Coin Clippage; The art of stealing Money

Sure of their qualities and demanding praise, more go to ruined fortunes than are raised.
Alexander Pope 1688-1744, British Poet, Critic, Translator

Coin Clipping: The Audacious Art of Currency Deception

Dec 12, 2024

In the golden days of literal gold-backed transactions, even the sharpest coin couldn’t escape the scheming hands of fraudsters. Merchants and crooks chipped away at coins or replaced their precious contents with lead, proving that humanity’s knack for trickery is as old as time. Fast forward to today, and the same dirty tricks have gone from sleight-of-hand to sleight-of-policy, masterminded by the ultimate schemers: central banks.

The Feds’ Modern-Day Coin Clipping Scheme

Forget subtlety. The Feds didn’t bother shaving coins—they obliterated the gold standard outright. They realized the world was gullible enough to swallow the idea that gold was archaic and worthless. Once gold-backed currency was dead, they replaced real value with paper dreams. Even if Fort Knox is stocked to the brim with gold (and let’s be real, it’s probably lead bricks), the US dollar’s purchasing power has been obliterated. For gold to back the dollar at its true value, prices would skyrocket by thousands—yet the masses remain in a daze, clapping for their own robbers like obedient drones.

The truth? The Federal Reserve has refined the art of daylight robbery. They’ve studied history’s monetary collapses like a playbook and perfected a system that drains wealth while the average Joe cheers on their executioners. Don’t wait for an awakening—it’s not coming. Instead, prepare for my follow-up essay, where I’ll reveal the chilling disconnect between investor sentiment and the true value of gold, based on a month’s worth of boots-on-the-ground research.

Why Central Banks Are Winning and You’re Losing

Today’s central bankers are as ruthless as the coin clippers of old, but with infinitely more power and finesse. Inflation is their weapon—a silent tax that devours savings and compels reckless spending. Governments champion this theft under the guise of “social programs,” while finance ministers stand complicit. The result? A credit-addicted society is conditioned to believe that borrowing equals wealth.

But the winds are shifting. A Kondratiev Winter looms, and debt will become a dirty word when it bites. As interest rates soar and defaults rise, even the most cunning lending institutions will face ruin. The domino effect will expose the fragility of our debt-fueled economy. Just look at Westpac Banking Corporation’s naive propaganda, encouraging renters to become over-leveraged homeowners with promises of eternal price appreciation. Spoiler alert: greed and fear are the twin engines driving this madness—fear of being left behind and greed for fleeting gains.

What’s Next: A Battle Between Value and Debt

Value isn’t debt—it’s intrinsic, immutable, and untethered to the whims of policymakers. The perpetual clipping of currencies through relentless money printing has blinded generations to the true cause of inflation. Rising prices are the symptom, not the disease. The disease is a currency system built on quicksand. Fiat currencies, historically, collapsed within 30 years. That timer is ticking.

As Ludwig von Mises aptly warned, credit expansion leads to only one destination: collapse. The question isn’t if the system will implode—whether the crash comes sooner, through voluntary restraint, or later, as an irreversible catastrophe. Either way, the writing is on the wall.

Cold, Calculating, and Unbiased: The Only Way Forward

Survival in this market demands ruthlessness. Forget the kumbaya of standing together—it’s winner-takes-all. For every dollar won, someone else loses. The only path forward is to trade without bias and invest with precision. Sentiment and principles won’t protect you, but cold calculation will.

The time to panic is over. The time to act is now.

The Holey Dollar
by John Tyler

The “Holey” Dollar: A Historical Tale of Monetary Alchemy

No, it’s not a typo—I meant “Holey” rather than “Holy,” though the dollar is practically worshipped by many as a modern deity. But the dollar I’m referring to is a relic of economic ingenuity: the Holey Dollar, a prime example of creative currency manipulation that predates the now-infamous defilement of fiat currency.

In 1809, Governor Lachlan Macquarie of the Colony of New South Wales faced a monetary nightmare. Money was scarce, and as soon as silver Spanish dollars entered the colony, they were exported for massive profits. Left with no coinage, the colony was reduced to paying troops in rum—a system with its own… challenges.

With no printing presses to crank out fiat like today’s Federal Reserve, Macquarie devised a masterstroke. He imported 40,000 Spanish silver dollars and enlisted a convicted forger to punch out the centres, creating two new denominations: the “Holey Dollar” (the rim) and the “Dump” (the punched-out centre). Each piece was over-stamped with a colonial crown and marked “New South Wales.” In one fell swoop, the governor created more currency, devalued it to curb exports, and added a government guarantee, transforming silver into an early form of philosopher’s stone.

The Lesson Hidden in History

Here’s the twist of irony: while the Holey Dollar and the Dump served their purpose in a struggling colony, their perceived value today has soared. A Holey Dollar now fetches around $100,000, and a Dump goes for $40,000. What was once a desperate act of economic survival has become a collector’s treasure.

