re: #1050 rawmuse

Good morning, Lizards. Doing some reading up on Inflation (not massive erections) and I learned that coins got milled edges (the little notches on the sides of coins) because people were shaving the coins down. I have no idea what I shall do with this new find.

Yes, and there grew up an entirely new and novel way of “inflating” the currency, in the form of a practice known as dusting:

Briefly, a mass of silver or gold coins (silver worked best for this, but gold was more worth the effort) was placed inside a paper wrapping, loose enough to allow them to flop around and bang into each other. Several such packets were placed in a larger leater bag, tied shut at the top, and then a number of these bags would be placed in a barrel, fitted, like a rock tumbler, with rollers and a crank or other drive mechanism (millers were notorious for this practice - free water power).

At any rate, this whole mass would be allowed to rotate for some time and then the paper packets removed from the leather bags. The whole mess was dumped into water, and the coins fished out by hand. There would be a small, but worthwhile, amount of precious metal dust in the water, which could then be evaporated and leaving the metal dust behind. The paper wrappings were separated and burned in a crucible, then brought to white heat, fusing the metal left behind.

A simpler version just used the bags without