Of course, the chest held no cash, but rather more than half a chest of old copper coins.
Li Long casually rummaged through them. There were coins of the Five Emperors, along with Kaiyuan, Zhenguan, and other copper coins from the Tang dynasty. Besides the inscribed coins, there were also some large charm coins. These were privately minted coins not intended for circulation, mainly used as curios or for blessings. Still, they would have some collectible value in later years.
The chest was open. As soon as Li Long entered the study, he saw the old-fashioned wooden chest on the desk, forty to fifty centimeters in length, width, and height. He guessed it must have held other things too, but Old Mr. Ma had probably taken those away already.
There were also a few old thread-bound books on the study shelves: the Siku collection, medical books, collected sayings, martial arts novels, and some magazines, all jumbled together.
A painting and a horizontal scroll of calligraphy hung on the wall. He could not make out what the calligraphy said, nor could he quite read the signature, so he would leave them hanging for now.
A brush, ink, paper, and inkstone sat on the heavy solid-wood desk. They looked somewhat worn and were probably ordinary items. The chest holding the coins, though, looked quite old and must have been around for some years.
He wondered whether, in later years, the half chest of copper coins would even be worth as much as the chest itself.
Li Long closed the chest, set it at one corner of the desk, then sat down and pulled open a drawer.
Inside was a stack of vertically ruled writing paper that looked quite old-fashioned too. He just could not tell whether it was imitation or genuinely old