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DEON GOUWS: The incredible shrinking pound
The sterling crisis of 2022 could go down in history as second only to the ‘Great Recoinage’ of 1696 — the subject of Kwasi Kwarteng’s PhD
20 October 2022 - 05:00
Remember the good old days before contactless payments, when people still used notes and coins to pay for stuff?
Cast your mind back far enough, and there was a time when the coin in one’s pocket actually had intrinsic value equivalent to that of the bullion used in minting it. This inevitably led to abuse: people would shave metal from the coin’s circumference while continuing to circulate it at face value (an act known as clipping)...
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