The Past of China's Money Printing
In the field of money printing and coinage, technology has always been the primary productive force
Banknote printing and coinage were once called "secrets second only to the atomic bomb." How did China's banknote printing and coinage industry become the world's number one?
The printing of money in the modern sense of China can be traced back to the late Qing Dynasty. With the development of the Westernization Movement, court officials brought back a new concept of foreign currency. In 1907, the Printing Bureau of the Du Branch (the predecessor of the Beijing Banknote Printing Factory, now the "Beijing Banknote Printing Company") was established and hired Hai Qu, a famous American steel engraving expert, to design and engrave paper banknotes for China.
The first gravure-printed "Daqing Bank Exchange Voucher" in Chinese history was made by Haiqu, which also created a new era in the history of China's banknote printing technology. Haiqu is a person who requires extremely fine carving business. It is said that in order to carve the head of the regent king Zaifeng, he put on the official uniform of the fourth grade and made a special trip to Shichahai to meet Zaifeng. A major contribution of Haiqu is to train the first generation of steel engraving technicians in my country, and lead them to independently design and print China's first set of steel intaglio banknotes.
