Heard this saying comes from the process of making coins. One holds the die (fist) the other hold a hammer (hand). Anyone else heard this before?
Dates back to the earliest form of coin minting where the celator would sit before a block which held the reverse die in it. He would put the heated flan on the die hold the obverse die with one hand, formed around it like a fist, while striking the top of the die with a hammer in his other hand. Richard
I saw an episode of "Breaking Vegas" where a guy was an expert on conterfeiting casino tokens. He made the dies by hand and was able to get the alloy close enough that he could fool any of the slot machines. Can you imagine though, he started out in atlantic city and he made tokens from I think twelve different casinos, and in 2 or 3 denominations. The hours of work he must have put in, and he must have been a master craftsman!!! His downfall started when a casino did an inventory count of there tokens to see what they had lost from theft and people taking them home as souveneirs and found they had more of 2 denominations than they started with. They said this guys fakes were so good they have no idea how many are still out there!!:hammer:
Yes people do counterfeit the chips, that's why they change them on a regular basis and the old chips become void. As to the "hand over fist", maybe but I would also not be surpised if it comes from something else.
I think your correct conder101. Links that I googled. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hand-over-fist.html http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/27/messages/9 ..............................................John
