Siheyuan: Big City, Small Love

After a while, Mr. He came back with a box of Yuan Datou coins.

He Lai hurried forward to take it, weighed it, and found it was about thirty kilograms.

"Xiao Laizi, Genshui said that these 600 Yuan Datou can be exchanged for 600 kilograms of pork. Grandpa agreed to it for you. Anyway, the pork has to be shared with the villagers. Do you think it's okay?"

Mr. He asked.

"Okay, Grandpa, you decide." He Lai agreed casually, opened the box and began to check the Yuan Datou coins.

He Lai looked at every Yuan Datou coin carefully to see if there was one that he wanted.

"Xiao Laizi, what are you looking at?" Xiao Hu asked curiously.

"Brother Xiaohu, can you help me look for a Yuan Datou with Gansu Province written on it?"

He Lai said as he searched.

"Ah? What Gansu?" Xiaohu was confused.

"You kid, you don't even know Gansu. If you don't study hard, you're worse than me. Look, Gansu is a province, it's written like this."

As Mr. He spoke, he dipped his finger in a little tea and wrote the word "Gansu" on the table.

"Oh, okay, I'll help Xiao Laizi find it." Xiaohu also started to look through the Yuan Datou notes.

Seeing this, everyone joined in.

Soon, there were only thirteen with Gansu written on them out of more than six hundred coins. They were actually pretty good, but I didn’t know if they were worth the money.

He Lai started looking for something in English again. He Lai couldn’t remember what it was in English, he just remembered that it was at the lower right side of Yuan Shikai’s portrait.

"Xiao Laizi, haven't you finished looking? Why are you still looking?" asked Old Mrs. He.

"Hey, grandma, I want to see if there is anything better. I remember someone said that this Yuan Datou with a string of pinyin on the right side of the portrait is also very valuable. I want to see if there is any here."

He Lai pointed to the spot next to the portrait and said.

"Oh, so that's it. All right then, come and help Xiao Laizi look for it again and see if there is any pinyin."

When Mrs. He heard this, she called people over to continue searching.

When Wu Sheng heard that there was pinyin, he immediately started looking through his pile of Yuan Datou notes.

After a while, he took out a Yuan Datou coin: "Xiao Laizi, take a look and see if it's this." As he said that, Wu Sheng handed the Yuan Datou coin to He Lai.

He Lai took it and looked at it. Sure enough, there was a string of English words, L.GIORGI. The letter "L" was particularly large, and the other letters were very small.

He Lai thought about it and decided that this must be it.

"Yes, this is it, Brother Sheng. Thank you." He Lai said with a smile.

When everyone heard that He Lai had found this Yuan Datou coin, they all leaned over to take a look, and then continued looking for it.

Apparently, no such Yuan Datou coins were ever found again.

"Xiao Laizi, do you mean that these Yuan Datou are worthless, and only the Yuan Datou in your hand is valuable?"

Mr. He asked.

"Grandpa, that's not the case. I should say that the few I have are particularly valuable. Of course, the rest should also be worth a bit of money. After all, Yuan Datou was a very expensive silver dollar back then."

He Lai explained.

During the Republic of China period, one Yuan Datou coin could buy about 30 kilograms of rice and a full eight kilograms of pork.

At that time, an ordinary rickshaw driver in the old city could earn about 10 to 20 Yuan Datou coins in a month, which means he could only earn one silver dollar every three days. This money was enough to make a living. Of course, the rickshaw driver could only earn this much if the rickshaw was his own. If he rented a rickshaw, he would not be paid so much.

According to the description in "Wolf Smoke in Peking", before the Japanese occupation, the rickshaw driver Wen Saner in the old city could earn more than 20 yuan a month (monthly package) and at least more than 9 yuan (single-person ride). When driving single-person rides, he could earn at least cents a day, which is copper coins, and he could earn more if he was lucky.

In addition, rickshaw pullers in the old city worked an average of 5 hours a day and earned 4 cents, equivalent to about 7 yuan (calculated in copper coins), of which 13 cents was needed to pay for the rickshaw, so the actual income was about 9 yuan.

But this little money is enough for these drivers to live a very carefree life. They can eat at restaurants all over the world and have a drink. It is the dream job for many people.

It can be seen that Yuan Datou was still very valuable at that time.

"Oh, I see. How much are these Yuan Datou worth now?"

Mr. He asked.

"Uh... I don't know about that, Grandpa. This is actually the same as the copper coin. It is no longer a currency, but it should have collection value. So the rarer the thing, the more valuable it will be in the future."

He Lai explained.

"Ah, are there any copper coins that are valuable?" asked Mr. Wu.

"Yes, there are. Many rare copper coins should be very valuable. Generally speaking, the older the copper coin is, the more valuable it is. Also, copper coins printed by emperors who were in office for a short time are valuable!"

He Lai analyzed.

"Oh, then Xiao Laizi, do you mean that copper coins from the Qing Dynasty are worthless?"

Mr. Wu continued to ask.

"Well... that's not necessarily true, Grandpa. Copper coins and silver dollars are the same. In fact, things are valuable because they are rare. The rarer they are, the more valuable they are. On the contrary, if there are many identical ones, they are definitely not valuable."

He Lai explained patiently.

"Yeah, I understand." Mr. Wu nodded.

"What's wrong? Grandpa, do you have copper coins?" He Lai asked curiously.

"One thing is that at that time, the Great Leap Forward was underway, and the village was engaged in a massive iron smelting campaign. We collected a lot of copper coins and burned most of them, but I kept some of them and hid them."

Mr. Wu said.

"Hey, Old Man Wu, are you trying to kill yourself? How dare you hide this thing?" Old Man He glared at him.

"Tsk, I just think you're wasting things! All this good iron and copper has been burned into scrap metal, what's the use of that! It's better to put it away first."

Mr. Wu rolled his eyes at Mr. He and said.

"Hey, be careful or you'll be dragged out for criticism!"

"Try to pull one!"

The two old men immediately stared at each other, and no one dared to say anything. It was He Lai who came out to mediate.

"Grandpa, grandpa, stop arguing. There's nothing to argue about. It's good to keep the copper coin. Grandpa, where is the copper coin hidden? Give it to me."

"Okay, there's a pile of copper coins. It's right next to the iron smelting furnace, in a small pit on the right. I poured it in when no one was paying attention."

Mr. Wu didn't hide anything from He Lai and told him directly.

"Where is the boiler? I'll fish it out with Brother Xiaohu and Brother Sheng right now." He Lai said anxiously.

"Xiao Laizi, I'll take you there. I'm familiar with the place." Xiaohu said immediately.

"Okay." He Lai said immediately.

"Okay, then you guys go ahead and keep an eye on the people. It won't be good if someone sees us." Grandpa He instructed, and then said to Grandpa Wu and the others, "Then let's take the pork to the cafeteria first to attract Xiao Laizi and the others' attention."

He Lai found it funny. Grandpa He even used the art of war to make a feint to the east and attack in the west!

Then everyone split up. He Lai and his two companions took tools and bags to the boiler, while Grandpa He and his companions took the pork to the cafeteria.