AS GOOD AS GOLD

Dwarfing the first heartbeats of the infant Euro, England's Pound spans almost an entire millennium. Even the mighty US Dollar and the vanishing Franc, Mark and Lira can only muster 800 years between them.

'Still the problems continued. In 1124, the King summoned leading minters. Determined to cease the debased silver pennies, he called them to trial. Over that Christmas at Winchester, more than one hundred men were separated from their hands and genitalia.'

'No longer gold, today's coin is a blend of copper, zinc and nickel weighing a mere 9.5 grams. Will it endure? Or, as history reveals, will another weak and indulgent custodian write a final chapter?'