Exactly. The mint is as moribund as the Post Office was. That’s why Vetenari is wanting to get it up and running again.
As a sort of aside to this which I think the people in this thread would be able to answer: I am trying to find a discworld quote.
The basic idea expressed is that Ankh-Morpork didn’t need a large standing army, because if any other country ever invaded, the city would just call in its debts from the offending country. This was deterent enough to stave off invasion quite frequently. I think the same paragraph mentions how most of any invading army’s weapons would also have been made in Ankh-Morpork.
Or something to that affect. I thought it might be in Going Postal, but I suppose Thud would also be a possibility. Anyone?
… I loved Moist’s daring escape
working for days on end to remove a brick… only to find another brick behind it. And learning that going through the grille would only trap you as well.
That line, which may be revisited, is much earlier than that. Possibly Rincewind era.
The quote is actually from Feet of Clay.
Sounds more like something out of Jingo.
Bringo. Thanks!
But back on topic, yay for a sequal to Going Postal. That was my 3rd favorite book, right behind a first-place tie of *Small Gods * and Night Watch.
I guess what I really meant was, what CAN be done regarding the money situation in Ankh-Morpork? Coins don’t seem to be an option, neither do notes, and in any event the city has somehow been getting along all this time. Maybe Ankh-Morpork has a perpetual balance of trade problem but that’s not within the mint’s purvue.
But notes are an option. At the end of Going Postal, Vetinari explains to Gilt (or to von Lipwig, I’m not sure) that with the increasing use of postage stamps as functional currency (a stamp can change hands as many as ten times before it’s attached to a letter), “People are getting away from the idea that money has to be shiny.” That’s where he sees new potential for the mint. IOW, he wants to introduce paper money, like they’ve got in the Agatean Empire. Of course, that brings its own potential pitfalls, and it will be interesting to see what Pterry does with them.
When the series started out – with The Light Fantastic and The Colour of Magic – the Discworld was a lot like Conan’s Hyborian Age; now it’s more like 18th-Century Europe. I remember when Vetinari says, “Yes, I think it’s the arena for you, Rincewind.” (Unless he serves as Twoflowers’ tour guide.) Implying something like a Roman arena, where condemned criminals are fed to hungry predators. Last we ever heard of that!
Yeh but stamps are usually too low in denomination to be worth a counterfeiter’s efforts, plus all the stamp collectors out there comprise in effect a volunteer army of counterfeit detectors. You could probably do a cost-effectiveness study that would determine how valuable a note has to be before it’ll be counterfeited in large numbers.
Oh heck, I’ll just read the book and find out. Knowing how things are run in Ankh-Morpork, they’ll probably just put out a handful of notes and let the counterfeiters be the city’s engraving bureau.
They have coins – the “Ankh-Morpork dollar” – there’s just not very much gold in them – as was made clear very early in The Colour of Magic. That’s why Twoflowers’ Agatean rhinu are worth so much – they’re solid gold.
That’s why it makes sense to put the project under someone like von Lipwig, who knows all the tricks when it comes to forgery. He invented the pre-printed postage stamp precisely because, before that, the Post Office showed postage had been paid on a letter by applying a rubber ink-stamp in the office, and “Any kid with half a potato could forge this!”
Or they’ll hire the counterfeiters directly. It definitely seems as if Mr. Lipwig might have some acquaintances of that persuasion (as well as other unsavory persuasions). I doubt that Ankh-Morpork would cavil at small-time counterfeiters anyway. The only reason the Trunk embezzlers got into trouble was because of the SCALE of their larceny. You kind of get the feeling that petty larceny is an export commodity for Morporkians, in the same way that musical touring companies are an export commodity for New Yorkers…
Knowing Vetinari, he would find some way to estimate the number of counterfeit dollars produced in a year, and simply take that figure into account in his money-supply policy. It’s similar to his policy of holding down the crime rate by licensing the Thieves’ Guild.
/nitpick
It is generally assumed that it was the Patrician Snapcase during The Color of Magic. The book always refers to the character as “the Patrician”. It is not known exactly what year Vetinari came to power and Snapcase was pushed out, but this dialog is definitely not that of the skilled politician Vetinari, and is more in the bully-style of Snapcase.
Plus I believe Color of Magic describes the Patrician as grossly fat, which Vetinari certainly isn’t.
Similarly the Patrician in Mort throws large balls, one of which Death attends just to try to get some idea of what FUN is, whereas Vetinari never has any balls - there’s a popular song to that effect, in fact. 
Well, Mort obviously takes place at least 25 years or so before the present time.
From The Annotated Pratchett File lspace.org
I prefer the Snapcase theory, myself (to be fair, maybe Terry himself has accepted this alternative past. Certainly Night Watch seems to reflect this). And it makes the timelines fit better 
Si
Sure. Mort himself has had time to live out his remaining 15-16 years, and Susan has lived several years past that (the death of Mort and Ysabell was recent history in Soul Music and rather further in the past in Hogfather and Thief of Time). Rincewind was obviously an incompetent young wizard in the first book and is now an incompetent middle-aged wizard.