Good Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage, 1775-1821 [Hardcover]

George Anthony Selgin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 14, 2008

Good Money tells the fascinating story of British manufacturers' challenge to the Crown's monopoly on coinage. In the 1780s, when the Industrial Revolution was gathering momentum, the Royal Mint failed to produce enough small-denomination coinage for factory owners to pay their workers. As the currency shortage threatened to derail industrial progress, manufacturers began to mint custom-made coins, called "tradesman's tokens." Rapidly gaining wide acceptance, these tokens served as the nation's most popular currency for wages and retail sales until 1821, when the Crown outlawed all moneys except its own.

Economist George Selgin presents a lively tale of enterprising manufacturers, technological innovations, alternative currencies, and struggles over the right to coin legal money.

George Selgin is Professor of Economics in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, California (www.independent.org).

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

George Selgin is a research fellow at the Independent Institute and a professor of economics at the University of Georgia. He has contributed to numerous journals, including the Economic Journal, the Economic History Review, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He is also the coeditor of Econ Journal Watch and the author of Bank Deregulation and Monetary Order, Less Than Zero: The Case for a Falling Price Level in a Growing Economy, and The Theory of Free Banking. He lives in Athens, Georgia.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 390 pages
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press (July 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0472116312
• ISBN-13: 978-0472116317
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #987,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Challenge to Central Bankers, August 4, 2008

By 

Ben Jones - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage, 1775-1821 (Hardcover)

Despite it's seemingly specialized, historical subject, Good Money is really both very topical and very important. The story it tells--of private coinage during the Industrial Revolution--directly challenges the conventional wisdom that's at the foundation of all modern monetary systems, namely, the belief that only government's are fit to supply coins and paper money. Selgin shows that this was far from being the case in 18th-century England. There the government proved itself perfectly unfit to coin money, until private mints showed it how to do its job right! The story of how they designed the world's first successful industrial-scale coinage system, and of how the government ultimately put them out of business, is absolutely spellbinding! No one who reads it can ever look at a central bank or government-run mint without wondering how much better off the world might have been without it!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Money; Great Storytelling, September 4, 2008

By 

Andrew Daubigny - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage, 1775-1821 (Hardcover)

The scene: Birmingham, England, in the steamy, sooty grip of the Industrial Revolution. George Selgin tells the "riveting" tale of a group of eccentric entrepreneurs who take on not only each other, but the Royal Mint and the British Crown in their bids to supply a burgeoning working class with desperately needed copper and silver coins. The result: a yarn as colorfully amusing as one of Dickens' more ambitious novels, but entirely true, and one that offers up an economics lesson to boot: namely, that good money really does drive out bad--that is, as long as governments stay out of it (as soon as they don't Gersham's Law kicks in). If you love a great story, if you adore larger-than-life characters, if you put a premium on fine prose, do yourself a favor and buy Good Money. It will be well worth yours.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Capitalism saves itself and the Industrial Revolution, January 11, 2009

By 

Grant (Wyoming) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Good Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage, 1775-1821 (Hardcover)

Well researched and generally well written. Some of the middle chapters can get a little tedious with the historical detail lavished on the Soho Mint, but other than that it is a historical gem! All you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask about the fascinating economic underpinnings of the Industrial Revolution and the cultural milieu within which it was rooted.