On the side of the cargo yard, Du Zhongxiao watched Tao Shiqi bring a few soldiers and add tin to the built pond. On the other hand, Shisanlang and Chen Qin squatted on the ground. Seeing the soldiers carrying the coals over, they couldn't help asking: "Official, what are you going to do to burn tin here?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "Cook the tin to melt and plate it onto the iron."

Shisanlang looked at Chen Qin, unable to think of how to plate tin on iron, nor what it could be done when plated on iron, so he shook his head. Chen Qin couldn't think of it, and the two of them squatted on the ground and watched quietly.

The pool was filled with tin blocks, and Tao Shiqi was commanding the soldiers to burn the fire below. He ordered another group of soldiers to wipe the steel plates made yesterday with vinegar one by one and put them aside.

The sun crawled into the air and the air became warm. Du Zhongxiao felt a little lazy. Tao Shiqi had been by his side for a long time and learned a lot. As soon as he talked about many things, he knew how to do it, making Du Zhongxiao increasingly lazy to do it.

The melting point of tin is very low. When the coal fire starts to burn, the tin in the pool begins to melt. From the ash tin block, it slowly turns into a bright white liquid, which looks a bit dazzling in the sun.

Tao Shiqi stood up straight and crossed his hands beside Du Zhongxiao: "Official, the tin in the pond has been melted, don't you know if you can add iron?"

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "Yes. Remember to be careful and not burn it. Go in from one end and come out from the other end. Remember not to hurry or slow down. Make the tin plate evenly on the iron plate. The hundreds of thousands of kilograms of iron in the prison fall on it."

Tao Shiqi Yingnuo, with the soldiers, clamped the steel plate rubbed with vinegar with pliers, and gently put it into the tin pool. There was a carved groove in the pool, which just stuck the steel plate. There were holes on both sides of the steel plate. It was inserted with a pointed needle, slowly pulled to the other end, and pulled out of the pool.

After leaving the steel plate of the tin pool, a thick layer of tin was plated on it, and it dried in a short while. The steel plated with tin became extremely bright, and in the sun, there was a silver luster.

Shisanlang and Chen Qin felt it was strange, so they went up to see it together, and were amazed. Although the fried steel plate is pure after being forged, it is actually blue-black due to the oxidation of the surface when cooled. It will only turn bright white after being polished with sandpaper, but it does not have such a color.

Du Zhongxiao stepped forward and looked carefully. He found that due to the inadequate treatment, the techniques were unfamiliar and the coating was not uniform. This was impossible. The current conditions are simple, so it is rare to be able to plate tin on iron, and it is difficult to further.

Another type of metal is plating on metal. The most common one in the past life is electroplating, which has many benefits. At this time, where did Du Zhongxiao find electricity? Fortunately, there is another method of physical plating, which is hot dip plating. The melting point of tin is low. After melting, the steel plate can soak and form a solid plating layer, which is tin-plated steel plate, also known as tinplate in the past life. The most important purpose is to make containers, such as cans.

Of course, Du Zhongxiao did not use tin-plated iron plates to make cans, which was too luxurious. What Du Zhongxiao wanted to do was to use this iron plate to make iron coins. After the steel plate was tinned, it could prevent oxidation and maintain this color. Moreover, this iron coins could not be recast, which could prevent private casting by the people from melting legal iron coins. Since tin can only be plated on the iron plate and pig iron cannot be used, the money can only be made, not cast.

With these characteristics, compared with the current iron coins, these coins are even more able to prevent private minting by the people. If private minting can be prevented, the face value of the coins can be appropriately increased so that the coins will no longer lose money. As long as the coins are no longer lost money and the bad coins minted by the people will be prevented from driving out good coins, many economic problems will be solved.

Nowadays, whether it is private transactions or official taxes, physical goods are used in large quantities. It is not that everyone does not know the benefits of monetization, but that there is really no reliable currency. The output of gold and silver in the Song Dynasty was not large, and even copper was insufficient, so the entire monetization of the economy could not be achieved. Paper money in the form of Jiaozi faces the same difficulties, it is difficult to prevent private printing, and also face credit problems.

In a short while, Tao Shiqi brought the soldiers to make dozens of tin-plated iron plates.

Seeing that the quantity was almost the same, Du Zhongxiao ordered to stop. The charcoal fire under the pond was removed, covered it, and left it for later use.

Shisanlang took a piece of plated iron plate, looked around in the sun, and said, "Official, what's the purpose of this steel plate?"

"Make money." Du Zhongxiao said these two words briefly, and made Tao Shiqi die and go to a machine on the side.

This is a stamping machine with a simple structure, but it is actually similar to a forged hammer. However, on the hammer and the anvil, there are two upper and lower molds, both made of fine steel. The patterns and text on the mold are the front and back sides of the steel money now.

A sergeant took the iron plate and put it on the punch. Du Zhongxiao personally directed the two soldiers and shook the punch with the handle. After shaking to the highest point, he pulled the lock. Under the action of gravity, the punch "thumped" on the anvil, and even the ground was shaken.

The people around were caught off guard and were shocked.

Du Zhongxiao ordered the soldiers to shake the punch again, take away the steel plate, and go forward to check the falling iron coins. Due to insufficient momentum, the edges around the iron coins were very obvious and there were signs of squeezing. The patterns and texts on both sides of the iron coins were slightly blurred.

Holding it in his hand and playing with it for a while, Du Zhongxiao sighed: "This punch is a little smaller, and it is still not enough to make money."

After saying that, he handed it to Tao Shiqi who was watching. Tao Shiqi took the money in his hand and said, "Oh, what should I do? We have spent countless efforts, but it still doesn't work?"

Du Zhongxiao smiled and said, "This machine is small and has insufficient power, of course it cannot be done. Look at the top of the money, it is clear, it is tin, because it is softer, so it is clear. The bottom is not possible, it is iron, because it is hard, and the machine cannot press it clearly. This is not a bad thing, it means that this kind of iron coins must be suppressed with a large machine. Where can the big machines be made by the people? This will prevent the stolen castings by the people."

This small punch was originally modified with a forged hammer. If it doesn't work, then use a large one. According to Du Zhongxiao's idea, if this method is feasible, then use water conservancy to build a NTU punch and make iron coins day and night. Everything goes well. The hundreds of thousands of kilograms of iron in Datongjian actually can't make much iron coins.

After saying that, Du Zhongxiao asked the soldiers to make nearly a hundred iron coins and carefully check the gains and losses. After reading it, it was basically confirmed that the thickness of the copper coins that is basically the same as that of the copper coins is reasonable and the size is also appropriate. This thickness must be used to use a large punching machine, and the money that is made from the small punching machine can be exquisite. It can be separated at a glance. The only troublesome thing is that the punching iron is exposed outside, and I don’t know if it will be severely rusted. Du Zhongxiao was also undecided, whether to make the iron coins first and then dip them. But doing that, the process is too complicated.

The greatest significance of making this kind of money is not to use the iron of the Datong Supervision Commission to make money, but to allow a common and sufficient public currency in the market, and economic activities and taxes can be monetized. Moreover, the cost is lower than the currency value, and the official can make profits by making money, that is, seigniorage tax. With these two items, many economic problems can be solved immediately.
Chapter completed!