"Hey, there's something weird about this copper coin!" Qin Lin picked up a copper coin glowing with blue light, and carefully observed it through the light of the skylight.

Xu Xinyi, who was the most curious, immediately stepped forward, she opened her apricot eyes widely, and after looking at it for a long time, she still didn't know what was going on, and muttered: "It's obviously the same......"

"Take a closer look," Qin Lin pinched the copper coin between his two fingers in the middle of the food, facing the constantly changing angle of the skylight.

Xu Xinyi finally saw it, Zhang Zixuan and Jin Yingji also saw the clues, the copper color of this Wanli Tongbao is a little lighter than other money.

Is it fake money?

Qin Lin put the copper coin on the ground, pulled out the seven-star sword and slashed it down casually, and with an almost inaudible clanging sound, the copper coin had been cut in half.

Xu Xinyi couldn't wait to pick up the copper coin, and after a closer look, he exclaimed: "Ah, this money is fake!" ”

If the surface of the copper coin with an oxide layer, there is the possibility of mixing the beads, just cut out of the new stubble, it will be exposed to its true identity in broad daylight, the real Wanli Tongbao copper coin cut should also be brass, but the stubble of this coin is relatively white, obviously the casting process added too much lead, tin and other metals, resulting in insufficient copper content.

There is a reason behind the distrust of the newly minted Wanli Tongbao on the market, and the rumors that the new money contains insufficient copper are by no means groundless.

Qin Lin scratched his head, he made a low-level mistake in front of him, that is, he transferred various versions of copper coins from the treasury of the political envoy for comparison, and the money in the treasury of the political envoy was all new money minted by the official, of course, the surname that went wrong was relatively small! To find out the reason why the value of Wanli Tongbao is halved, we have to find it from the copper coins circulating in the market.

"Is this a wise man's thousand worries that must be missed?" Zhang Zixuan pursed her lips and smiled, it was rare to have a chance to make fun of Qin Lin.

Miss Xu Xinyi Xu clenched her fist and waved it vigorously: "No wonder Wanli Tongbao can only be used in half, it turns out that someone is minting counterfeit coins, hey, Jin Xiaoyou, your people bought so many copper coins, didn't they find counterfeit coins?" ”

Jin Yingji covered her mouth and smiled: "Those who say that when I see the copper coin, I will accept it in full, why should I care if the copper coin is real or false?" ”

"Yes, yes," Quan Zhengyin nodded and said: "Jin Xuanwei is very right, because I am 'open to money', so the small ones never distinguish between the real and the fake when they buy copper coins, and this collection is tens of thousands, we can't check them one by one, if it weren't for Qin Shaobao's sudden investigation, even we don't know that there is a fake Wanli Tongbao." ”

Not only do you not distinguish between the real and the fake, because the next person who receives the goods is said to be the person who sees the money, as long as the fake Wanli Tongbao is cheaper than the real thing, I am afraid that after the Wufeng maritime merchants know, they will have to buy fake money to sell to themselves.

Qin Lin didn't pay attention to their answers, but touched his chin and said to himself: "Because someone made fake money, the value of Wanli Tongbao has been greatly depressed?" This conclusion ......"

"There is a lot of fake money, and the people don't want to use it, so the price will naturally be low!" Xu Xinyi pursed his lips, feeling that with such an obvious conclusion, what would be wrong with Qin Lin.

"I'm afraid Qin Lin is thinking about the other side, that is, the motive for fraud," Zhang Zixuan smiled slightly, her eyes as deep as the sky flashed with brilliance.

Qin Lin nodded and said with a wicked smile: "Among the several ladies, it is still Zixuan who is the smartest. ”

Xu Xinyi gritted her teeth, but Jin Yingji couldn't help laughing, she was not among the three ladies, and she was finally spared from being shot this time.

Qin Lin observed this copper coin and found that its appearance was still relatively new, there was no dirt formed by long-term circulation and use, and the copper coin was exposed to the salty and humid air along the coast of the south of the Yangtze River, and the green rust that must have grown in the cracks of the font, which showed that the fake money was newly minted recently.

This is in contradiction with the current market situation.

There is a cost to counterfeiting, and the cost of copper coins is especially large.

In the case of paper money, the direct cost to the counterfeiter is a little bit of ink and paper, which is completely insignificant compared to the proceeds of crime.

Copper coins are different, real money itself is of low value and high cost, so much so that he himself is reluctant to mint it himself, preferring to use Chinese money.

The benefits obtained by counterfeiters, on the one hand, are the "money interest" formed by the appreciation of copper after being cast into money - the official coinage is also earning, which is actually quite low, and sometimes it will lose money, for example, during the Song Dynasty, there was a situation where the price of copper money was low and the price of copper was high, and the people melted the copper money cast by the imperial court into bronze, and the court minted money was upside down at that time.

On the other hand, it is to reduce the copper content, deduct the high-priced copper, and increase the low-priced lead and tin, which is the main interest of counterfeiters.

However, reducing the copper content is not unlimited, deducting three or four percent is the extreme, otherwise it will be too fake, and it will be seen through at a glance, who will use this fake money?

Therefore, in general, the interest on the money that the regular coinage should enjoy, plus the value of the copper deducted by the counterfeiters, the profit of the private coinage is probably doubled, and a penny of fake money is created at a cost of half a penny.

