History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c8.97

c8.97

⁴⁹ Marco Polo describes (I, pp. 378-79) how the Khan tried to prevent forgery. "All these pieces of paper are issued with as much solemnity and authority as if they were of pure gold or silver; and on every piece a variety of officials whose duty it is, have to write their names, and to put their seals. And when all is prepared duly, the chief officer deputed by the Khan smears the seal entrusted to him with vermillion, and impresses it on the paper, so that the form of the seal remains stamped upon it in red; the money is then authentic. Any one forging it would be punished with death. And the Khan causes every year to be made such a vast quantity of this money which costs him nothing, that it must equal in amount all the treasure in the world."—Cordier, I, pp. 423-24.