King of German Mercenaries

Back in the queen's backyard, Marin was in a good mood, and he played some limited-level games with Countess Angela... Although he didn't eat Angela in the end, it also filled Marin with strength...

The next morning, just after Marin had eaten a late breakfast, a guard came in and reported:

"Report to the Count, the Passani craftsman you brought back from Milan to meet!"

"Pasani? The owner of the screw press?"

Suddenly, Marin reacted and exclaimed in surprise:

"Quick, please bring Mr. Passani in!" Marin finally reacted. He knew that Passani had probably succeeded in researching the spiral minting machine he wanted...

Sure enough, Passani rushed over and presented a brand new mechanism currency. The machine coin minted by it is the Imperial Finney. It's just that the Imperial Finney made by Passani's spiral minting machine is more exquisite than the ordinary Imperial Finney, and the patterns are also carved with a more three-dimensional effect. In short, this fake Imperial Finney is more like Imperial Finney than the real Imperial Finney...

Moreover, after Pasani's introduction, it is now very simple to make silver coins in his secret workshop. First prepare the molten metal, and then cast it into a silver plate. The cast silver plate is thicker than the predetermined thickness, but then it can be punched again by hand to punch the silver plate to a suitable thickness.

After that, the craftsman will use a high-carbon steel pipe with a bottom end port that is ground like a knife edge, hit it with a hammer, and tap a small round silver plate on the silver plate with the sharp bottom circular edge , about the same size as a silver coin, this is the billet. Then, after the silver plate is separated from multiple billets, the remaining scraps continue to be returned to the furnace to make silver plates, and continue to separate the billets...

This process is very simple and can be done by ordinary workers. Only when pressing the silver plate, it needs special attention and control by skilled craftsmen. The silver plate cannot be made too thick, otherwise it will lose money.

After getting the coin blank, the general old method is to find a very skilled old craftsman, and use the manual method and simple mold to hammer out the coin's graphics. However, this requires high craftsmanship. And craftsmen with good craftsmanship are not cheap, and their speed of coinage is not fast. After all, a silver coin takes a long time to beat.

After Passani and the others came up with the spiral minting machine, everything was very simple. First, the craftsmen installed a fixed upper and lower mold on the bottom of the spiral mint. The lower die is engraved with the mirrored grooves of the pattern on the reverse side of the coin, and the upper die is engraved with the mirrored grooves of the front of the coin...

The craftsmen simply lift the upper mold, put the billet in it, and then cover the upper mold. After that, press down the screw press rod by rotating it, and press it hard...

After a while, a finely crafted silver coin was successfully made. Of course, the premise of this ingeniousness is that the mold made of high carbon steel is well carved. However, after more than a year of research by craftsmen such as Passani, they finally solved the problem of high carbon steel molds and mold fixation. Then, everything becomes simple.

In the past, because coins were made by hand, to ensure that the coins were not unsightly, skilled craftsmen had to be used, and it was time-consuming. But now, with the spiral minting machine, it doesn't take a skilled craftsman at all to make silver coins. Because these things can be done by ordinary apprentices, only skilled workers are required to control the thickness of the silver plate. For other processes, ordinary workers can be competent. In this way, there is no need to use those highly paid skilled craftsmen. Just making a coin, in addition to making the mold and controlling the thickness of the silver plate, other craftsmen who use the level of migrant workers can...

Moreover, the spiral minting machine is very efficient to manufacture. Passani has tested that a spiral minting machine can press 1,200 silver coins when it works 10 hours a day, an average of 120 silver coins per hour, and an average of 1 in half a minute. On the other hand, it takes an average of 5 minutes for an experienced coinage craftsman to turn a bill into a silver coin, or ten hours a day.

