coins usually circulated far above metallic value, at a nominal value proclaimed by the sovereign (this is termed “nominalism”; the sovereign set the nominal value through proclamation, just like today’s pennies that are worth a cent), and their value was not necessarily stable: governments devalued them by “crying down the coin” (announcing they’d be accepted at half the former value in payments to government). They also “debased” them by reducing metallic content, which did not necessarily change their nominal value at all. To be sure, there are cases of relatively stable coinage and prices
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Coin aand value
