Chapter 262: Counterfeit Currency for Real Currency
Counterfeiting is an inevitable product of the emergence of trading activities, because the profit margin of counterfeiting is too large.
Two items that look similar in appearance may have production costs that differ by ten or even a hundred times.
Precisely because of such huge profits, there is an endless stream of counterfeiters.
Counterfeit currency is undoubtedly one of the most profitable counterfeiting activities.
Jiang Xuan never imagined that in such a short period of time, someone would start to counterfeit the Teng Tribe's knife coins and take them to the Teng Tribe's trading area to trade goods.
As it turned out, he had underestimated the tribesmen.
While thinking about these things, Jiang Xuan followed the soldier to the trading area. Soon, they arrived at the trading area.
At this time, in the trading area, a large group of people were watching the excitement.
"Get out of the way, the leader is coming."
The soldier led the way and squeezed out a passage through the crowd of onlookers.
In the middle of the crowd, Dongkui and several guards were holding a panicked young man.
The young man was about twenty-three or twenty-four years old, with a tanned skin and a thin build. The totem pattern on his face was rather strange, looking like a pair of sharp claws.
When Dong Kui saw Jiang Xuan coming over, he immediately took out two golden broadsword coins and said, "Chief, this man brought two fake broadsword coins and wanted to exchange them for salt and pottery."
Jiang Xuan took the two fake broadsword coins. They felt heavy in his hands and had a golden metallic luster.
Most importantly, this gold color is more dazzling than the bronze of the Teng tribe.
The appearance of these two fake broadsword coins is almost the same as the real broadsword coins, with only some differences in details.
The broadsword coins of the Teng tribe are cast using the lost wax casting method and then polished to have a relatively smooth surface.
But these two fake broadsword coins are different. They have obvious bumps on the surface. Based on Jiang Xuan's experience, he guessed that they should be hammer marks.
In other words, these two broadsword coins were actually made through forging.
Forging is the most primitive method of metal processing. It only requires heating the metal, or directly cold forging it, to create the desired shape.
However, there are not many metals that can be forged directly. It requires a metal that can exist in the form of a single element in nature.
For example, natural copper, silver, and gold.
Wait, gold? Jiang Xuan's eyes widened when he thought of this.
He looked at the two fake broadsword coins and said in surprise, "Such a bright gold color, it can't be real gold, right?"
Jiang Xuan immediately left the crowd and walked towards the inn in the trading area.
Dong Kui and others didn't know what Jiang Xuan wanted to do, but they followed him.
After Jiang Xuan entered the inn, he went straight to the kitchen and said to the waiter who was lighting the fire: "Throw these two big knife coins into the fire and heat them up."
"yes!"
Although the guy was curious about what Jiang Xuan was going to do, he didn't ask too much. He just threw the two big knife coins into the fire pit and blew air into it with a bamboo tube so that the fire would burn more vigorously.
"Chief, what are you doing?"
Dongkui walked up to Jiang Xuan and asked curiously.
Jiang Xuan replied: "Inspect the material of the fake knife coin to see if it is what we need."
Dong Kui seemed to understand, but did not ask too many questions. She just watched Jiang Xuan's actions curiously.
Jiang Xuan stared at the fake knife coins in the flames, and saw that they were gradually burned red and bright red under the scorching flames.
"Okay, hook them out."
Under Jiang Xuan's command, the men used bronze hooks to hook the rings on the handles of the two fake broadsword coins and hooked them out.
After being placed on the ground, the two fake knife coins began to cool down slowly.
When the fake knife coin had almost cooled down, Jiang Xuan picked it up directly with his hand.
“Ding ding ding…”
He took two fake knife coins and knocked them against each other a few times, and the fake knife coins made a crisp sound.
Then, he took the fake knife coin outside the inn and carefully observed it in a well-lit place. He found that its color was no different from before and it was still shining with gold.
Finally, Jiang Xuan bent the fake knife coin with his hands, restored it to its original shape, bent it again, and restored it to its original shape again.
"Yes, this should be gold!"
Jiang Xuan was very excited. The reason why he used so many methods to tinker with the two fake broadsword coins was to verify whether they were gold.
In terms of color, sound, color change after burning, and flexibility, it is exactly the same as gold.
When Jiang Xuan thought of this, his eyes suddenly became hot.
Gold is a precious metal, and he has never seen gold anywhere else since he came to this world. This at least shows that gold is relatively rare in the primitive continent.
However, in other tribes, even if gold was discovered, it could only be used as a decoration and its actual value was not high.
Because it is too soft, it is not suitable for making weapons such as knives, spears, and arrowheads.
But in the Vine Tribe, it can come in very handy.
The advantage of knife coins is obvious, that is, they are highly practical and easily accepted by the tribesmen.
But its disadvantages are equally obvious, that is, it wears out too quickly and is prone to problems such as breakage, notches, and wear.
Therefore, in the future, after the currency credit system of the Teng tribe is established, it will inevitably launch the second-generation currency to replace the knife coins that are depleted too quickly.
Gold is one of the best carriers for making currency.
Gold is wear-resistant, durable, and easy to carry, and can solve the problems existing with knife coins.
Because of this, Jiang Xuan was very excited when he discovered that this fake knife coin was actually forged from gold.
He immediately ordered the guards to take the captured young man from the trading area to an empty house nearby.
The young man was escorted over by two guards. He trembled as he looked at the empty house, feeling extremely frightened.
Making fake knife coins was a serious crime and according to the tribesmen’s temper, he would most likely die.
Soon, Jiang Xuan walked in from outside with two big knife coins in his hand.
"Did you make these two fake knife coins?"
“Yes…I did it…”
The young man's legs began to tremble uncontrollably.
"One of our Teng tribe's big knife coins can be exchanged for more than three kilograms of salt. You've brought two coins over here. If I really let you get away with it, the Teng tribe will lose more than six kilograms of salt!"
"Salt is so precious, I don't need to tell you, right? You're trying to cheat our Teng tribe out of so much salt in a short time. Tell me, how should I punish you?"
The young man's legs trembled even more violently, because he knew in his heart that with such a serious sin, he might not be able to save his life.
Jiang Xuan added: "However, I am very interested in the materials you used to make the fake knife coins. If you can bring more, maybe I will consider sparing your life."
When Jiang Xuan said this, not only the young man was stunned, but also Dong Kui and others beside him were stunned.
No one expected that Jiang Xuan would say such a thing.
"Are you serious?" The young man's face was full of disbelief.
Jiang Xuan nodded and said, "Of course it's true. I swear in the name of the leader of the Teng tribe."
"Very good!"
The young man was excited that he had saved his life. Who would want to die if they could be alive?
Jiang Xuan continued, "If you can provide the materials to make ten big knife coins, the Teng tribe will not pursue the matter of you making fake knife coins. If you can provide more materials, you can even make a deal directly with the Teng tribe."
"Make a deal?" The young man looked at Jiang Xuan in astonishment.
"That's right. I can exchange the materials for a fake big knife coin with two small knife coins. After you get the real knife coins, you can trade for what you want in the trading area."
The young man was completely stunned. He never thought that not only would he not be killed this time, but he would also encounter such a good thing.
For a moment, he felt as if he was dreaming, it was very unreal.
(End of this chapter)
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