But let’s not overlook the stark parallel to today. When the US severed the dollar’s link to gold, it essentially performed a modern “clipping” of the currency. Macquarie’s forgery-driven alchemy pales in comparison to the monetary alchemy of central banks, where trillions of dollars can be conjured with a keystroke.

Gold’s Ironic Future

If history teaches us anything, it’s that value can be artificially created, but consequences always follow. Just as the Holey Dollar is now worth a fortune, gold—once clipped from its place as the anchor of currency—may someday skyrocket in value, reminding the world that nothing of real worth can be erased without consequence.

The story of the Holey Dollar isn’t just a historical curiosity—it’s a warning. A currency without grounding, whether clipped, printed, or digitized into oblivion, will eventually face its reckoning. How much will gold be worth when the illusion finally collapses? Time will tell, but one thing is certain: the alchemy of currency is an age-old art, and we’re still repeating its lessons.

Paper money is just a hobby!!
By Art Soukup

What a strange-sounding phrase the above is.

What an odd notion that paper money is just a hobby.

At any rate, the phrase is really important for your economic future, so take the time to learn it.

Still, I wonder if the title phrase is true. Let’s see if we can find out by first getting the definitions of words and terms. After that, we will analyze what we have found. We will start with the definition of the word “hobby.”

At this location: http://www.brainydictionary.com/words/ho/hobby173785.html you will find this definition: Hobby.

(n.) A small, strong-winged European falcon (Falco subbuteo), formerly trained for hawking.
(n.) Alt. of Hobbyhorse A strong winged European falcon…perhaps the Eurodollar. It seems to be somehow related to a hobbyhorse, so at this location:

http://www.brainydictionary.com/words/ho/hobbyhorse173786.html you will find this definition: Hobbyhorse

(n.) A strong, active horse, of a middle size, said to have been originally from Ireland; an ambling nag.
(n.) A stick, often with the head or figure of a horse, on which boys make believe to ride.
(n.) A subject or plan upon which one is constantly setting off; a favorite and ever-recurring theme of discourse, thought, or effort; that which occupies one’s attention unduly, or to the weariness of others; a ruling passion.

Hmm, A ruling passion, that one focuses undue attention upon. Hmm again, A favourite and ever-recurring theme of discourse. The editorials at various websites are always about the different kinds of paper money and their relation to precious metals; therefore, all the editorials are different kinds of hobbyhorses.

Makes sense.

We now need the definition of “paper money”, so at this location: http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/paper+money
you will find this definition: PAPER MONEY Pronunciation: ‘peypur ‘munee
Definition: [n] currency issued by a government or central bank and consisting of printed paper that can circulate as a substitute for specie.
Synonyms: folding money, paper currency.
See Also: Bank bill, bank note, banker’s bill, banknote, bill, currency, Federal Reserve note, fiat money, fractional currency, government note, greenback, note.

Hmmm, paper money is a “substitute for specie”.

And specie defined: http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/specie is WordNet Dictionary

Definition: [n] coins collectively
Synonyms: coinage, metal money, mintage
See Also: coin, currency

Webster’s 1913 Dictionary
Definition: \Spe”ci*e\, abl. of L. species sort, kind. Used in the phrase in specie, that is, in sort, in kind, in (its own) form. [The king] expects a return in specie from them” [i.e, kindness for kindness]. –Dryden. {In specie} (Law), in precise or definite form; specifically; according to the exact terms; of the very thing.

\Spe”cie\, n. [Formed as a singular from species, in a sense 5.] Coin; hard money.

So coin hard money is specie, and paper money is printed paper that can circulate as a substitute for specie. We now have the words and phrases defined for the necessary insight, but where is the PROOF!!

For your reading misery, the following link points to all 50 titles of the us code. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/

I said misery because it took me about two months just to read to the shortest title of all, Title 13 Census. I had to read many other titles (a few years), until I found the proof that “paper money is just a hobby”.

So for your reading pleasure, here are the links. Read them in sequence and look for the phrase “paper money”.

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/ <– top link to commerce and trade.
Just a quick look. No need to read.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/ch48.html <– Hobby Protection.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/2101.html <– Marking requirements.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/2102.html <– Private Enforcement.

All of the interesting stuff in the US code always seems to be stuffed away under definitions or misc.

So at this location: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/2106.html <– Definitions. You find in Section THREE: (3)

The term ”original numismatic item” means anything which has been a part of a coinage or issue which has been used in exchange or has been used to commemorate a person or event. Such terms include coins, tokens, paper money, and commemorative medals. Hmmm, “used to celebrate a person “… so that’s why there is a picture of a person on the paper; George Washington, Alex Hamilton, the Queen of England, and so on.

So you now have PROOF that “PAPER MONEY is just a hobby” ” requiring some kind of protection because it is an ORIGINAL NUMISMATIC ITEM that is (Falco subbuteo), formerly trained for hawking. Gee, by now, you should be getting a warm fuzzy feeling KNOWING that your entire wealth is based upon someone else’s HOBBY, which, by the way, occupies one’s attention unduly. So much for the concept of “Valuations”.

One nice thing about gold and silver, no hobbyhorse can print the stuff.