How did the ancients find change when they bought things?

When the ancients bought things, they all made small change with some scattered silver. If they can't change it, they can cut the silver into pieces with scissors, or pay off the rest with copper coins.

It is relatively easy for us modern people to find loose money when shopping, because 1 yuan and 1 yuan have not been delisted. Although it is troublesome to bring small change, we can settle the account. Especially after the emergence of Alipay and WeChat, it is more convenient to pay, and you can pay others any fraction without changing money. But the ancients were not so convenient. At that time, their currencies were mainly silver coins and copper coins. When paying bills with silver, weight is generally the standard, while copper coins are the standard.

In ancient times, one or two pieces of silver were very valuable, about 1000 copper coins. Of course, with the fluctuation of social prices at that time, the amount of copper coins that can be exchanged for one or two pieces of silver will also change. In ancient times, generally speaking, if you take out twelve taels of silver to buy something worth twenty taels, people will first judge whether your silver is real or cut it open to see if there is lead in it. Then weigh your money, see how heavy it is, find out a few broken bottles to weigh, and then pay you the change of eight taels. If eight taels of silver are not up to standard, he will cut the broken silver in half again until it is just enough to weigh, or find some copper coins to settle your change according to the exchange standard of silver taels and copper coins at that time.

This is the concrete process of buying and selling things in exchange for money in ancient times. Depending on the situation, sometimes it may be easier to pay. For example, when doing big business, you always take a silver ticket, and there is generally no problem of changing money. People who haven't seen a lot of money go out to buy things with a coin in a money bag, and copper coins are basically enough for ordinary daily necessities. It's just that at that time, there was a heavy money bag tied to my waist, which was tiring and inconvenient to run around, and it was easy to lose and be stolen.