WEBVTT - Episode 2: No Silver Linings 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:09.479 This is an I Heart original, so picture this. It's 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:15.600 early January, it's cold and wet. You're cold and wet. 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:19.000 You're in London, close to the Thames, where the narrow 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:23.319 streets are filthy and prone to flooding. You decide to 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:27.240 head to a coffee house for a nice, warm dish 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:35.320 of coffee. Yes it is a dish. You approach the 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:38.479 bar and the woman behind it. A dish of coffee 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:42.040 goes for about a penny, but pennies really, all silver 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:46.360 coins are in short supply these days, so what are 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:51.839 you going to pay with? You plunge your freezing fingers 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:54.600 into your pocket. If you're a woman, this pocket is 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:56.680 a little pouch tied to your waist. And if you're 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.760 a man and your fashion forward, it's sewn into your clothes. 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.760 But let's be honest, you're definitely a man if you're 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:09.080 going to a coffeehouse, because most ladies weren't permitted. You 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:15.360 pull out a silver penny, an old, busted, handhammered silver 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:19.520 penny made before the restoration of the monarchy, some thirty 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:24.679 odd years prior. You place your penny on the counter nervously. 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:32.039 The coffee house made eyes it suspiciously. She picks it up, 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:35.120 testing the weight in her hand. It's a little bit thin, 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:38.520 the edges look worn. From what she can tell, the 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:40.559 king on it has been dead for more than half 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:46.559 a century. Is she going to accept it? Given where 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.720 we are in time, there's a very good chance that 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:55.840 she won't. So why would the coffeehouse maid reject your 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:02.680 busted penny money's money? Right? Well, yes and no, because 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:06.040 right about now, that's a bigger question than you might think, 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:08.960 and it's one that will dictate not only the career 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:15.200 of Isaac Newton, but also William Challoner. For I Heart Radio, 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.880 I'm Linda Rodriguez mcrabie and this is Newton's Law and 0:02:19.040 --> 0:03:04.120 I Heart Original podcast. You are making episode two, No 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:15.760 Silver Linings, Act one. For what it's worth, the coffee 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:19.160 house made might not take your coin because it's so degraded. 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:24.000 But the fact was, in early most of the coins 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:29.360 being traded throughout the country were degraded. England's currency is 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:31.800 in crisis. You know that if you spent a lot 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.520 of time in coffee houses, because these are places where 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.640 people talk, and one of the things people were definitely 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:42.000 talking about was the ongoing problems with the coinage, because 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.560 the terrible thing when a man cannot poaches a dish 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:48.040 of coffee for want of coin, I blame the mint. 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:54.839 Barely the thin worn coins. Shopkeepers refuse them, and one 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:58.600 can barely discern between counterfeits, and they've justly made. There 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.120 are rumors that Parlament men and the Treasury and the 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.360 men are all planning to do something about it, but 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:09.280 as yet they haven't. So while everyone holds their breath 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:12.680 and waits for whatever the government decides, the status of 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:17.200 your particular coin hangs in the balance. The coffee housemaid 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:19.880 can decide that your coin is simply too busted and 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:23.560 turn you down, but then that means she's missing out 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:27.400 on a sale, or she can accept a coin that 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:32.599 is possibly worthless, or at least worth less. So say 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:36.640 she does accept your battered coin, maybe against her better instincts, 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:39.560 and you get your dish of coffee. You settle down 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.080 at a table. There are a couple of newspapers and 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.880 gazettes and pamphlets around, and you listen to the chatter 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:50.640 I have heard. The doctor is Newton is to be 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.600 the warden of the mint. Indeed, I do hope you 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:56.120 should have more to do with the affairs of the 0:04:56.240 --> 0:05:01.880 mint than the last warden. Okay, what was going on 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:06.400 with the coinage? Well, we are going to get into 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:09.840 that big time because it's the reason for this whole shebang, 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.280 but we're going to first put that question on hold. 