Lately I have noticed the occasional listing of older wooden blocks used for printing "bank" notes in the Peoples Republic of China in auctions and pricelists. Actually not banknotes for circulation but those "Hell" or "Ghost" notes printed to be burned at funerals so the deceased will have spending money in the here after world. Modern types of these notes can usually be found in certain shops in most any Chinatown here in the states.

Not too long ago Bob Reis (reisbiz@earthlink.net) listed such an item and out of curiosity I ordered it. Much to my pleasure it has a steam locomotive as the central vignette. Reis puts out many price lists covering the "soup to nuts" area of numismatics . Looking at this printer's block more carefully it is hand carved into a hunk of a small log with the natural outer curve being under one's hand and a large character "Shang" is carved in it. It measures 4 7/16" x 5 7/16" x 1 13/16" thick with finger indents carved into each side. Being very well stained with red ink it has had some use but I have never encountered an actual note printed from it..

Another point of interest is that it has two different "bank" titles at top center. The upper note is for 1 Yuan with 1's in all four corners and Chinese characters for 1 yuan in guiloches at left and right of the locomotive. Below the locomotive is the date 1975 in Chinese and Western numerals.

The lower note is also for 1 Yuan but one guiloche has been replaced with 5 stars encircled which refers to the Peoples Republic of China but below this is" VI / YUAN" which is obviously an error done by the carver of this wooden plate.

Having taken linoleum block printing in 7th or 8th grade I decided to become an apprentice printer once again. My first stop was at the local art store where I purchased a tube of red ink and a roller. Then I stopped at a friend's print shop here in Iola and we not only tried the ink I had purchased but even tried some of the inks that he normally uses but without any luck. The type of ink that the Chinese printer used with this wooden block remains a mystery to me.