From: psperson@old.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Thu, 19 Feb 2026 07:59:21 -0800, Paul S Person   
    wrote:   
      
      
      
   >The  is produced   
   >by the Austrian mint (among others) and is used in a lot more places   
   >than I thought before reading that article, apparently always dated   
   >1780. Yet both Maria Theresa and the Holy Roman Empire have been gone   
   >for quite some time.   
      
   For those who think the cost of minting a penny has anything to do   
   with it's usefulness or whether it should continue to be minted:   
   the Maria Theresa is solid silver. Even if it's economic value is   
   equal to that of the amount of silver in it, the cost of making it   
   will be more than that.    
      
   Keep in mind that, originally, many of the words used for coins were   
   measures of /weight/. It is not necessary to go back to BC and refer   
   to the talent; the British /pound/ was originally a pound of sterling   
   silver.    
      
   The original coins were the given weight of the given material; they   
   cost more than that to make; but, at least in theory, they were   
   convenient because they did not have to be weighed, the official   
   stamping guaranteed the weight.   
      
   Of course, forgery, coin-clipping, adulteration, and other financial   
   crimes followed, if not immediately, then quite soon.   
      
   This would have been one of the concerns behind ensuring correct   
   weights and measures, which exists to this day in some contexts.   
   --    
   "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,   
   Who evil spoke of everyone but God,   
   Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)