The Rise of the European Emperor

Marin has long been unhappy with the old country of Oldenburg in the east. With the support of the Viking King Denmark behind him, he simply does not take East Frisian seriously. And Denmark is also abominable, supporting Oldenburg's counties, so Marin can't control the hundreds of square kilometers of land in the Jever area now.

Therefore, when Marin was training in the Teutonic State, he specially asked old Sten Stulay to send a group of Swedish officers to practice together. Now, this group of people has learned their skills and has returned to Sweden to prepare to do it. And Marin, also intends to financially support their independent action.

For this reason, the mint dedicated to minting bad coins, which had been suspended for a long time, has resumed construction...

This time, Marin is targeting the Danish economy - he intends to mint millions of bad coins of Danish currency...

Oh no, it should be said that Marin has done more wicked things this time - he directly intends to mint a batch of counterfeit Danish currency...

Previously, the inferior coins of the silver coins issued by the Duchy of Saxony minted by Marin were only mixed with more lead and less silver. After all, it's still silver.

But this time, Marin had a good idea and was going to play a big one-he planned to directly mint a counterfeit coin of Danish silver coin without silver...

How is it free of silver? Copper and lead alone will not do. Just copper and lead, it becomes bronze, not like silver coins at all. Speaking of bronze, Marin thought of another bronze - copper-tin alloy...

Thinking of tin, the alloy of copper and lead that Marlin thought of before contacting, the alloy of lead and tin - solder...

In a previous life, Marin worked in an electronics factory during the summer vacation when he was in school, and even soldered circuit boards with solder. Of course he knew about solder.

Solder is an alloy of lead and tin. Among them, lead content accounts for 37%, and tin content accounts for 63%. The appearance of the solder is silver-white, which is very beautiful, looks like silver, and is very soft.

At the same time, because of its high lead content and high density, it can be used to pretend to be silver. It's just that solder can be used to pretend to be sterling silver, but it can be used to pretend to be silver coins... or forget it...

Because there is no high-purity silver coins in Europe at present, they are basically silver-copper alloys, and even most of the silver coins contain half or more of the copper content.

For example, French silver coins contain less than 25% silver. Any lower, the silver coin will no longer be silvery white, but will turn yellow.

It is precisely because the copper content is too high that the current silver coins have high hardness, which is completely different from pure silver. In fact, when the Spaniards made silver dollars later, they also deliberately doped 10% copper to keep the silver dollar with a certain hardness and strength, so as to prevent the silver dollar from being easily deformed under external force because it is too soft.

Therefore, it is inappropriate to use lead-tin alloy solder to pretend to be silver to cast silver coins. because it's too soft...

However, adding a small amount of copper appropriately can increase the hardness...

As a result, Marin imported a large amount of lead from southern Europe, and imported a large amount of tin from Cornwall, England, and then used the copper he bought from India to start a "counterfeiting" plan...

After calculation, Marin added 10% copper to the "silver coin" to increase the hardness of the "silver coin". Then, the ratio of lead and tin was adjusted to achieve the same density as the imitation silver coin. In this way, coins of the same size are as heavy as real money, with the same silver-white and bright appearance, and the hardness is not bad, which is difficult for outsiders to see. Unless... someone burns this "counterfeit" with fire...

Because the melting point of solder is very low, only 183 degrees. Even if copper is added, the melting point does not exceed 200 degrees. This temperature can be reached if the frying pan is on a high fire. As long as someone puts the coin into the furnace and heats it to more than 200 degrees, he will be surprised to find that the "silver coin" melts...

It's just that there aren't many such boring people in the world who would throw silver coins into a fire to heat up...

Moreover, Marin this time is to pit Denmark,

Who told Denmark to support Oldenburg's interference in the internal affairs of East Friesland...

Marin soon found an engraver, carved relevant molds, and began to imitate the Danish Finney silver coin engraved with the surrender of King Hans of Denmark...

Denmark is close to Germany, many habits are similar to Germany, and even the most basic currencies are Mark and Finney. However, in the northern regions of the Kalmar Union (Sweden and Norway) under Danish control, the basic currency is not the pfennig, but a small silver coin equivalent to the pfennig - the ?rtug.

However, Denmark is a big country, and Kangsberg in the southeast of Oslo, Norway is a famous big silver mine. Therefore, the silver content of Danish currency is good, reaching about 50%. Whether it is the Finney silver coins circulated in Denmark, the Principality of Schleswig and Holstein, or the Ottogg silver coins circulating in Norway and Sweden, the silver content is about 50%, and they are very strong in the European market. .

At present, the silver coins in circulation in the Kalmar Union are mainly Finney and Otuge engraved with the head of Christian I. However, the silver coin has not been minted in Denmark since Christian I died in 1481. Since 1481, Denmark has begun to change the silver coins engraved with the head of the current King Hans, and the circulation is temporarily unable to keep up with the silver coins with the head of Christian I.

However, whether it is a silver coin with the head of Christian I, or an earlier silver coin engraved with the head of "Margaret I", "Eric VII" or "Christopher III", because the minting age is very old, it looks very old. .

The coins that Marin pressed with the screw-type mint must be brand new. So Marin had no choice but to forge the new "silver coin" engraved with the head of King Hans. After all, King Hans has been on the throne for nearly 20 years, and there are not many silver coins officially minted with his head engraved on them.

However, in order to avoid accidentally hurting the economy of ally Sweden (Sweden uses Ottoger with the head of Christian I and King Hans), Marin decided to only imitate it in Denmark and the Duchy of Schleswig and Hols. Danish Finney coins in circulation in the Duchy of Tyne...

Of course, Marin's "silver coin" contains only lead, tin and copper, no silver at all, a complete counterfeit...

But, from the outside, it really doesn't show that. Even from the hardness, it is more difficult to see. Because, some copper is added to the currency...

When it came time to mix things up, Marin was surprised. The melting points of lead and tin are over 300 degrees and over 200 degrees, respectively, but their boiling points are both 1,000, hundreds or even 2,000 degrees. Therefore, copper and them can be smoothly fused. If it is replaced with zinc, although the melting point is higher than that of lead and tin, reaching more than 400 degrees, the boiling point of zinc is low, and when it reaches more than 900 degrees, it turns into zinc vapor and volatilizes, and it is difficult to fuse with copper. Of course, it is very simple to fuse with lead and tin.

After several attempts, Marin's mint successfully developed a "silver coin" that did not contain silver. Then, Marin directly issued the production task - casting 2 million Danish Finneys to hit the Danish market...

The machine coins produced by the Marin Mint are low cost because they do not contain high-priced silver. Even, the price of lead and tin is lower than copper at this time. Therefore, the cost of this kind of counterfeit currency is lower than that of silver-copper alloy counterfeit currency. The production of 2 million pieces will make Marin a lot of money...

The only disadvantage of this counterfeit currency is that it cannot encounter high temperatures. Once it encounters a high temperature of nearly two hundred degrees, the currency will soften and even liquefy. However, this year, generally no one goes crazy and throws coins into the fire. The small high temperature of a hundred degrees is still not exposed. Only the high temperature of nearly 200 degrees in the fire can test the problem. By the time the counterfeit coins were discovered, Marin had already shipped them out. If it is discovered, the final confusion will be the Danish market. And this is exactly what Marin wants to see...