Step 4 of 8

Hard to forge

Middle of banknote

Middle of banknote

After the silver banknote we find ourselves in the middle of the copper banknote. The focus is on the seal, with its own seal script. The same applies here: the left side is written in Manchu, the right side in Chinese. It reads: “This government banknote of the Ministry of Finance shall be in circulation for eternity.”

The use of Manchu besides Chinese made counterfeiting more difficult. The reason is that the amount of people that was proficient in the Manchu script was negligible. Counterfeiters were very adept at imitating Chinese characters, but few were able to imitate Manchu in the same convincing fashion. That was the case then and remains so now.