the.com/coin
a metal promise that's been bribing kings and tipping waiters for 2,600 years
means A small, flat piece of metal stamped with a value and issued as money, or the verb for inventing a fresh word or phrase.
from From Old French 'coin,' meaning a wedge or corner, which came from Latin 'cuneus,' a wedge — the same root behind 'cuneiform,' the wedge-shaped writing. The link is the stamping die: a wedge-shaped tool was driven down to strike the design into the metal, so the tool's name slid over onto the thing it made. The 'invent a word' sense grew from this image of striking something new into being, as if minting language.
- first mint
- Lydia struck the earliest coins around 600 BC
- edge ridges
- invented to stop crooks shaving off the gold
- coin study
- numismatics: the science of judging metal money
- flip odds
- a flipped coin slightly favors its starting side
- heaviest cash
- Yap islanders used stone coins big as cars
bitcoin — first cryptocurrency, created 2009, $40k+ per coin as of 2024
us penny — 1 cent coin minted by us since 1793
british pound sterling — uk's main currency coin, in circulation since 12th century