#crimes and context

[quill-of-thoth]

Letters from Watson, the Engineer's Thumb

Crimes in Context: Counterfeiting, circa 1889

What coins were the Stark-Becher gang trying to make, anyway? And did they actually need a person squishing hydraulic press to do it?

Most of the cash in circulation in Victorian England would have been coins, so it's time to refresh our memories on what they all are, since I last addressed currency smaller than a pound in The Man with the Twisted Lip. We will be restricting ourselves to denominations that the Stark-Becher gang may have been minting, based on the comment that the hydraulic press was necessary to make coins that were previously minted in silver.

Imperial Currency Definitions

Pound/Quid/Sovereign: Not applicable, the Sovereign coin is gold, but it's the base unit of the currency we're dealing with. It also would have been hard to pass as genuine just because it's a large denomination - the era's equivalent of a hundred dollar bill. Indeed, our Bank of England inflation calculator returns a modern value of £107.

Crown: Five shillings / a quarter pound. Represented by a silver coin. Probably the largest coin you'd make change for without being annoyed by it.

Shilling: 1/20th of a pound. A silver coin. Crowns and Shillings are our most likely candidates, as they're in common use in 1889 and is the kind of cash an average man might have on hand. I personally think shillings are the most likely coin to counterfeit, as a lot of accounting of people's wages, expenses, etc. in this time period is written as pounds / shillings / pennies (L/s/d) and silver pennies (And their horrible spawn of sixpence, twopence, etc) are probably not worth the effort. Also, while there were silver pennies in circulation, the fact that things like silver twopence were minted for maundy money makes the timeline and consistency of their minting beyond my pay grade as a blogger. And probably confusing for a coiner to get exactly right, given the payoff. Hydraulic press:

Modern (paper*) money is printed with several aspects that make it harder to reproduce: the exact fiber content of the paper, the multi layered and detailed design (with parts that can only be seen under UV light, parts that can only be seen with a magnifying glass, etc.), the embossed parts of the print design, and the exact chemical components of the ink can be analyzed to see if a note is authentic. The ink in US dollars also contains a smattering of heavy metals that aren't great for human health, so I don't recommend consuming money in any way - don't lick it, don't snort things off it, don't put it in your blender for a science fair project. It would be chemically somewhat dangerous to counterfeit modern currency at home, assuming you got anywhere close to the right ink.

*Some countries use polymer, but same difference. It will kill your blender, though.

The Victorians did... none of that, really. The idea of designing money to be harder to fake was already around, but metal coins can only be produced to a certain degree of precision with the tools that were available in the 1800's: you essentially heat a disk of the correct metal (a blank) and press it with a stamp. The hydraulic press would, of course, squash blanks between two plates of stamps precisely, and with great force.

Both silver and gold have relatively low melting points (under 2,000 degrees F / close to 1,000 C) and are malleable at lower temperatures than the iron or steel of a hydraulic press. Silver amalgam (a silver/mercury alloy) has an even lower melting point, so it would be even easier to fit to a mold.

Essentially, anybody who knew much about molding metal and could get a precise-ish model of the coin in question would make pretty convincing money. A hydraulic press large enough to fit three grown men between the plates of may have been overkill.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Trapped in a vicious cycle of pining? Try gay sex! (More things to learn over at Tiger Tiger!)

[dinodoggie]

I found this screenshot post of someone's game-in-progress and I think about it alot so I wanted to draw it with YuGiOh!

I hope you enjoy this silly drawing, and have an AWESOME day!

original image by fioras-resolve

[residentwordsofaffirmationdealer]

dick & damian finishing each other's sentences

"the red hood promises way more than he can deliver. batman and robin say..." "get a life!" batman and robin (2009) #6

"alley--" "--oop!" batgirl (2009) #7

[liketolaugh-writes]

Unpopular opinion, but I actually think Sam would really idolize Lois Lane more than Poison Ivy? Like, obviously she'd have a soft spot for Ivy, she'd love the subversion, but I think she's sensible enough to appreciate that Poison Ivy also like, hurts a lot of innocent people, and that's if they don't outright die. (Not to mention the consent issues in continuities where sex pollen is a thing.)

Lois Lane, however, is a highly subversive journalist who specializes in exposing corporate abuses of power! I'm not an expert, but I think she does environmental issues as well as human rights abuses; I don't think it's a stretch to assume she'd occasionally cover animal rights and such too. Not to mention how readily she speaks her mind.

