That's super interesting! Of note, the book Quicksilver (First book in the Baroque Cycle) goes into a few diatribes about subtle differences in coins in Europe

That's super interesting! Of note, the book Quicksilver (First book in the Baroque Cycle) goes into a few diatribes about subtle differences in coins in Europe a few hundred years ago; eg coins being valued by metrics other than their face value. Eg: > “I say, Daniel, is it true what they say, that those coins are perfectly circular?” > “They are, Isaac—not like the good old English hammered coins that you and I carry in such abundance in our pockets and purses.” ... >“if someone clips or files a bit of metal off the edge of a round coin with a milled edge, it is immediately obvious.” > “That must be why everyone is melting those new coins down as fast as they are minted, and shipping the metal to the Orient…?” Daniel began, > “…making it impossible for the likes of me and my friend to obtain them,” Isaac finished. > “Now there is a good idea—if you can show me coins of a bright silver color—not that black stuff—I’ll weigh them and accept them as bullion.” > “Bullion! Sir!” > “Yes.” > “I have heard that this is the practice in China,” Isaac said sagely. “But here in England, a shilling is a shilling.” > “No matter how little it weighs!?” > “Yes. In principle, yes.” > “So when a lump of metal is coined in the Mint, it takes on a magical power of shillingness, and even after it has been filed and clipped and worn down to a mere featureless nodule, it is still worth a full shilling?” > You exaggerate,” Daniel said. “I have here a fine Queen Elizabeth shilling, for example—which I carry around, mind you, as a souvenir of Gloriana’s reign, since it is far too fine a specimen to actually spend. But as you can see, it is just as bright and shiny as the day it was minted—” > “Especially where it’s recently been clipped there along the side,” the lens-grinder said. > “Normal, pleasing irregularity of the hand-hammered currency, nothing more.”