Before Charles II, our coins were minted using a method that had survived from the 13th century. Edward I brought in skilled minters from Florence, which in his time was comparable to London. For many generations, the tools introduced into our mint then continued to serve virtually unchanged. The metal was cut with scissors, then the pieces were rounded with a hammer, and the stamp was also hammered onto them. Much depended on the worker's hand and eye. Inevitably, some coins came out with slightly more, others slightly less than the exact amount of metal; only a few were perfectly round, and the coin did not have a rim. Therefore, over time, con artists found that coin clipping was the easiest and most profitable of all scams. Under Elizabeth, it was already deemed necessary to decree that the clipper of a coin should be subject to the same punishment that had long been prescribed for counterfeiters—the death penalty. But the craft of clipping coins could not be killed by such measures, because it was too profitable, and around the time of the Restoration [1660] everyone began to notice that many of the crowns, half-crowns, and shillings that came into hands were somewhat clipped. It was a time abundant with experiments and inventions in all branches of science. A plan emerged for a major improvement in the method of rounding coins and stamping them. A machine was installed in the Tower of London that largely replaced manual work. Horses turned the machine, and mechanics today would certainly call it crude and weak. Nevertheless, the coins it produced were among the best in Europe. They were difficult to counterfeit. Their roundness was perfectly correct, and the inscription ran along the edge; therefore, there was no need to fear clipping. Hand-made and machine-made coins circulated together; the treasury accepted them equally in payment; therefore, the public accepted them equally. The financiers of the time apparently expected that the new coin, a very good one, would soon displace the old coin, which was badly damaged, from circulation. But any intelligent person should have realized that if the treasury accepted a full-weight and a light-weight coin as equivalent, the full-weight coin would not displace the light-weight one from circulation, but would itself be displaced by it. In England, a clipped crown was considered the same as an unclipped machine-made one when paying taxes or debts. But if a machine-made crown were cast into a piece or transported across a canal, it would prove to be worth much more than a clipped one. Therefore, with all the certainty that is possible in predictions about things that depend on the human will, one could predict that a bad coin will remain in that market which alone accepts it at the same price as a good one, and that a good coin will take such a form or go to such a place in which the benefit of its higher value will be obtained. #bitcoin #btc 📝 35770024…