- 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.
