Fineness and Debasement

B03　—　Cross-cutting theme

The contents of “the same coin” quietly shrink.

Supervised by: Mitsuru Hayama　／　Reading time (main text): course text ~8 min + textbook ~32 min = ~40 min　／　Beyond the text: 12 exercises · 6 coins · 12 readings · 2 references

What this course teaches you to do

• You can explain, stage by stage, the order in which fineness falls.
• You can tell the two kinds of "recoinage" apart: the lowering and the restoring.
• You can say what troubled a country after it lowered its fineness.
• You can treat the stated fineness and the content of coins that actually circulated as two different things.
• Can explain the cases of Rome, Germany, and Japan by placing them within the 'sequence' established in Sections 1-3.
• Can name, in chronological order, technologies for detecting fraudulent fineness, such as the touchstone and the reeded edge.

TEXTBOOK

Lessons (8)

1. Lowered in steps, never in one goLower it in steps so no one notices; restore it at a stroke so trust returns.
2. Bad money walks the world, having no homeGood money hides, bad money travels. Wide circulation is no proof of quality.
3. What troubles a state after it debases"Recoinage" runs both ways: lowering and restoring. The same word covers both — check the direction.
4. The same failure: where, and how many timesLaws made while the failure is fresh do work. But counts show the amount written, not the number of events.
5. Rome — A Long Decline of Over Two Hundred YearsThe core issue was not a single debasement, but the more than two hundred years of being unable to recover. Time determines the magnitude of the cost.
6. Kipper- und Wipperzeit — An Era of Tipping the ScalesWhen debasement becomes a competition, the slope becomes a cliff. "Little by little" is the luxury of a monopoly.
7. Genroku and Shōtoku — The Rationale for Debasement, the Price of RestorationThe cost of a recoinage that restores quality is not just monetary. Restoring the quality tightens the money supply, causing the economy to contract.
8. The Art of Assaying — From Touchstones to Milled EdgesThe better the assaying technology, the less room there is for debasement. Delays in detection are ultimately paid for by the state.

Case studies — applied in the materials (12)

• The Great Debasement　Britain　1544–1551　The London mint
  The source of the figure in §1. Check in the original how it was lowered step by step.
• The lion daalder goes out into the world　Netherlands　from 1575　A harbour in the Low Countries
  §2. The clearest statement of why bad money sets out to travel.
• The Coinage Act of 1792　United States　1792　The Coinage Act, the penalty clause
  The clause making debasement a capital crime. Read it against the failure just before, to see why it was made so heavy.
• The age of picking coin　Japan　1485–1500　The Ouchi castle town and Kyoto
  Japan's erizeni edicts. A record of what the authorities did once people began sorting coins.
• The coinage of the Roman province of Gaul　France　the 1st–3rd centuries　An imperial mint
  Source of the figures in Section 5. A period of over two hundred years, from nearly pure silver to two percent, is contained in a single paragraph.
• Kipper und Wipper　Germany　1619–1623　The changers' counters of the territories
  Section 6. The two verbs that gave an era its name, and the scene of scales at a shopfront.
• The century of recoinage　Japan　1714　Edo
  Section 7. The price paid by those who restored the fineness is described most frankly.
• Newton's Great Recoinage　Britain　1696　The mint in the Tower of London
  Section 8. The cost ultimately paid by the country that was slow to detect it. The eve of Newton's appearance.
• The century of recoinage　Japan　1695　Edo
  The source of the figures in Section 7. From eighty-seven to fifty-seven—see in the original text the magnitude of the amount moved by a single line of the proclamation.
• South, and to the sea (2)　Portugal　the later 14th century　The royal mint
  Raising taxes would cause conflict with parliament, but debasing the coinage could be done by the king's decree alone. The reason this method was chosen is described from the king's perspective. Please also note the line about why the name was not changed.
• The Portrait King　Mexico　1772–　Spanish Royal House
  The fineness established by the royal edict of 1497 was lowered in 1728 and 1772, and this was not publicly announced. Please read the fractions as they are to understand what was happening behind the scenes while the world continued to believe in the same fineness.
• Light as elm seeds　China　206–180 BC　A market in the early Han
  As a result of the government authorizing private minting, coins became lighter even though no one was doing anything illegal. Please read to understand how a situation arose where a coin marked 'han-ryo' would feel light in the hand.

Assessment

12 exercises in this course (7 check, 1 compare, 4 written). Progress is recorded by self-assessment.

References

• Isaac Newton, Warden and Master of the Royal Mint 1696-1727 — The Royal Mint Museum　A primary account of the Great Recoinage of 1696. Newton became Warden of the Mint in 1696, and Master of the Mint from 1699 until his death (1727). He emphasized the accuracy of weight and fineness, and completed the recoinage in 3 years.
• History of Japanese Currency. — Currency Museum, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan.　Commentary by period from antiquity (late 7th century onwards) to the modern era. Commodity money before the Wadōkaichin, imported coins (Toraisen) and Bitasen, currency units and exchange rates of the Edo period, the birth of the Yen and the gold standard.

Only works and primary sources whose existence has been verified are listed.