Inquiry: George Selgin: GOOD MONEY: commercial coins in Britain

• Artist: Mark Lynch
• Title: George Selgin: GOOD MONEY: commercial coins in Britain
• Album: Inquiry
• Length: 28:44 minutes (8.48 MB)
• Format: Stereo 44kHz 41Kbps (VBR)

In The late 1700s Britain ran out of change!!! There just were not enough pennies to go around. This meant that factory workers could not be paid and the Industrial Revolution was quickly grinding to a halt. To make matters worse, the Royal Mint just didn’t care, because minting lower denomination coins was beneath them. So what was a working person to do? Mint your own coins of course and these “commercial” coins became the accepted tender in Britain for many decades. Tonight on Inquiry, we talk with GEORGE SELGIN, the B.B.&T. Professor of Free Market Thought at West Virginia University about his entertaining history GOOD MONEY: BIRMINGHAM BUTTON MAKERS, THE ROYAL MINT AND THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN COINAGE 1775-1821.