At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Rishengchang draft bank in Shanxi was famous all over the country, and it was known as "one vote for the whole world". However, once the customer's bill is lost and found by others, can the finder take away the money without the owner present? What kind of anti-counterfeiting measures will Rishengchang introduce to prevent such incidents?

Shanxi Rishengchang Bank, founded in the 4th year of Qing Daoguang (AD 1824), is the first large bank in China's modern history. Draft bank is a financial institution similar to a bank, covering all businesses such as deposit and withdrawal, loans and so on. Its appearance is the most important innovation in China's financial history.

Before the establishment of the draft bank, China's currency circulation was still in a backward state, and the phenomenon of cash escort by escort agencies was widespread, with high risk, high cost and low timeliness, which has always been an irreparable loophole in the financial industry. In A.D. 1823, Li Daquan of Xidapu Village in Pingyao saw the situation clearly and invested 302,000 silver to establish Rishengchang with Lei Lvtai, the shopkeeper of Yaoxi Village, which greatly promoted the domestic commercial operation and currency circulation mode.

According to historical records, the annual exchange volume in Rishengchang's golden age was as high as 38 million Liang, which was definitely a daily struggle. In the course of decades of development, Rishengchang has been growing and started to set up semicolons in various places, with outlets all over the country except the northeast and northwest. At that time, as long as they were Rishengchang's customers, they could travel all over the country and handle exchange business anytime and anywhere as long as they had a draft in their arms.

The face value of bills of Rishengchang Bank is generally hundreds, thousands or even more than 22,000 silver. Although the draft is quick and simple, it also has certain risks. After all, there are many robbers and thieves who want to get something for nothing. However, Rishengchang Bank has taken measures to deal with this, that is, anti-counterfeiting has been added to the draft. The most unique anti-counterfeiting method of Rishengchang draft is to use Chinese characters as the original anti-counterfeiting password, and a special person is responsible for checking and auditing.

Generally speaking, all bills of exchange issued by Rishengchang basically have the aphorism of "Beware of taking away tickets, don't forget to read the chapter carefully" or "seek personal gain and conspire to kill others". From the layman's point of view, these epigrams can improve the moral binding force on people and improve the work efficiency of employees, but from the expert's point of view, these epigrams are undoubtedly bills of exchange passwords with important information.