DAVIS. — CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 261 



though the desirability of holding the threat of this penalty over the 

 heads of evil-doers must have resulted from experience. If then we 

 accept these illustrations in the Chinese work, as representations of 

 notes actually emitted about 650 A.D. it would follow that it is quite 

 probable that there were previous issues. 



On the point of there being no other authority to share the conten- 

 tion, the question may be asked, Where did the author procure his 

 picture? It is not conceivable that the compiler of the numismatical 

 work deliberately manufactured the design. If he did not, then his 

 picture must represent an actual note that he has seen, or it must 

 have been appropriated from some other numismatical work, the latter 

 being the more probable supposition. 



A sketch of the history of Chinese paper money appeared in the 

 North China Herald (Weekly Edition) December 21, 1912. It was 

 dated at Ching Kiang and was signed T. M. Bowern. It covered the 

 period from the middle of the twelfth century down to the first half 

 of the fifteenth and was obviously based on Klaproth and Morse. 

 Mr. Bowern traces the ownership of a number of these one kwan Ming 

 notes into the hands of different individuals. There is also some 

 contributory information on this subject in the issue of December 14, 

 1912, of the same paper. 



At this point the question of what sources of information have been 

 at given times in the past and what now are at command of a student, 

 may be abandoned. The matter has been followed down to 1912 and 

 has brought to light Ramsden's manual, through which we learn that 

 he has recorded the details of two hundred and sixty -nine varieties of 

 notes with sufficient definiteness to permit of identification and classi- 

 fication. Scattered references to emissions are to be found on the 

 pages of some of the works to which reference has been made. It may 

 be said that we know something about at least three hundred varieties 

 of these notes, and that there are still chronological gaps to be filled. 



What Oriental Scholars know about existing Specimens 



of the Notes. 



Up to this point no special effort has been made to indicate where a 

 person interested can find specimens of these notes and what examples 

 he can find at any given point. We know that Chinese collectors have 

 long treasured them and European residents in China agree that speci- 



