Coin clippers and their stories
I purchased the new edition, the third, of MIR Sicilia (Italian Regional Coins, the volume dedicated to Sicily) and, while studying 17th-century coins, I discovered an interesting fact.
At the beginning of the century in Palermo, about fifty people were sentenced to death for the crime of coin clipping (they were shot in public), however the truly curious fact concerns two brothers.
They were caught in possession of tools used for coin clipping and confessed after being tortured. During the investigation, the authorities also subjected the mother-in-law and the wife of one of the brothers to torture; the latter, "fortunately, turned out to be pregnant and could not be tortured." I found this detail very interesting and touching.
Furthermore, it appears that the clipped coins were subsequently taken to the mint, adjusted for weight, and used as blanks for striking smaller coins (according to the cited documentation). Furthermore, in ancient times, clipping coins was also called "rounding" because the coins were not very round and the clippers instead made them so.
The image of a clipped "aquila d'argento" (silver eagle, that was the name of the coin in the documentation and not tarì as they write in old books) of Ferdinand II minted in Sicily (not mine, from CoinsNB, E-Auction 52, Lot 1476). I know, this isn't a 17th-century coin but it was still accepted.
In Naples in middle 17th-century they tried to do a anti-clipping coin: the value G 10 (10 grana, also know as carlino) was written more externally and G 5 more internally, if the coin was clipped the G 10 was no longer legible and the value G V (5 grana) remained legible.
