700-year-old paper money hidden in the head of Arhat

Experts at an Australian auction house found rare Ming Dynasty banknotes in China in a wooden ancient sculpture.

Mossgreen auction house in Victoria, Australia shared on Facebook pictures of a 700-year-old banknote in the Asian art collection on October 20, UPI reported.

Paper notes and La Han statues were born in the 13-14 century during the Ming Dynasty in China.(Photo: CNN).

Mossgreen experts were surprised to discover the Ming Dynasty banknote in the wooden Arhat statue from the 13th-14th century while classifying antiquities. This is one of the earliest printed banknotes in China, according to CNN.

"As far as we know, this is the first banknote to be found inside a wooden Buddha statue. We are very surprised and excited , " said Ray Tregaskis, Asian art director at Mossgreen.

Luke Guan, Mossgreen's Asian art expert, said Chinese sculptures often contain many different objects. " Materials like mantras rolls, cereals, incense sticks, semi-precious stones are often placed in gilded bronze statues by monks or lamas. But we have never encountered cases of hidden paper money in wooden statues." , Guan said.

According to experts, the bill was put into the statue after the production time of about 40-50 years.