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:18.720 We're going to start with another question. What actually is 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:25.000 a coin? At its most basic coin is money a 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:29.160 representative way to store value. We can exchange that value 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.680 for other things, goods and services. So money is a 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:37.160 medium of exchange, a way to facilitate trade or purchasing. 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.240 And from way back in the day, metal was ideal 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.520 for this representative exchange function because it was something that 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:48.800 most people agreed had inherent value, It was easily transferable, 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:52.160 it was durable, and it was easily divisible on like 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:57.200 say a cow. Metal coins date back to around six 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:00.680 b C with the Lydians people and what's now to Turkey. 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.360 Minting started in Britain in the second century b C 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:06.280 with the various Celtic tribes, and then in a more 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.159 regular way with the Romans. There was a mint in 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.480 London dating from the third century, but then the Romans 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.680 left and London went through a kind of wild adolescence. 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:18.599 But By the time about For the Great, the ninth 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.800 century Anglo Saxon ruler who really laid the groundwork for 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.719 the unification of England's various sovereign states, there was a 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.360 working mint in the city turning out the kingdom's coins. 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.800 By the seventeenth century, England's monetary system was based on 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:38.520 a bi metallic standard, high denomination gold coins and lower 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:42.880 denomination silver coins, and the coins derived their value from 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.160 the actual weight of the gold or silver they contained. 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:50.719 A penny, for example, was worth a penny because that 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:53.560 was the value of the twenty four grains of silver 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:56.760 it contained. Because unlike today where we have coins and 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.440 we we just hand them over, the kinage in the 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.600 eighties six nineties relies on its weight in silver to 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:06.680 give it its value. That's Chris Parker, historian at the 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.840 Royal Mint. As in the same royal mint that Alfred 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:12.040 the Great started back in the ninth century and the 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.679 one that Newton becomes warden of in the seventeenth century, 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:17.800 and that still makes our coins now in the twenty 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:23.120 first century. Anyway, value based on weight seems very logical. 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:28.120 But here's the problem. By the sixteen nineties, many many 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:32.000 of the coins in circulation, like You're busted penny did 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.240 not contain the amount of silver their face value promised 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:37.680 they did. So if you had a coin that was 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.320 reduced in weight because it had silver removed from it, 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:42.400 it had lost some of its value, and you could 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:44.280 go to a shop and try and buy a shillings 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.520 worth of goods with a worn, battered, degraded shilling, the 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.400 shopkeeper isn't going to take that shillings value because he 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:53.320 can see it's lost weight. So as a huge problem 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:58.360 from an economic perspective that you're affecting trade. So, yeah, 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:04.440 you're lucky got that coffee, But why wouldn't your penny 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:07.960 contain those twenty four grains of silver? After all? Isn't 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:10.240 it the job of the Royal mint to make sure 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:14.800 that it did well? Yes, but in the six nineties 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:18.119 several long simmering problems had just come to the boil. 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:21.800 First start, many of the coins were so degraded because 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:25.880 the vast majority of those coins were hand hammered. Hand 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.360 Hammering was how coins had been made for pretty much 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:30.960 as long as there had been coins. This was an 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.200 imprecise process. Coins were never each quite the same. The 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.960 engravings were often off center. The edges weren't milled, meaning 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:40.280 they didn't have the finish or the grooves that you 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.440 see on modern coins. This irregularity meant that they degraded 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:48.800 or looked degraded more easily, and some people, a lot 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:55.440 of people took advantage of this. The easiest and perhaps 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:58.920 most damaging way people messed with the coinage was clipping. 