I just think Sam would be an avid fan of Lois Lane. Wall-to-wall copies of Lois' articles kind of fan.

[berdyayeva]

Ok can HR please do something about these two homos i'm actually so sick of them

[rebisrot]

one of my favorite displays of wilson and house's relationship actually comes from the juxtaposition between wilson and cameron. in s3 when cameron visits house during a detox, she sees that he's cut himself and treats it. house asks her not to bandage it, so he can pour alcohol onto it. she says he can rip the bandages off himself. in opposition we have wilson in s1 treating house during a detox when house smashes his hand. house asks him not to splint it so he can smash it against the desk and wilson doesn't. he doesn't reprimand house for harming himself or act shocked that he's harmed himself the way cameron does. he recognizes the inevitability of house harming himself and where cameron essentially says 'don't make me part of your shit' we have wilson saying 'i don't care what you do, just make me part of it.' #1 enabler wilson pull through.

[starlightseraph]

house is always very adamant about being the smartest person in the room, the one who can think in ways and find answers that others can’t.

people rarely dare to say, even as a joke, that they’re more intelligent than house, because he’s so obviously brilliant that it would just seem wrong. if they do, house tends to roll his eyes and ignore it.

but then, when wilson bests house in the stupidest games or prank wars, and cheekily declares that he’s the smart one, house just looks at him with the most adoring smile. like it’s such a soft and sweet look. tooth-rotting. he is so, so in love, oh my god.

[zeaceos]

Bad End Theater x OMORI

bought Bad End the other day and I finished it in one sitting! I absolutely adored the art style and the pixel art it sparked me to rise from the grave and post something on my socials

[bisexualmcqueen]

so i figured out the funniest possible way to do the 'salqueen babies' trope

he then finds someplace better (cave)

cuddle pile time

she's framing that.

they are a crazy but happy family <3

[akkivee]

FOOLS GOLD TL IS LIVE!!!! ENJOY THE BAT FLAVOURED ANGST!!!!!!

[valtsv]

VAL twitch streamer au, courtesy of myself, @mx-information , @hungoverinjonestowm , @pinkelotjeart and @cyberneticflora

[dragonagitator]

"House, are you feeling okay? You've hardly touched Wilson's food."

[stealingyourbones]

I’m scrolling through your culinary crimes and must wonder: how are you (and/or your tastebuds) still alive at this point?

Though, thanks for answering the question of how we got some of humanity’s recipes in the first place: some crazy people went “well, why not?”

I used people plural because I can’t imagine it went well for some of them, someone had to be the one to find the poisonous stuff.

Ok so fun thing, I have far worse sense of taste than the average person. Not that I can’t taste or anything, but that my sense of taste is somewhat muted. I have made food that both my twin and I can eat. My preferred level of seasoning is, and I qoute; “unpalatable to the average person.” My most noteable showings of this is how I season curry perfect for me but to my twin the flavors are perfumy, and my preferred level of popcorn salt seasoning is inedible to other folks. So your answer is my tastebuds haven’t been fully alive for quite some time but they’re alive enough to experience The Horrors™️.

The wildest food choices I think I’ve done is take shots of ghost pepper hot sauce every other week for like 2.5 years, that is the one that messed me up the most. I’m honored to be put in the same category who discover new and interesting recipes experimenting on various flavors. Creations possibly becoming lifelong food staples, whilst I make burger vodka and loaf after loaf of Powerade bread. I guess I’m doing something good because I’ve been DM’d by multiple pastry chefs/teachers who’ve said that they wish their students could be as adventitious as me.

The joy of being a very adventurous eater, someone who loves cooking, and having free will and a lack of impulse control, all mixes together into a perfect combination to try foods that no man has, or should, ever try in their lifetime. I recommend anyone who has the supplies and isn’t afraid of messing up a recipe, to throw some wild things in there for funsies. Either to just say that you’ve made whatever creation you’ve concocted, or to accidentally stumble upon a new and fasting new food creation.

[faifenaco]

has anyone ever edited a house md cut where its only the patient interactions? like a patient’s POV of what it’s like being at PPTH bc I know it would suck

[lilac-hecox]

TOP TEN IANTHONY MOMENTS OF 2024

→ 4: Ian and Anthony making soup together #soup nation

“we made some soup together.”

Gif/Post Cred:

@femmmie

@duckadee

@ianthoni

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