Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: USAGE: Currencies and -s

From:John Cowan <cowan@...>
Date:Friday, September 1, 2000, 5:26
On Thu, 31 Aug 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Raymond Brown wrote: > > But the trouble with gold coinage is that if inflation weakens the pound, > > the coin becomes worth more than its face value! > > That seems really odd to have a coin whose value changes.
Well, English money of that era was linked to silver: a pound weight of silver was actually worth 1 pound (of money). So think of the guinea coin as a gold bar stamped "This bar is worth 1 pound of silver." Since the relative value of gold and silver changes over time, it's not surprising that the label should become obsolete. -- John Cowan cowan@ccil.org "[O]n the whole I'd rather make love than shoot guns [...]" --Eric Raymond