522 DAVIS. 



Plate 39. Upper Seal on the Hsien-te Notes. 



Four characters arranged as follows: 



of Hsien- 



Seal te 



Translation: "Seal of the Hsien-ie Era." 



Plate 40. Lower Seal on the Hsien-te Note. 



Six characters arranged as follows: 



Treasure Through Great 



Note Circulating Chou 



Translation: General Circulation Treasure-Note of the Great Chou 

 Dynasty." 



Plate 41. Illustration on the Reverse of the Hsien-te Note. 

 Man with a horse and two characters "P'ing-an" (Peace). 



Notes of Emperor T'ai-tsu (960-975 A.D.) of the Northern 



Sung Dynasty. 



The first emperor of the Sung, T'ai-tsu, ascended the throne in 

 960 A.D. , establishing the era called Chien-lung (960-962 A.D.) . In 

 its fourth year the name of the era was changed to Ch'ien-te. Two 

 kinds of notes — large and small — bearing the name of the former era 

 have been found, though history itself does not record their emission. 

 At the top of each, written horizontally, appears the inscription 

 "Great Sung General Circulation Treasure Note"; on the right and 

 left-hand borders respectively, in an ancient style of writing, is in- 

 scribed "To be current under the heavens" and "For the convenient 

 use of the people". In, the center is given the value of the note, 

 for instance, 100 kwan, and directly below a pictorial representation 

 of a number of yiian-pao (14 in five horizontal rows in the case of a 

 100 kwan note). Within the panel containing the pictorial represen- 

 tation appears, at the right, " As cash ", and at the left, " To circulate". 

 In the lower part is inscribed: "The Board of Revenue, having 

 received the Imperial Decree, prints and issues under the heavens the 



