Treasures

Handling It

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom treasures in Tiantian Village consisted of a "Ghost Worrier" silver winter melon cast from a thousand taels of silver, five gold ingots, more than eight hundred copper coins, over thirty items including a Pearl Necklace and hair ornaments, as well as more than a hundred pieces of jewelry in various styles.

Without a doubt, they had all been obtained by looting the rich in those days, which was why they were such a jumbled, mismatched collection.

The only truly valuable items were the five gold ingots. They had once been customary gifts from wealthy families and were made of excellent pure gold.

Most of the jewelry was made of silver and copper. There were several kinds of copper, and even some iron pieces, though they had rusted away until only a handful of residue remained. The gemstones set into them were not necessarily real, either. Some were glass, while others were ordinary jade. Glass had been considered rare in earlier times, but later became increasingly worthless.

Most Taiping Heavenly Kingdom soldiers had come from miserable backgrounds. How could they have seen anything valuable? Naturally, they robbed whatever they encountered, not even sparing the poor. The truly good things had all been divided among the many kings. In the end, the people below them had received only cheap goods. Even if they had tried to scrape together and save them, there would have been no priceless treasures. Being able to accumulate that much gold and silver had already been extremely difficult.

As for the silver ingots, despite their large number, silver was actually worthless nowadays. One gram cost only three or four yuan, and even at its peak it had never reached ten yuan. An ancient tael had never exceeded fifty grams, while a tael