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:02.040 People would him off a tiny amount of metal around 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:04.600 the edge of the coin, then hammer the coin thinner 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.120 to make up the size, and then they'd gather up 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.480 all those tiny silver shavings, combine them and melt them 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.880 down into bars or ingots and sell those off. This 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:16.559 was free money, and it was easy to get away 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:18.960 with because it was difficult to tell a coin that 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:22.560 was intentionally clipped from one that was just old. Everybody 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:24.520 was degrading the coinage because it was in such a 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.920 poor state anyway, and so once you get a majority 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.679 of people doing it, it's it sort of takes away 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.880 the stigma of doing something illegal, particularly when it's being 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:39.080 done by respected banker's shopkeepers. People were just doing it 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:44.120 on a regular basis. It sounds almost trivial, what's a 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:47.600 little off the edges, But This was a tremendous problem 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.959 because again it degraded the actual value of the coin 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:55.800 in your hand. Philosopher John Locke wrote, I do not 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.360 see how in a little while we shall have any 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:01.839 money or goods at all in England if clipping be 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:06.240 not immediately stopped. Clipping is a great leak, which for 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.560 some time past has contributed more to sink us than 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:13.640 all the forces of our enemies could do. Some Mark 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:18.240 and Newton included even suspected that foreign powers were trimming 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:23.200 English money just to synchronation that much faster. The terrible 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:25.720 state of the hand hammered coins also meant that they 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:29.720 were easier to counterfeit using less valuable materials. You didn't 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.200 even have to do a very good job. Well, if 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.080 you can imagine what you're trying to counterfeit is nothing 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.679 except a very very badly worn blank disc with some 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:42.040 vague images on it that's over a century old. Incredibly 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:44.480 easy because you don't have to be a very good artist, 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:46.480 You don't have to be a very good engraver. You 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.360 can knock up some incredibly substandard eyes and you can 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:52.400 put something out there that very easily resembles a batted, 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.760 worn shilling sixpence or half crown that was over a 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:02.200 century old. It wasn't that difficult. Counterfeiting and clipping often 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:05.640 went together. Sometimes clippers would melt down all those little 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:09.640 slivers of silver to use in counterfeiting new coins. Clipping 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.800 was so widespread that counterfeiters often clipped their own fakes 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:17.439 to make them seem more authentic and counterfeiting well. Counterfeiting 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:20.280 was so rampant that some estimates claimed that one out 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:25.679 of every ten coins in circulation was fake. That was 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.960 super bad for people at all levels of English society, 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:32.080 from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the butcher, baker 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.119 and candlestick makers. Not to mention the seventeenth century baristas. 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.360 Silver was the lifeblood of the economy. This is what 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.920 everyone would have used to pay for daily expenses. If 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.240 there wasn't enough of it to go around, or if 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:52.640 what there was was debased and distrusted costs rows astronomically, 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:58.960 economic life ground to a halt. The thing was, it 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:01.880 didn't have to be this way. The Mint had a 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:15.080 solution right there in its workshop. Act two. Msieur Blondeaux 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:22.920 and his marvelous machines. Peter blonde was an engineer at 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.160 the Paris Mint when he was noticed by England's Parliament 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:31.280 in sixte How and why he was noticed I don't 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:34.480 know that. The important part is that the Treasury Committee 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:38.200 believed that Blondo had worked on improving the French coin, 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.400 specifically with using these new machines to mill, press and 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:47.280 edge coins, and that he could be persuaded to come 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:52.920 to England. This was a year of massive political upheaval. 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:57.600 Charles the First was beheaded by the Parliamentarians, ending the monarchy. 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.760 Oliver Cromwell appeared in general ame Lord Protector of the 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:06.640 newly made Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Wales, and he 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:11.679 also canceled Christmas. The change in regime necessitated a change 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:15.440 in coins, after all. In addition to being a medium 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:20.440 of exchange, coins are also an easily disseminated reminder of 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:25.120 who's in charge. Blundo was invited by Parliament's Mint Committee 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:28.480 to demonstrate his milling and edging technique in sixteen fifty. 