Wisdom of the Ancients
“In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."
- G.K. Chesterton
One of the great pleasures that many, such as myself, take from coin collecting and numismatics is being able to appreciate the tangible link to the past that the objects we collect provides. For the most-part, they were everyday objects and knowing that they were handled and used by the people who lived in those times has always held a particular fascination for me. They are the remnants of the societal needs that brought them in to being and discovering more about this background often leads to a greater understanding of the contexts and pressures that were faced during those periods and informed their production and use. Even though we are separated by large spans of time from the people that used them, we are subject to many of those same influences, more so than we might at first think.
As G.K. Chesterton eluded to in the quote above, the knowledge of why ancient people developed the practices they did is often lost and discarding their tradition, without understanding it, foolish. It’s always going to be an inherently risky move to discard hard-won lessons of the past and forge an entirely new course. Yet, in the last half century, or so, modern societies have done just that with the money that they use. One of the key functions of whatever societies decided to utilize as money was almost always without exception its ability to store value. Not only in the sense that it could be saved and used in the future, but that it was of intrinsic value in and of itself. When the US Dollar’s convertibility to gold was ended in 1971, this historic function was finally snuffed out.
Whether there’s a need for money to be anything more than a fiat or token currency is hotly debated, but the faith placed in a solely fiat currency with little to no intrinsic value is distinctly modern. To those of us who still hold faith in the notion that our forebears had at least some idea of what they were doing, how modern societies have reconceptualized money is likely to be seen as an experiment, the eventual scale of the fallout from which is only to be guessed at. To my mind, there is no more stark example of where a difference between our monetary past and present can be powerfully instructive.
With all this in mind, I’d like to welcome you to Leamington Spa Coins new website. I hope to be able to use this blog section to explore the issues that surround the part that money has played in societies past and present and do so alongside some eye-catching images of historic coins that are relevant to them. Make sure to take a look at the Instagram page, give it a follow and stay updated on when the new blogs get posted. If you have any comments or ideas you’d be interested to see discussed in future posts feel free to drop us an email, I’d love to hear from you.