As long as the amount is large, private casting is still very profitable, all dynasties, private casting copper coins have been repeatedly banned, many times the government can not ban, the people are also willing to circulate and use, so Wanli Tongbao was privately cast, it is really not surprising.

The strange thing is that now Wanli Tongbao can only be used in half, and the counterfeiter uses the cost of half a penny to create a fake money, but this copper coin can only be used by half a penny, so the counterfeiter is not a blind man to light the lamp - in vain? Why would he take the risk of engaging in private casting?

If the original Wanli Tongbao did not fall in price, and the private caster made a lot, causing it to fall to half the price, then at this time the private caster will be unprofitable, and he should not continue to make it, but the copper coin in Qin Lin's hand is clearly newly minted recently.

For this question, Qin Lin scratched his scalp and couldn't think of a reason, it was impossible for this private caster to be a living Lei Feng to help the imperial court increase the circulation of currency.

Zhang Zixuan and Jin Yingji also pondered for a long time, even the shrewd Wufeng shipowner and the wise daughter of the Prime Minister's Mansion were always puzzled by such an obviously unprofitable thing.

Miss Xu pouted: "Hey, what do you want to do so much, catch the guy who minted copper coins privately, and ask him if he can't get it!" ”

This is reasonable, it is impossible to solve the case step by step, and many times the problems that are at a loss and cannot be solved will suddenly be solved in the next stage. You guessed the motive for the crime for a long time, but the suspect was caught for interrogation, but he was for an inexplicable reason, this kind of thing is not uncommon in criminal investigation.

Quan Zhengyin was very active in making suggestions: "Qin Shaobao, this pile of copper coins was collected from Wenzhou Mansion, does it mean that the criminals who privately minted copper coins are in Wenzhou?" ”

"That's not necessarily, copper coins are extremely widely circulated, and they can be circulated from other places," Qin Lin shook his head.

Hearing this, everyone felt embarrassed, as long as there is a large-scale private minting, fake money will circulate on a large scale, and soon there will be private fake money everywhere.

With the first fake money as a reference, Xu Xinyi, Zhang Zixuan, and Jin Yingji respectively found fake money from other piles of money, which came from Shaoxing, Ningbo, Taizhou, Jinhua, and Jiaxing, according to the registration books of Wufeng Maritime Merchants...... It is found almost everywhere in Zhejiang Province.

How to find the source of fake money?

"I have a solution, but it's too troublesome!" Zhang Zixuan frowned, "Looking for fake money in the piles of copper coins from all over the country, where the most fake money is produced, most of it is where the private miners are." ”

Oh, my God! Xu Xinyi looked at the mountains of copper coins piled up in the warehouse, and was so frightened that he stuck out his tongue, if he wanted to find out all the fake money, he was afraid that he would transfer another hundred people to count it for three days and three nights to see if he could do it.

This time, even Kwon Jeong-eun didn't take the initiative to ask for help, and the Koreans smiled wryly, quite retreating.

Qin Lin smiled: "Where is the need for such trouble? Mr. Quan, you go and get a scale. ”

Oh? Quan Zhengyin immediately understood what Qin Lin meant, and went to fetch the best balance scale.

"Since the ratio of copper, tin, and lead is not the same, I am afraid that it is difficult to achieve complete consistency between the weight of private coins and official coins," Qin Lin explained, and his hands did not stop, and his dexterous hands flew up and down, and soon weighed the weight difference of copper coins.

The official money was placed at the right end of the scale, and the private money was placed at the left end, and the balance was still balanced at first, but soon the right end began to sink slowly, and the left end was raised.

Private money is a little lighter than official money!

The next thing is very simple, fifty strong men were transferred from the Kuding of the Wufeng Maritime Merchant, and the copper coins from all over the province were weighed with a large lifting scale, and each scale could weigh fifty guan, that is, fifty thousand copper coins, and then recorded the weight.

It didn't take half an hour, and the results came out, and the copper coins purchased by Wufeng Maritime Merchants had the lightest average weight neither from Jinhua nor from Ningbo, but west of Hangzhou, located in Yanzhou and Quzhou in the upper reaches of the Qiantang River!

Yanzhou, Quzhou and Jiangxi and Nanzhili are adjacent, belong to the mountainous area of western Zhejiang, there are many mountains and few fields, compared with Hangzhou, Ningbo's natural conditions are much worse, everyone did not expect that someone would choose to carry out private casting there, after all, Hangzhou and Ningbo and other places have developed commerce and trade, and it is easier to make some private money.

After finding out this, Qin Lin's investigation in Hangzhou was almost over, and he summoned the thousands of households of Jinyiwei's Zhejiang Qianhu Institute and ordered Zhejiang Jinyiwei to secretly investigate the source of the private coinage...... As the commander of Jinyiwei and the chief of Beizhen Fusi, not everything has to be done by himself, Jinyiwei has tens of thousands of official schools, and each of them has thousands of households and hundreds of households all over the country.

The only thing Qin Lin didn't expect was that while he was patiently waiting for the news, something unexpected happened.

Quan Zhengyin hurriedly ran to Qincha Xingyuan, and the report was out of breath: "An old shopkeeper who was sent to Quzhou to buy copper coins suddenly died in Longyou County!" Xiao felt that this matter might be related to the case of private coinage, so he came to know Qin Shaobao. ”

(To be continued)