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.520 That year, after showing his very fine pieces to the committee, 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:37.120 Blundo published a pamphlet a bit of propaganda, describing the 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:42.520 benefits of his machinery. A humble representation of Peter Blundo, 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:47.360 followed by another a most humble memorandum from Peter Blunde. 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:53.000 Spoiler alert, these were not humble. Blondo started by pointing 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:57.000 out everything that was wrong with hand hammered coins. The 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.600 money coined with emma can not to be made exactly long, 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:04.719 nor equal in weight and bigness, and is often ghostly 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.959 marked and have many odds of folds, which gives a 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:12.400 great facility to the false coiners to counterfeit it also 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.959 to the clippers to clip it, it being very hard 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:22.840 to discern between eclipped piece in one note clipped. Blondo, 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:26.760 as the Treasury knew, had a better way. Milt coinage 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:30.120 was a German invention dating as far back as fifty 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:33.720 Instead of hammering an image into a blank coin, Milt 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:37.280 coining used a screw press to sink the engraving deep 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:40.200 into the metal. The innovation was brought to France, where 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.040 the mechanism was improved and adopted by the engineers at 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:47.800 the Paris meant the machines produced regularly sized and weighted 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:51.600 coins with precise images, which made them more difficult to counterfeit. 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.520 But Blondo's edging technique was the real start, allowing him 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.040 to put a grooved finish or even a phrase on 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.280 the edges. This would make a coin nearly impossible to 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:05.840 clip without detection. Blundo wasn't the first to introduce these 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.960 machines to the Royal Mint, however, previous attempts had largely failed, 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:12.200 and you can chalk that up to a few things. 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:14.600 The cost of setting up and running the new machines 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:17.560 was considerable, and they were rumored to break down easily. 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:22.640 There was also the English distrust of anything foreign, especially French. 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:26.520 But perhaps more significantly, there was the fact that the 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:31.479 Company of money Ears, more or less hereditary Union Slash Guild, 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.800 had had the exclusive contract with the Mint to produce 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:40.240 the coins for centuries, but in sixteen fifty the New 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.320 Commonwealth needed new coins, and the Treasury was willing to 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:47.440 give Blundo a chance. The money Ears for obvious reasons, 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:51.840 We're not It didn't help that Blundo not only wanted 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.920 their job and claimed they were rubbish at it, but 0:15:55.000 --> 0:16:00.000 he also accused the money Ears of corruption. In his pamphlets. 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.520 He alleged that the hammered coin fresh from the Mint 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:06.720 was of disparate weights, and that this was intentional and 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:10.960 it was the poor he said, who suffered for it, 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:15.200 which turns to the great ruin and destruction of commerce 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:20.080 and undoing those poor people who spend their money little 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.960 by little. Blondo was essentially accusing the money Ears of 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:29.080 serious corruption, of fraud. This really piste them off, of course, 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:30.880 and they came back with a pamphlet of their own, 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:37.120 a most humble remonstrance for Peter blonde Also not humble. 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.640 The moneyers responded that Blondo couldn't do anything that they 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:44.680 couldn't already do, branded him a liar, and slammed him 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.440 for daring to claim that the money they made was 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:52.480 ill favoredly coined. Blondo, they said, not only maligned the 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:55.200 good name of the company of money Ears, but also 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:58.320 most falsely to imprint in the hearts and minds of 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:02.160 all people in Christendom, and more especially the good people 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:05.639 under the obedience of the Parliament of England, that the 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:11.320 monies of this Commonwealth are not justly made. Blondeau was 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:15.520 undermining not only English confidence in the currency, but global 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:20.280 confidence in it as well with his force and scandalous libels. 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.639 In sixteen fifty one, the Treasury decided to settle the 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:29.439 matter with a competition a money off. Treasury officials said, fine, 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.960 each of you design and make a half crown, a 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.040 shilling and sixpence coin, and we'll see which ones are better. 