264 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



1875, gives a reduced photographic picture of the face of one of these 

 notes, bearing two seals and adds that there was difficulty in making 

 a legible copy of the inscriptions on the seals. He asserts that he has 

 "never heard of the preservation of any note of the Mongols," but 

 adds that " some of the Ming survive and are highly valued as curi- 

 osities in China." He procured his picture at St. Petersburg. 



Vissering in his work on chinese currency gives a photographic 

 process picture of the face of a one kwan Ming note and also furnishes, 

 in black ink, drawings of the two red seals which originally were to be 

 found there. He confesses that the work of the engraver in construct- 

 ing a representation of the impression of the seals has not been without 

 its difficulties but he believes that the pictures of the impressions are 

 substantially correct. Vissering also went to St. Petersburg for his 

 note. 



Edkins says that collectors obtain notes of the Mongol dynasty 

 from Japan and adds : 22 " Notes are found in the possession of chinese 

 men of wealth. It is a rare thing to see them in shops. There is no 

 fixed price for those curious relics of the 13th and 14th centuries." 

 The statement that Mongol notes are obtained from Japan must pass 

 for what it is worth. There is no evidence of its truth at hand to-day. 

 It is curious, however, to note the time limitation which he puts when 

 he speaks of the prices of the notes. He absolutely excludes from 

 consideration all the earlier emissions. 



T. Dyer Ball, a member of the civil service at Hong Kong, a resident 

 in China for upwards of forty years and the author of several books on 

 China, conceived the idea some years since of publishing a chinese 

 common-place book, in which under alphabetical arrangement, in- 

 formation was furnished concerning selected topics touching on life 

 in China. 23 Under the title " Banks and Bank Notes," he tells what 

 he knows concerning old and new chinese notes. He says: "The 

 earliest specimen known to exist in any country was purchased in 

 1890 by the British Museum, where it may be seen in the King's 

 Library placed under a glass case." 



H. B. Morse, writing in 1908, said: 24 " I have been unable to obtain 



a copy of a Mongol government note I give, however, a reduced 



representation of a note for 1000 cash, issued by the first Ming Em- 

 peror, (Hung Wu, x\.D., 1368-1398), who may be assumed to have 

 followed closely the procedure and copied the forms of his predecessor." 



22 Banking and Prices in China, p. 232. 



23 Things Chinese, fourth Edition, p. 79 (1906). 



24 The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire, p. 141. 



