Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 134 The Outlaws of the 18th Century

In the dark basement, with the light of everyone's flashlights, Liang En looked at the camera lens and raised the silver coins in his hand and began to explain the suspiciousness of these silver coins.

Under normal circumstances, no matter what kind of business a businessman does before the advent of the Internet age, the currency he receives is often old and new.

This is especially true for those who do illegal business. Because of their unique trading habits, there is basically not much new currency in the currency they receive.

But now the silver coins that Liang En found in the secret room and tunnel are too new, not to mention the oxide layer or wear that the old coins should have, these silver coins don't even have a scratch on them.

"Look, these silver coins look the same as they were just minted, and there are more than one scattered on the ground." Liang En said as he took out the few silver coins he picked up just now from his pocket and showed them to the camera.

"If these silver coins are all fake silver coins, then there is a high probability that this place is related to the rampant counterfeit coin production. That's why there are so many coins in this place that have no trace of use."

After finishing speaking, Liang En carefully opened the secret door in front of him with a crowbar.It turned out that there was a small double-layer closet inside the hidden door. "It seems that this should be the goal we are looking for."

After pushing away the thick cobwebs and dust with his hands, Liang En took out the three boxes placed inside the secret door.

All three boxes are about the size of a shoe box, but two are very heavy and the other is very light.

Apparently, these boxes contained different things.And when Liang En's hand touched the lightest box, the white light used for identification disappeared, and at the same time, three cards appeared in his mind.

However, Liang En did not check his own cards, but continued to check the small closet as he was doing just now.

Judging from the position of these boxes in the cabinet, there should have been things equivalent to the volume of six boxes at the earliest, but the things that were placed in these spaces before have been taken away.

Looking at the silver coins picked up in the secret room and tunnel just now, it is likely that there were a lot of fake silver coins that were made here before.

So in an emergency, those who realized that they were going to give up here left with the silver coins that were the easiest to spend, leaving only those things that were inconvenient to sell left here.

After searching the secret room for the last time and making sure there was nothing left.The three of Liang En and the others took the pile of things they found and climbed up with the help of those who stayed above.

It took too much time to sort out the things in the secret room just now, and it was already afternoon when we returned to the ground, and the sky was dark.

"Next, we should contact a laboratory." Liang En instructed Fan Meng after returning to the ground, "There are likely to be some organic substances in these boxes, so it is inconvenient to open them in such a place—"

"You can go to our side to open these boxes." After hearing Liang En's order, the staff who had been waiting above said.

"I just contacted our curator, and she invited you to come to the cultural relics laboratory under our Hampton Court Palace Museum."

"You also read it just now. Our laboratory is not only fully equipped, but also has many professional personnel who can cooperate with your work. Most importantly, our curator stated that the funds for this part of the cleanup will be unconditionally paid by the museum."

Hampton Court Palace Museum is a for-profit museum, so the curator must also consider this aspect.Apparently, the program that Liang En is participating in is not too influential, so it will be good for publicity if the museum participates in it.

For Liang En, it is naturally good to have free helpers and venues.

After all, Dr. Caldwell just asked him to help promote the various museums, but it was up to him to choose which museum.So he naturally agreed to the other party's suggestion.

More than an hour later, the laboratory under Hampton Palace was on a long table illuminated by a slightly dim white light.A row of transparent boxes were neatly placed under the light.

"The items we recovered from that chamber were the tools of crime left by top outlaws in the 17th century, including steel molds of four sets of silver coins and a copper plate of a Bank of England note, the earliest banknote in Britain."

Liang En pointed to several transparent boxes filled with nitrogen in front of him and said, each of these boxes was put into a set of metal molds that had just undergone simple derusting treatment.

In the few 10 minutes just now, Liang En not only helped to complete the cleaning work together, but also kept explaining to the camera lens about the cleaning and protection of these cultural relics.

There are more people interested in these specialized things than expected. At least Liang En learned from Old Mike that the number of people watching his channel has tripled at least since the beginning.

This is naturally good news for Liang En, because in this way, he will be able to complete the goal of popularizing scientific archaeological knowledge to the public entrusted by Dr. Caldwell.

In fact, the doctor has always been troubled by the lack of popularization of archaeological knowledge among the public. After all, whether it is the Indiana Jones series or the Tomb Raider series, in the eyes of professionals, it is illegal excavation, and it is still a very bad one.

For example, whether it is the content of the Indiana Jones series or the Tomb Raider series, there is no formal process of application for permission from the beginning, and then there is a series of serious damage and plunder to various cultural relics and historic sites.

This is why Liang En agreed to help the doctor to promote it. As a person from the ancient oriental country, he only needs to visit the Longmen Grottoes or Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and see the destroyed cultural relics to know what to do.

It is also because of this reason why Liang En chooses to follow the regulations every time before the start of the treasure hunt.As pedantic as this may seem, at least it won't be nailed to the pillar of stigma called History Destroyers.

"Everyone can pay attention here." After explaining the flood of counterfeit money in that era, Liang En pointed to a special stamp next to those steel moulds.

"According to the information we searched before, this imprint composed of capital letters w and c belonged to William Chaloner, the largest counterfeit dealer in Britain at that time."

A man who dares to put his own coat of arms on counterfeit coin dies is no ordinary man, and this William Chaloner was by all accounts a criminal of absolute genius.

For example, he petitioned Congress at the time to accuse the Mint of providing tools to counterfeiters for a fee, and asked Congress to allow him to inspect the Mint's production process to prove his charges.

He also asked Congress to adopt what he called an "uncounterfeitable coinage process," along with a plan to combat counterfeiting.

At the same time, he deceived Parliament and claimed to the committee investigating the malpractice of the mint that he could improve the coinage without increasing the cost and prevent the counterfeiting of currency.

The most surprising thing is that William Chaloner also wrote a pamphlet entitled "The Institutional Malpractice of the Current Mint", and presented a series of evidence to the Parliament, and took this as an opportunity Request the position of Superintendent of the Mint.

(End of this chapter)