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.600 David Rammage, the provost of the moneyers, was their champion. 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.800 Provost was an elected position, meaning that Rammage was a 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:48.000 man of some reputation and power. And now in the 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:52.399 Great money Off of sixty one, this reputation and the 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.080 reputation of the company and its contract with the Mint 0:17:55.480 --> 0:18:00.800 was on the line. I mustn't file damn that frenchman's 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:13.919 block ready set money make Brammage made the coins in 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:16.119 the way that they always had, Using a hammer in 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.359 his own hands, he placed the plan, set the blank 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:26.159 coin on the anvil die to get the alignment perfect. 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:31.119 Holding the top die in place, he swung the hammer, 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:34.000 bringing it down on the die and stamping the image 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:45.680 into the metal. One done, h two oh three. Blundo 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:53.600 and his team meanwhile got his machines rolling one two, three, 0:18:54.760 --> 0:19:14.720 ten seconds remaining. I. By the end of the allotted time, 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:18.679 Rammont had made twelve coins, twelve coins that were a 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:22.560 bit wonky, that didn't quite look all the same, twelve 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.520 coins that looked like most of the money passed throughout 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:31.120 the Kingdom, which is to say not great. Blondo meanwhile 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:36.679 made three hundred coins, three hundred perfectly weighted, regularly sized 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:40.760 coins of impeccable quality and design, complete with a lettered 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:44.200 edge that no clipper could clip. On the half crown piece, 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:49.400 it read truth in Peace Ste Peter Blonde's inventor facet 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:54.479 That's Latin for he made congratulations to Mont Senior Blondo 0:19:55.040 --> 0:20:05.040 and his marvelous machines. Ram failed Blundo one. But despite 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:09.200 the fact that Blondo's machines were clearly superior, the treasury 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.200 passed on them. They just couldn't afford it. After all, 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:18.639 it takes money to make money. But then a stroke 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.960 of luck, the English fleet captured a load of Spanish 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:24.440 treasure at the Battle of Cadiz in sixteen fifty six, 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:27.440 and suddenly the Commonwealth was able to pay for Blondo 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:32.480 and his machines. But then Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell's death 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:35.600 in sixteen fifty eight more or less ended the protector 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:40.440 at experiment, and it left Blundo without well a protector. 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.240 He shipped his machinery off to Edinburgh and himself back 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:46.960 to France, and he would have stayed there too, had 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:49.560 it not been for the terrible quality of the coins 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:53.280 minted for the restoration. King Charles the second Blundo was 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:56.800 invited back in sixteen sixty two, and this time given 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:00.000 a twenty one year contract. The money ears might even 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:02.520 have gotten to keep their jobs too, because these machines 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:06.200 still needed skilled men to run them. So the monarchy's 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:11.320 back blunders back and Christmass back to Huzza. Things should 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:29.119 have been good, right whoa not so much? Act three 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:34.200 Fighting the Silver Bullet. In sixteen sixty three, Samuel Peeps, 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:37.439 the famous diary writer, a guy who was everywhere in 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:41.479 the seventeenth century, toured the mince facilities. This was just 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:44.680 after Blundo set up shop. Some of the machines were 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:47.400 meant to be secret, but Peeps was a man who 0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:51.199 knows some people. He later becomes one of Newton's closest friends. 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:54.040 We were sharing this method of making new money from 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:58.120 the beginning to the end, which is so pretty. They 0:21:58.160 --> 0:21:59.880 say that this way is more charged to the king 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:02.320 in the old way, but it is meter freeer from 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:05.439 clipping or counterfeiting. The putting of the words upon the 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:07.240 edge is not to be done without an engine of 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.040 the charge, and noise that no counterfeit will venture upon, 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:13.399 and it employs as many men as the old and 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:17.680 speedy for the next thirty years. The Mint used these 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:20.600 machines to make the coins when they made the coins, 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.240 which wasn't an all the time kind of thing. If 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:25.880 you want a sense of what made Peep so giddy, 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:32.160 listen to Chris Barker describe how they worked. The Mint 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:34.719 will get the raw bullion coming in and then they 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:37.840 will melt down the gold and silver and they will 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:41.399 cast them out into thin strips to get them to 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:45.359 the correct thickness for coining. The next part of the 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:49.520 processes you put them through a machinery which actually blanks them. 