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  • - Hey, how's it going?

  • How are you doing?

  • So what do you have here?

  • This is the earliest documented paper

  • money from the Ming Dynasty, China, 1368 to 1399.

  • It's called the 1 kuan note, which is basically 1,000 cash.

  • There are two notes in there.

  • That's why you're seeing two different shades.

  • OK.

  • I mean, it's pretty cool, dude.

  • Governments have always tried paper money.

  • The problem is with paper money, there's

  • this massive temptation to keep on printing

  • more and more and more.

  • Then you start getting inflation.

  • And the next thing you know, what used to cost $1

  • costs $100.

  • It's the inevitable keep on printing

  • until you destroy yourself.

  • [laughs]

  • I got these notes from a seller

  • whose brother passed away.

  • I really appreciate Chinese currency.

  • It's one of my favorites to collect I would like to get,

  • for the better condition, probably

  • around $12,500, and the lesser-conditioned note,

  • probably $8,750.

  • So how much you want for them?

  • Well, the better-conditioned one, $12,500,

  • the lesser condition, $8,750.

  • OK.

  • Have you had these checked out by anybody?

  • No, I have not it checked out.

  • Had notes checked out one time, and they

  • were gone for over two months.

  • It cost a lot of money.

  • I mean, I can call someone to take a look at it.

  • Definitely.

  • A lot of times when it's too good to be true, it usually is.

  • Hold on a few minutes.

  • I'm going to go give him a call, and I'm going to get Ben here.

  • OK.

  • Thanks.

  • Having an expert come in, very interested to see

  • what he has to say.

  • I'm strictly a collector.

  • I have not been doing this an incredibly long time,

  • so I'm excited to learn everything

  • I can about these notes.

  • He's got printed Chinese notes.

  • Wow.

  • Look at that.

  • Wow.

  • He says they're from the 14th century.

  • Well, you know, it is so fascinating to me

  • to take a look at ancient Chinese currency.

  • And there's a guy in history.

  • That's the guy who invented paper.

  • Oh, really?

  • His name was Cai Lun.

  • And he actually invented paper in 105 AD.

  • He used macerated bark.

  • He used old fishing nets.

  • He used rags, boiled it all together.

  • And it turns to paper, right?

  • Right.

  • So it kind of changed the world.

  • Sure.

  • I've seen examples of currency that

  • go all the way back to 250 AD.

  • And back in those days, money was

  • used almost like an IOU note.

  • Basically, it would say I owe you two amounts of silver,

  • and then I owe you seven coils of copper.

  • And that way started currency.

  • As I'm looking at this, with my expertise,

  • this is Ming dynasty, OK?

  • You flip this over, and right there that tells you

  • how much money's involved, OK?

  • You've got two big druckets of silver.

  • And this is going to be copper--

  • 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 druckets of copper.

  • This is the emperor's seal right here.

  • So I can take one look at that and say that's Emperor Yuan.

  • This is Ming.

  • So you've got two different pieces of currency in here.

  • Yes.

  • So is it real?

  • What do you think, Chumlee?

  • Does it look old to you and 750 years old?

  • About as old as you.

  • [laughter]

  • - Not quite-- - You're funny.

  • --700 years.

  • You're really funny.

  • Well, handmade paper that came out of that dynasty--

  • and it's come over my desk at the university before--

  • it usually is more frayed.

  • It's got a thicker texture to it.

  • And handmade paper, there's no consistency to it.

  • It's kind of like, you know, rough looking.

  • Well, I'm just going to say, based on what I've seen,

  • I cannot say that this is real.

  • It kind of looks too clean, too new to be 700 years old.

  • I understand.

  • All right.

  • OK, sir.

  • Appreciate it.

  • Thank you very much.

  • You're basically looking at paper that's 700 years old.

  • And by the time it would get to my desk, it's very frayed.

  • This stuff looked like it came off the press yesterday.

  • So it really did throw up a red flag with me.

  • I mean, maybe there's a slight chance

  • and a really slight chance that it's some way legitimate.

  • Old paper like this, it becomes brittle.

  • Interesting.

  • I mean, you can send it off to a currency-grading company

  • and maybe for some weird reason they were like this,

  • but I really doubt it.

  • I appreciate it.

  • Have a good one, man.

  • You too.

  • Thank you.

  • Well, I definitely am disappointed

  • they feel they're not real.

  • I'm not sure if I agree with them.

  • I'm not sure how many of these have come across their desk.

- Hey, how's it going?

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