Around the time Chaucer was spinning his tales but before the Guttenberg Press, China was turning out paper bank notes and one of them from the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) will be sold by Spinks at its currency auction in Hong Kong, Jan.14. It’s a 2 kuan cash note printed on grey mulberry bark paper with black Mongol text and a red seal. Last year a similar note sold for $154,000.It generally comes as a surprise to today’s spender to learn that starting with the Tang and Sung dynasties, (618-1279) China was using paper money for local use, mainly in Szechuan. The Chinese called those early dollars “flying cash” because they could blow away in the wind. Yuan notes are extremely rare and dealers say their condition is often poor.