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:52.440 So you're getting the blank discs out of that strip 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:55.879 of metal, and they'll be weighed to make sure that 0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:58.880 the correct weight, and then you've got a sufficient blank 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:02.000 and ready for processing. You will end up striking the 0:23:02.040 --> 0:23:06.920 coin using something called screw press, a ginormous t shape. 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.840 The blank was sandwiched between the dyes which carried the images. 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:13.800 One was on the end of the tea and one 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:16.520 was on the anvil. Two strong men would turn the 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:23.399 screw press, wishing the blank in between the person you're 0:23:23.400 --> 0:23:25.240 gonna reserve your sympathy for as a gentleman who's doing 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:27.320 the putting the blanks on and flicking the finished coin 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:30.480 all or off, because they've had their fingers crushed repeatedly 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:33.320 by having several tons descend on them as they're trying 0:23:33.320 --> 0:23:39.520 to put blanks and flicked finished coins off. Finally you 0:23:39.600 --> 0:23:50.680 get a finished coin after that striking process. The smaller 0:23:50.720 --> 0:23:54.040 coins had a milled grooved edge, and the larger coins 0:23:54.040 --> 0:23:57.720 had a phrase decks at tutaman, which was Latin for 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:01.639 a decoration and a safeguard. Fun fact, this phrase was 0:24:01.680 --> 0:24:04.280 on the coins until two thousand seventeen when the new 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:08.360 pound coin was introduced and the machines did do what 0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:12.000 Blondo promised they would. It was harder to clip a 0:24:12.000 --> 0:24:16.000 machine mild coin, and it was harder to counterfeit them, 0:24:16.080 --> 0:24:21.360 and yet clipping and counterfeiting persisted. In fact, they got worse. 0:24:22.359 --> 0:24:29.280 Why because the Treasury never recalled the old hand hammered coins. Honestly, 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:31.640 it is exactly like the scene in foulter Geist when 0:24:31.640 --> 0:24:34.359 Craig T. Nelson is all, you moved the cemetery, but 0:24:34.520 --> 0:24:37.800 you left the bodies, didn't you. And just like in 0:24:37.880 --> 0:24:41.080 foulter geist. The old coins caused all kinds of problems. 0:24:41.840 --> 0:24:44.880 This basically left two sets of coinage in the country, 0:24:45.119 --> 0:24:48.640 the good new machine mild coins and the bad old 0:24:48.640 --> 0:24:53.280 hand hammered coins, and both were legal tender. Silver was 0:24:53.320 --> 0:24:56.280 still being clipped off the old coins and much the 0:24:56.359 --> 0:25:00.200 time leaving the country to be sold elsewhere. Counter Fit 0:25:00.200 --> 0:25:03.119 coins flourished because your basic coiners could still do a 0:25:03.160 --> 0:25:07.639 brisk business knocking out messy hand hammered coins. Meanwhile, some 0:25:07.800 --> 0:25:11.080 clever if you like William Chaloner had figured out how 0:25:11.119 --> 0:25:17.760 to fake these supposedly unfakeable coins. Compounding the problem. People merchants, 0:25:17.840 --> 0:25:22.880 especially tended to hoard the good coins. Chris Barker, You've 0:25:22.880 --> 0:25:26.639 got these brand new, lovely regular coins. What are you 0:25:26.720 --> 0:25:30.320 going to do. If you're a normal individual who sees 0:25:30.320 --> 0:25:33.000 these coming into coming into them through the banks and 0:25:33.040 --> 0:25:35.439 through their change. You're not going to use and spend 0:25:35.440 --> 0:25:38.200 those brand new coins. You're going to hold them because 0:25:38.200 --> 0:25:40.199 you know they have a good value. So if you're 0:25:40.240 --> 0:25:42.760 slightly and scrupulous, what you'll do is you melt down 0:25:42.760 --> 0:25:44.760 the good coins because you know exactly the way, you 0:25:44.760 --> 0:25:47.720 know exactly the fineness. You can create bullion, which you 0:25:47.760 --> 0:25:53.040 can then sell onto the continent as a profit. The 0:25:53.080 --> 0:25:56.120 price of silver had recently gone up in some markets, 0:25:56.160 --> 0:25:59.639 meaning that silver was worth more as buoy on the 0:25:59.760 --> 0:26:03.280 raw metal basically in continental Europe than it was as 0:26:03.359 --> 0:26:07.359 face value coins in England. This is what's called arbitrage, 0:26:07.400 --> 0:26:10.720 which is basically exploiting the difference in price commodities fetch 0:26:10.800 --> 0:26:15.200 in different markets for a profit. So English silver is 0:26:15.240 --> 0:26:19.240 being sold for continental gold, leaving only the bad, old, 0:26:19.320 --> 0:26:22.119 degraded coins in the hands of the people, and by 0:26:22.160 --> 0:26:25.560 the sixteen nineties it was estimated that only one out 0:26:25.560 --> 0:26:29.359 of every two hundred coins was a machine milled coin. 0:26:30.000 --> 0:26:33.399 The rest were old and busted and below weight or 0:26:33.480 --> 0:26:36.959 just straight up fake. What all of this added up 0:26:36.960 --> 0:26:40.679 to the clipping the counterfeiting the arbitrage markets was that 0:26:40.720 --> 0:26:44.359 there was a serious shortage of silver, and the longer 0:26:44.400 --> 0:26:47.840 the old coins stayed in circulation, the longer clippers and 0:26:47.840 --> 0:26:51.640 coiners stayed in operation, and the supply of silver coins 0:26:52.080 --> 0:26:56.119 perpetually shrank. By now, the stock of real silver coins 0:26:56.119 --> 0:26:58.960 from the pennies to the crowns had dwindled almost to 0:26:59.000 --> 0:27:02.119 the point of extinct. That might explain why the coffee 0:27:02.119 --> 0:27:04.720 has made took your penny. She didn't know when she'd 0:27:04.720 --> 0:27:09.879 see another. The situation became more problematic after the so 0:27:09.960 --> 0:27:14.800 called Glorious Revolution of which removed the Catholic King James 0:27:14.800 --> 0:27:17.600 the Second from the throne and put his Protestant daughter 0:27:17.680 --> 0:27:20.720 Mary and her husband, the Dutch Prince William of Orange 0:27:21.000 --> 0:27:27.920 on it. The new regime needed new coins. These are 0:27:27.960 --> 0:27:32.200 a representation of royal authority and royal power even back then. 0:27:32.359 --> 0:27:34.080 Still for a lot of people in rural area, is 0:27:34.080 --> 0:27:36.560 the only sort of representation that they would have of 0:27:36.640 --> 0:27:42.200 the monarchy. You want to have this image of authority 0:27:42.240 --> 0:27:44.760