....BURNT ALIVE AT THE STAKE......18TH CENTURY BRITISH PUNISHMENT OF 'COINING' AND COUNTERFEITING

[ominus1]

i found this item an interesting read.....if they caught you...or found instruments of around you.. or had a witness...it wasn't gonna be healthy...

Edited October 26, 2022 by ominus1

[Victor_Clark]

 

the Romans tortured and burned counterfeiters--

 

“A reward is offered to the accusers of any persons who can be found to be counterfeiters of solidi or who are brought before the public authorities by anyone for this crime. Such criminals shall be delivered to the consuming flames immediately and without delay.” (18 Feb 343) Theodosian Code 9:21:5

[Ed Snible]

I recommend Thomas Levenson's Newton and the Counterfeiter.

https://thomaslevenson.com/newton-counterfitter

A 17th century 'police procedural' with the world's greatest scientist, Isaac Newton, abandoning physics and becoming a proto-detective in London's underworld.

It is a true story.

The book lacks photographs. Pages and pages are spent discussing hammered coins, why they could be clipped, and how they are different from milled coins. I would have appreciated a few photos but at least I know what the coins look like so it wasn't hard to follow the discussion. Levenson also explains the differences between good and poor quality fakes of hammered and milled coins, and discusses fake currency ('malt tickets'). I have never seen a fake English coins from this period and I've never seen a malt ticket, real or fake; photos of these would have been especially welcome.

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Ed Snible

[ominus1]

..but they did have mercy on women coiners...they strangled/hanged them before burning..0o0......

[Magnus Maximus]

On 10/26/2022 at 2:05 PM, Victor_Clark said:

 

the Romans tortured and burned counterfeiters--

 

“A reward is offered to the accusers of any persons who can be found to be counterfeiters of solidi or who are brought before the public authorities by anyone for this crime. Such criminals shall be delivered to the consuming flames immediately and without delay.” (18 Feb 343) Theodosian Code 9:21:5

Based 

[DonnaML]

On 10/26/2022 at 2:43 PM, ominus1 said:

i found this item an interesting read.....if they caught you...or found instruments of around you.. or had a witness...it wasn't gonna be healthy...

Unless I'm missing something, I don't see a link to the text. But I think this is it; the entire book of which this chapter is a part seems to be online: https://rictornorton.co.uk/gu12.htm . Quite fascinating. I enjoyed this edifying little story, which falls into the category of "Kids Say the Darndest Things" (for those of you who remember Art Linkletter):

"On 31 March 1774 Sir John Fielding sent five well-armed constables to apprehend a company of coiners in a house on Fish Street Hill. Eight men resisted, until one was shot in the head. They were discovered because the night before they had sent a little girl out to get some beer, and gave her some forged halfpence to pay for it; when the landlord observed to her that the coins were warm, she innocently replied ‘that her daddy had just made them’."