Counterfeiter

Of all the crimes a private man can commit, it seems that only a select few, including regicide and high treason, are hated by those imperial nobles who still retain their monetary privilege (and, of course, the emperor himself) more than production of counterfeit money. Firstly, forging coins that bear a ruler's portrait on them is a grave insult to his authority, a treason of lèse-majesté. Secondly, forging coins that bear God's symbols on them is an even greater crime, one of hubristic impiety. Thirdly, by forging coins one not merely produces the currency with which to pay for the goods - he frees himself of the need to obtain that currency from his lord and thus steals from him. Fourthly, forgers that decrease the amount of precious metal in a coin quite literally do steal from their lord, pocketing his gold and silver. Fifthly, when coins are forged well, they are very hard to distinguish from genuine ones, and this makes people more wary of accepting currency, thereby hurting the lord's interests further.
Reports of counterfeiters are investigated with great diligence, and often a Feldjäger or his local analogue is dispatched to oversee the procedures. Once a counterfeiter is found, and his guilt is determined, he is often executed by boiling in oil - a punishment in kind, reflecting the counterfeiter's melting of precious metals obtained from coins. Sometimes, however, an exceptionally skilled counterfeiter impresses the Feldjäger with his skills or has the good luck to be caught when a special imperial order is issued, and then he is allowed to atone for his crimes by the means of honest labour, finding employment in one of the imperial mints. The former counterfeiter is strictly overseen in his new position, and his tasks often include both control over the mint employees' honesty (by means of employing his expertise to check the coins) and sometimes improvement of coins for the purpose of making them harder to counterfeit. For this reason, for example, imperial coinage bears serrations at regular intervals along its circumference, making proper clipping harder.
Sadly, the counterfeiter problem can never be truly eradicated, and substantial amounts of forged coins are constantly in circulation. History recorded a peculiar attempt to rectify this by introducing coins that were very wide and thin and thus lacked durability. The idea was to force the population to bring their coins to the mint for an exchange at regular intervals and thus obtain a greater degree of control over the counterfeit money in circulation. In practice, however, this measure proved misguided, and one of its disastrous consequence was the decrease in use of money, especially in the countryside. Said coins were thereby discontinued, and the traditional coinage resumed.

Type

Illicit