Only 120 pieces can be made (of course, it is not uncommon for craftsmen of this era to work fifteen or six hours a day). It takes even the fastest craftsman 3 minutes to forge both sides of a silver coin. Therefore, the efficiency of the spiral minting machine is 10 times that of the average craftsman and 6 times faster than that of the fastest craftsman. Moreover, in the last step of suppressing silver coins, Marin does not need to use high-wage master craftsmen, as long as he uses ordinary workers to complete it. In the whole coinage process, only the manufacture of the coin mold and the control of the thickness of the silver plate, as well as the preparation of the metal melt of the silver coin before the coinage, requires the use of experienced craftsmen. Payroll alone can save you a lot of money. Moreover, the minting process of the spiral minting machine is ten times happier than that of ordinary craftsmen.

Not only that, the silver coins made by the spiral minting machine are more exquisite than hand-made coins, and the style is more uniform and beautiful. If you just look at the appearance, the fake Imperial Finney that Pasani and the others suppressed are more real than the authentic Imperial Finney...

...

Marin was overjoyed and announced that he had rewarded Passani and other craftsmen. But he hasn't been happy for a long time, someone from Saxony has arrived...

It turned out that the Saxons could not sit still when they saw that the western part of West Frisland was occupied by the former Frisian noble army.

However, most of their armed forces were captured by Marin, and they were unable to draw out their strength to attack the West Frisian army led by Siwager.

In desperation, the Duke of Saxony had to take out 500,000 gold coins first, intending to redeem 1,000 knights and 3,500 infantrymen to suppress the resistance of the West Frisian nobles...

Marin had planned to refuse, and he also hoped that Siwager would make the situation in West Frisian more confusing. However, Emperor Maximilian I sent someone to make peace, and Marin had to give face. So Marin reluctantly asked the Duke of Saxony to redeem half of the knights and regular infantry... However, when he released them, Marin sent someone to inform the nine nobles of West Frisian...

Marin was very happy to receive 500,000 gold coins. However, when he sent someone to count the currency, Marin was not happy...

It turned out that the Duke of Saxony mixed a lot of bad coins in the coins...

These inferior coins were not minted by the Duchy of Saxony, but by some shameless other nobles. The coinage system of the Holy Roman Empire is very chaotic. The previous generations of emperors were all elected. Therefore, in order to attract votes, the emperor opened the door of convenience and gave up a lot of coinage rights. Therefore, each of the seven great emperors has its own right to mint coins. Even many ordinary principalities and counties have their own coinage rights. There are really no coinage rights, only some small vassal states whose instances are too weak.

Because the coinage is a tool used by the nobles to squeeze the people. For example, the Archbishopric of Trier, which is the most rude, minted a fenny silver coin that originally weighed 1.5 grams to less than 1 gram. This is not to mention, its silver content is only 25%, which is half lower than that of Imperial Finney.

But in the Archbishopric of Trier, the Archbishop of Trier arrogantly demanded that the citizens must use this fake Trier Finney as a worthwhile one Finney, otherwise they will be punished by law...

Of course, this method is also effective in Trier. Out of Trier, the ghost used Trier Finney as a full value Finney.

However, building a mint requires a lot of investment. The minting craftsmen alone would cost hundreds of thousands. If it is a very small country with only a few thousand people, if you force a mint, you may not be able to recover the cost. Moreover, even if coins are minted, other countries will not recognize them when they leave the country. Therefore, it is not necessary for a small country that is too weak to have the right to mint coins. These countries generally use good credit coins such as Imperial Finney and Saxony Finney.

Yes, the Saxon Finney is also a very creditable silver coin in the Empire. As the second largest business district in the Hanseatic League, the Saxony business district is naturally developed in trade. As a trading country, the most important thing is of course credibility. Otherwise, in a country without credibility, no businessman is willing to do business with you. Especially in countries that are indiscriminately issuing bad currency, business will definitely not be able to get up.

As a commercial developed area, whether it is the Electoral State of Saxony or the Duchy of Saxony, the Saxon Finney with a silver content of 50% is uniformly used, which is the same as the silver content of the Imperial Finney.

Therefore, in the German region, businessmen also like to use Saxony as a settlement currency. As for the inferior coins like Trierfenni, they are not not used, but are exchanged according to the silver content. For example, a Trierfenni contains only about 0.25 grams of silver. An Imperial Finney or Saxony Finney contains about 0.75 grams of silver. Therefore, when exchanging, people basically exchange Imperial Finney and Trier Finney in a ratio of 1 to 3. After all, not many people in this world are fools. Trier Finney also exploited the hard-working people of Trier, and no one would recognize it or exchange it according to the amount of silver when it came out of Trier.

