This practice of scraping gold off gold coins could be considered a "traditional craft"...
After all, whether a gold coin was thick or thin, it was still worth 1 denar. Its value as currency remained unchanged.
In fact, that was why Bacchus denars had changed from gold coins into silver coins—there were simply too many "engraving artists."
The original denar was a small gold coin weighing roughly 3.25 grams, equivalent to one ounce of pure silver (troy weight, roughly 31 grams).
But at some point, many people began scraping gold from the coins, shaving them thinner layer by layer.
By the end, a single gold coin could weigh less than two grams, so thin that it could cut one's hand. Merchants and nobles had to wear leather gloves just to count their coins...
That was why the Celestial Dynasty had long used gold and silver by weight—its ancestors really had known what they were doing! Only copper coins circulated among the common people. Gold and silver were used only in large transactions, and their purity was always assessed before they were weighed!
In fact, even copper coins came in better and worse varieties... But that was where the logic of the silver standard came in—the exchange rate between copper coins of differing quality and silver was not the same.
So, several decades ago, around Pendor Calendar year 300, the Bacchus Empire stopped issuing gold coins as well and switched to large silver coins worth one ounce each (note: roughly like silver dollars).
These silver coins were also worth 1 denar, and they were not pure silver, making them rather hard and difficult to scrape.
And with large silver coins weighing thirty grams, any shaving was easy to spot... This greatly reduced the number of Bacchus "engraving artists." After all, going