I’m reading the last book of Neal Stephenson’s “Baroque Cycle” and I’m having trouble understanding one of the plot points. Jack the Coiner is working for France to undermine the currency of England and has incurred the wrath of Isaac Newton by counterfeiting guineas. But…he’s coining them out of actual gold. I’m confused as to how producing gold coins of equal value to the coins being replaced is going to debase the currency. Admittedly, there might be a loss in seigniorage if the value of the guinea is greater than the value of the gold it contains. But traditionally, counterfeiters make their money by striking coins out of base metal and disguising them as coins of greater value. Making the coins out of a metal of high intrinsic worth seems to defeat the purpose.
Anyone?
Wasn’t Jack taking the legit coins, melting them down and recasting them slightly lighter, thus making more coins.
It’s been over a year since I read this (awesome, awesome series though) and I believe Straun is right - the ending has a really long, tense scene having to do with scales and locked boxes and Newton on trial and such and I think the crux of the matter was “how did Jack get the mold” and " how much does X worth of money weigh - and why doesn’t this counterfeit money weigh the same?"
I remember being sort of exhausted by the ending 
Not so far as I recall. In fact, because Jack is using the “Solomonic” gold (taken from the sheathing of the Minerva’s hull), his coins are actually a bit heavier.
There is a different character in the book who was a “weigher” who would horde slightly overweight guineas and then, when he had enough, recast them, essentially getting a free guinea out of the process.
It’s some time since I read System of the World, but if I recall correctly, it worked something like this: Jack would make coins out of the Solomonic gold, which was slightly heavier than the usual stuff. This meant there was slightly less gold by volume in a Guinea that Jack made than in the ones from the Mint. This had three effects: the currency was debased (more coinage in circulation than made by the Mint), Newton could not really prove this was happening, and the gold from *Minerva’s * hull was effectively “laundered”.
Me too. I read the trilogy straight through (2700 pages!), and by the end my head was hurting. I love his use of language, but I’m aware that I probably didn’t grasp a lot of the plot.
It’s all to do with the Trial of the Pyx, isn’t it? The Mint keeps a sample of guineas from the source as the benchmark of purity - it is comparison with these that shows up forged guineas as being adulterated with base metal. Jack raids the Tower of London (and thus the Mint) with the express purpose of putting his “super pure” Solomonic Gold into the Pyx. Thus some guineas from the Pyx will appear to be forged (or at least adulterated); the benchmark no longer exists; sampling guineas in circulation will introduce an unknown level of adulteration into the equation; suddenly no man can be certain of the true value of his guineas; people become less willing to exchange goods for guineas; prices rise; England’s currency falls.
At the trial, Daniel’s machinations (and his co-option of the weigher and prestidigitator, Mr Threaver(?)) get Newton off the hook by “proving” the soundness of the coins in the Pyx.