A CHINESE WORK ON NUMISMATICS. 



497 



Notes of Emperor I-tsung (860-873 A.D.) of the T'ang 



Dynasty. 



During his reign of fifteen years (806-820 A.D.) the Emperor Hsien- 

 tsung caused to be enacted a merchants' monetary deposit law by 

 which "identification certificates" were issued for the convenience 

 of travelHng traders, the same being convertible into cash on presenta- 

 tion. These "identification certificates" were known as "flying 

 money" (fei-ch"ien) or " flying certificates " (fei-ch'iian). 



In 860 A.D., I-tsung ascended the throne, and his era came to be 

 known as " Hsien-t'ung ". Though there was a financial readjustment 

 under his rule on account of the scarcity of cash, there is no known 

 record of the issuance of paper money at this period. Nevertheless, 

 some notes of this era were acquired in the year 1833 from Tung Yung- 

 jui, which once formed a part of the valuable collection of his ances- 



PLATE 16. 



PLATE 17. 



Dimensions 



if Xlf INCHES 



Dimensions 



if X lf INCHES 



tor, Tung Fiao Kung. Of the sixty odd varieties of notes of the 

 successive dynasties published in the present work, these T'ang notes 

 were discovered last. Their color is golden yellow, and they have 

 a distinctive beauty. The arrangement of the various parts is as 

 follows : at the top is WTitten horizontally in the lesser chuan style, 

 "Great T'ang General Circulation Treasure-Note"; directly below is 

 inscribed, for example, "100 kwan", with a picture of 10 ingots of 

 yiian-pao; in the lower panel appears the inscription: "The Cabinet, 

 having petitioned the Imperial Decree, prints and issues the Great 

 T'ang Circulating Treasure-Note to be used side by side with silver 

 coin. He who privately makes a facsimile shall be decapitated sum- 

 marily; he who first informs in the matter shall be rewarded with 



