China is the world's first country to develop paper money back in the early 7th century during the Tang dynasty, while explorers like Marco Polo introduced such concept in Europe six centuries later. Chinese antique banknotes draw upon two of China's Four Great Inventions – papermaking and printing. It is one of IZBLU Labs' missions to preserve Chinese cultural heritage.Chinese culture is an important theme in IZBLU Labs' NFT projects. Through leveraging advanced blockchain technology, IZBLU Labs turns ancient Chinese banknotes into unique non-fungible tokens (NFT) which cannot be replicated or altered, addressing issues of transparency and provenance. This project will not only bring greater attention to the beauty of Chinese history, but also generate substantial investment value for NFT collectors.
10 Yuan issued by the National Commercial Bank of China (1923)
The National Commercial Bank of China, also known as Zhejiang Xingye Bank (Chinese: 浙江興業銀行), was a Chinese bank considered one of the "Three Southern Banks". In 1907, The bank was founded in Hangzhou by Zhejiang Provincial Railway Company. It moved headquarters to Shanghai in 1915.
In traditional Chinese culture, the rooster's obvious symbolic meaning was punctuality, honesty, bravery, competitiveness, prosperity, ordinariness and luck (similar pronunciation).
10 Yuan issued by the National Commercial Bank of China (1923)
The National Commercial Bank of China, also known as Zhejiang Xingye Bank (Chinese: 浙江興業銀行), was founded by the Zhejiang Provincial Railway Company on May 27, 1907, in Hangzhou, with the goal of “vigorously developing industry”.
The person in this banknote is Huang Zongxi. He was a Chinese naturalist, political theorist, philosopher, and soldier during the latter part of the Ming dynasty into the early part of the Qing. Huang was a native in Zhejiang province.
10 Yuan issued by Commissariat Department of China (1925)
During the period of the Republic of China, civil wars were frequent. Representative warlords and feudal forces in various regions, supported by imperialists of different backgrounds, established factions and ruled the roost. In order to cope with the huge military expenditures, the warlords continued to issue military tickets.
Unlike ordinary banknotes, military tickets are not issued by financial institutions with a certain amount of reserves, but are issued by military and political institutions or their leaders on the basis of power or political appeal. The banknotes issued by the military government and the military were all military tickets.
10 Yuan issued by the Bank of Anhui Provincial Government (1925)
After the failure of the second revolution in 1913, the whole country entered the dark rule of Beiyang warlord, commanded by Yuan Shikai. In order to raise military and administrative expenses, the warlords used provincial and local banks as private treasury and kept printing and issuing banknotes.
The steam passenger train, airplane and industrial waterfront on this banknote depict the commercial development in Anhui during that period
The collection is available on Opensea: https://opensea.io/IZBLU_LABS Buyers of this edition will receive a high-res scan of the original Bank Note authenticated by Paper Money Guaranty (PMG) with PMG seal, the NFT in HD as well as owning the IP rights of this edition of the NFT.