ABSTRACT
Debasement has always commanded a high degree of interest among historians, and rightly so. Strong currencies of high intrinsic worth are associated with successful trading nations, but also have connotations of probity and high moral worth. Reductions in the intrinsic content of the coinage seem in contrast to speak of spendthrift government policies, and dissolute behaviour born of lax personal and national standards of behaviour. Debasement is also often associated with deception and downright fraud, since the extent of the reduction in intrinsic content was often concealed from the public. Nevertheless, despite such attempted secrecy, debasements usually resulted in some (unpredictable) degree of price inflation, which was almost always widely unpopular.
