The Oldest Bank Notes

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 28, 1884

The Oldest Bank Notes.

THE oldest bank notes are the “flying money,” or “convenient money,” first issued in China, 2697 B. C. Originally these notes were issued by the treasury, but experience dictated a change to the banks under Government inspection and control. A writer in a provincial paper says that the early Chinese “greenbacks” were in all essentials similar to the modern bank notes, bearing the name of the bank, date of issue, the number of the note, the signature of the official issuing it, indications of its value in figures, in words, and in the pictorial representations in coins or heaps of coins equal in amount to its face value, and a notice of the pains and penalties of counterfeiting. Over and above all, was a laconic exhortation to industry and thrift, “Produce all you can spend with economy.” The notes were printed in blue ink on paper made from the fibre of the mulberry tree. One issued in 1399 B. C., is preserved in the Asiatic museum at St. Petersburg.