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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 988404, member: 57463&quot;]Interesting thread and thanks, andyscouse, for the links!&nbsp; I like large coppers and pick them out of junk boxes often: Mexico 50 centavos, UK pence, 19th century France and Italy, Bank of Upper Canada, and so on.&nbsp; In another topic, I mentioned buying a bag of UK pence a long while back and still give them out along with real money as tips in the coffee shop, etc.,&nbsp; I used them as &quot;unit coins&quot; (&quot;challenge coins&quot;) when I worked for a couple of security firms.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>So far, no one mentioned intrinsic value.&nbsp; Putting the king&#039;s image and name (or the city&#039;s name) on coins was more to glorify the king than to guarantee the coin which circualted by its own weight and fineness, especially when a count ruled an area only 20 miles on a side, or bishop ruled only a cathedral city.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Making coins money of account only began about 1540-1550 with Henry III or IV of France -- Ian corrects me on this all the time; I never get it right -- when the &quot;franc&quot; coin declared its legal value.&nbsp; There were antecedents, of course.&nbsp; Ancient Greek coins from Kolophon, I think, little bitty silvers had an Epsilon or Eta to show the fraction of a drachmon because the coin was too small to judge on its own conveniently (or so we think).&nbsp; The Roman denarius had a X to show that it was X aes (&quot;asses&quot; but we avoid that with &quot;aes&quot;) ten bronze standard &quot;as&quot; weight coins.&nbsp; But those were exceptions to the long history.</p><p><br /></p><p>In fact, the first US Federal gold coins did not have denominations on them.&nbsp; The half dollar had 1/2 (1796-1797), but did not have a denomination until 1807.&nbsp; The dollar coins (patterns) had no denomination until 1840.&nbsp; Coins spoke for themselves.</p><p><br /></p><p>They glorified the king, but he wasn&#039;t making any promises...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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