coin are separated, to make a counterfeit coin do this may be possible, but to make thousands of counterfeit coins can reach this level, the cost will inevitably rise.

Even the cost of making a working counterfeit will be several times or even more than ten times higher than its face value, so who can afford to make a counterfeit on a large scale?

As long as the imperial court fully implements the two-color coin, so that the five-baht coin-style coins minted by the previous dynasties are withdrawn from circulation, then if you want bad money to drive out good money in the circulation field, you must also have counterfeit and inferior two-color coins.

If someone wants to store two-color coins, then Yuwenwen has the magic weapon of "seigniorage" in hand, and he is not afraid of losing money at all.

However, if you want to issue two-color coins on a large scale, you also have to solve the problem of cost: even if the "patentee" makes two-color coins, the production cost is extremely high, and if you can't significantly reduce the cost, two-color coins cannot be circulated on a large scale.

According to Lin Youdi's report, the production cost of a two-color coin is not less than 500 Wen, and Yuwen Wen expects that the face value of a two-color coin should not be greater than 100 Wen, and the huge cost gap hinders the practical application of two-color coins.

Wang Mang's implementation of the gold knife is to loot the wealth of the people, the wrong gold on the knife coin, its value is not worth 5,000 yuan at all, and Yuwenwen wants to implement the two-color currency is not to collect money, just to let the two-color currency circulate on a large scale among the people, and assume the function of currency.

If the face value of a two-color coin is 500 Wen, then the cost problem is not a problem, but such a large denomination coin, the people simply cannot afford to use it, and there is no need to use it, so the circulation field will be greatly restricted.

Ordinary people, most of their daily income is in kind, if converted into copper coins, an adult's monthly income can reach a consistent very good.

If a landless adult man sells his labor to work long and short jobs, his daily income is about 20 to 30 yuan, and even if he works 30 days a month, his income is less than 1,000 yuan (consistent).

Ordinary people buy and sell things and daily consumption, except for buying rice and large livestock, most of the transaction volume is less than 100 yuan, and the larger transactions are mostly barter, and the two-color currency must have enough small denomination currency to circulate among the people.

If the imperial court came up with a two-color coin with a face value of 500 wen, the people would not use it at all on weekdays, because large coins were completely impractical.

The daily salary is 20 or 30 yuan, and it costs 1 or 200 yuan to buy a piece of rice, 200 yuan to buy a chicken down quilt, and 400 yuan to buy a pig.

If a merchant is buying and selling, a 500 denomination coin can be useful, but this will limit the circulation of bicolor coins to those cities where commerce is developed, and there is no need for other places.

If the imperial court wants to implement the new currency, it is for the convenience of the people rather than for the merchants, and if the cost of making two-color coins is not solved, it is impossible for two-color coins to be put into practical use, and as for the issuance of paper money, it is simply impossible in terms of the technical ability and productivity of this era.

The cost of two-color coins plagues Yuwenwen, so even with the finished two-color coins, he is not optimistic.

At this time, Yu Wenwen was not qualified to participate in the discussion and decide on the monetary system of the imperial court, but it did not prevent him from taking precautions, after all, how far a person's career can go, in addition to luck, depends on the pattern of the person.

If you want to dominate the world, you have to have the world in your heart, and if you want to sit and sit firmly in that position, you have to consider the people of the world.

Yuwen Wen looked at the golden knife and the two-color coin in a daze, Zhang Dingfa walked from the side and said in a low voice: "King, the army is about to finish crossing the river." ”

"Huh? Well, let's go. ”

Yu Wenwen collected the coins, mounted his horse, and galloped away in the direction of the long procession, the "100,000" army he had painstakingly put together was about to launch an offensive.

100,000 is just an imaginary number, Yuwenwen's army, with the Huangzhou Army and the Hulin Army as the core, mixed with surrendered troops, clan soldiers from all over the country, and cottage barbarians, similar to a mixture of a small number of regular officers and a large number of miscellaneous soldiers, to launch an attack on Ruyin.

This Ruyin is not the other Ruyin, the previous Hezhou Prefecture ruled Ruyin, since Yuwenwen was traded out as a trading chip, then he would not go back on his word, and the place he wanted to attack was located on the bank of the Yingshui River in Yingzhou Prefecture to govern Ruyin.

The flag of the officers and soldiers is a black flag, and the original flags of the miscellaneous soldiers are varied, after some rectification, the banners of the miscellaneous soldiers are unified into several colors, among which the yellow and white flags are the most conspicuous.

At a glance, the mighty procession of gold and silver is staggered, which is very spectacular.