In addition to Trier, there are also many noble nobles in Germany. Although the silver content of the fenni they cast is not as low as 25%, it is also about 30% and 40%, which is lower than the silver content of imperial fenni and Saxony fenni.

This time, when the Duke of Saxony sent the money, he played his tricks and mixed some Finneys that were similar in appearance to Saxony Finneys, but were actually bad coins minted by other vassal states, and mixed them into the ransom. Equivalent value is calculated.

At the beginning of the handover, because there were too many coins, Marin's subordinates could not identify them one by one, so they were blinded by the people of the Duke of Saxony, and the handover was completed. Afterwards, Marin was not easy to go back, but he remembered...

"Since you dare to fool me, don't blame me for casting your family's bad coins to pit you!" Marin said angrily.

Then, Marin called Kohler and asked him to go to other vassal states to exchange some bad money. In addition, go to Bohemia to import a batch of high-purity silver bars...

The Kingdom of Bohemia is the place with the most silver production in the Shinra Empire. Therefore, the silver content of Bohemia coins is very high, which is higher than that of the Empire Finney, which can reach 60%. Therefore, the most popular silver coins in the empire are actually produced in Bohemia.

Austria, controlled by the Habsburg family, was the second largest silver producing area in the empire. Therefore, the Imperial Finney can be cast in good condition. It's just that the Habsburg family has too many people and many worms, making the emperor very poor even if he owns Austria, which is rich in silver...

In this era, in addition to bohemian silver coins, people also like to use bohemian silver bars made of sterling silver as a means of settlement for bulk trade. And many princes also like to import Bohemian silver bars to mint bad coins...

Marin's import of Bohemian silver bars this time is naturally also used to mint Saxe Finney's inferior coins...

However, Marin did not intend to let people see the flaws when he minted the inferior coins of Saxony. At best, people take the bad money of the Saxon silver coins he minted at Marin for real. In this way, Marin can quietly amass a lot of wealth...

If you want people to not see the flaws, although Marin can adulterate, but it can't be seen...

For example, the silver content of Saxefinil is 50%. If Marin is to be adulterated, the silver content must be reduced. However, if the silver content is reduced, it also needs to be done. If copper is incorporated, copper is less dense than silver. There is too much copper mixed in, and the coins of the same size, the inferior coins are definitely lighter than the real coins. People only need to weigh the bad coins minted by Marin and the genuine Saxon silver coins on the balance, and they will see it.

Therefore, while doping copper, you also need to dope some lead. Because lead has a higher density than silver. However, if too much lead is added, it is easy to cause the coin to turn black, and it can be seen that it is a bad coin at a glance. Therefore, lead can be doped, but not too much.

In the end, Marin decided to set the silver content of the inferior Saxon coins at 40%, which is 10% less than the genuine Saxon silver coins. The 10% of the weight is adulterated with a mixture of lead and copper to ensure that the size and weight of the inferior coins and the real coins are the same, and the appearance cannot be seen.

The ancients did not have any advanced detection methods. As long as the appearance and density are the same, who can detect it?

Marin then arranged for craftsmen to carve the molds of Saxony. This time, Marin intends to test the waters by suppressing 500,000 more realistic Saxe Finney coins.

Marin did a rough calculation and found that if he reduced the silver content by 10%, he could probably get an 8% profit, excluding material costs, processing costs and shipping costs. 500,000 pfennig will allow him to make a profit of about 40,000 pfennig. Although not much, as long as the beginning goes well, Marin will continue to do so in the future and create more bad Saxe Finney coins.

Of course, this is just a test of the water. If the effect is good, Marin intends to continue to suppress more bad Saxony coins and impact the currency system and economy of Saxony. In this way, you can not only make huge profits for yourself, but also attack the Saxons, killing two birds with one stone...