To be familiar with "coin-clipping," it helps to be as old as me and able to remember a time when coins were made of precious metals like gold and silver. In that setting it was possible to shave a little metal from the rim of the coin to refashion into another coin (or to sell as bullion). It was the practice of coin-clipping that led coin manufacturers to introduce "milled" edges, so that clipping could be detected without weighing the coins.
I was reading today about the "Hoxne hoard," which included almost 15 THOUSAND Roman gold, silver, and bronze coins. Apparently clipping was rampant in that era; almost every silver siliqua in the hoard has been clipped. I found it interesting that a second reason was given for coin clipping: "a deliberate attempt to maintain a stable ratio between gold and silver coins."
By "milled" do you mean "reeded?"
ReplyDeleteWikipedia offers the terms as equivalent. I'm not sure if that's precisely correct.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coin_clipping
Weighing of coins was a practice that could defeat clipping but folks wouldn't bother to weigh coins for minor purchases it wasn't worth the effort.
ReplyDelete