"You see, however," he asked, "how the depth of the planchet allows a relief and contrast of the design with the background to an extent impossible in a flat, milled coin?"

"Yes," I said.

"What a superb latitude that gives the artist," he said. "It frees him from the limitations of a crude compromise with the counting house, from the contemporary concessions which must be made to economic functionalism. Even then, in so small and common an object, and in so unlikely an object, he can create a work of art."

"Can you identify the coin?" I asked.

"This, in its depth and beauty, reminds me of ancient coins," he said. "They are, in my opinion, the most beautiful and interesting of all coins."

"Is it an ancient coin?" I asked.

"I do not think so," he said.

"What sort of coin is it, then?" I asked.

"Look here," be said. "Do you see how this part of the object, at the edge, seems flatter, or straight, different from the rest of the object's circumference?"

"Yes," I said. To be sure, one had to took closely to see it.

"This object has been clipped, or shaved," he said. "A part of the metal has been cut or trimmed away. "In this fashion, if that is not noted, or the object is not weighed, it might be accepted for, say, a certain face value, the individual- responsible for this meanwhile pocketing the clipped or shaved metal.

If this is done over a period of time, with many coins, of course, the individual could accumulate, in metal value, a value equivalent perhaps to one or more of the original objects."

"Metal value?" I asked.

"In modem coinage," be said, "we often lose track of such things. Yet, if one thinks about it, at least in the case of many coins, a coin is a way in which a government or ruler certifies that a given amount of precious metal is involved in a transaction. It saves weighing and testing each coin. The coin, in a sense, is an object whose worth or weight, in standardized quantities, is certified upon it, and guaranteed, so to speak, by an issuing authority. Commerce as we know it would be impossible, of course, without such, objects, and notes, and credit and such."