And the reason why the more valuable coins have milled edges was that any attempt to clip these coins would be instantly apparent - so the coins would be sure to retain their face values. This was particularly important, in the case of golden sovereigns and other very high value coins.
Ann in Manchester, UK ----- Original Message ----- From: "Liz Beecher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "lace Arachne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 7:45 AM Subject: Re: [lace] Defacing coins - was expensive bobbin > Right, why is it illegal to deface coins? One of the reasons was > because of 'clipping' which was prevalent in during Tudor and Stuart > England (actually clipping was also illegal during the Romans and on > wards but as I understand it the main law we have now was passed during > the Tudor and Stuarts - sorry digressing). > > Right, clipping was where a small amount of the edge of a coin was > clipped off and put to one side. > > Up until recently (mid 1700s if I'm right but don't shout at me), coins > were made of semi-precious and precious metals. So, if you clipped a > small amount from each coin you could end up with some metal which was > commercially resellable. > > Clippers got greedy and would clip off too much of the metal at one time > so that that the coin was severely mis-shaped and as the value of the > coin was in the metal - it was now no longer worth the face value. > > This and the eventual fall in metal prices moved the UK to change the > metal that it used for it's coins to base metal as a silver sixpence was > then worth more than sixpence and either they devalued the coinage or > they reduced the size of the coin to meet the value which meant we would > have had really small coins. > > So, that's one of the reasons why it was illegal to deface a coin. > > If I remember rightly, clipping was punishable initially by removal or > breaking of fingers, then briefly by removal of hand, then > transportation or death. It was taken that seriously. > > - > To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: > unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
