Commentary 48 A Virtual Conversation on Bernadette Longo s Spurious Coin: A History of Science, Management, and Technical Writing David Gaskill Mary Been Margaret Hundleby Pete Praetorius From: Subject: Dave Opening Comment Listen, the Chorus speaks, and if Bernadette Longo is right, they are talking about us: "Many times it seems to us the city has done the same thing with the best and the brightest of its citizens as with the old coinage and the new gold currency. For these, not counterfeit at all, but the finest it seems of all the coins, and the only ones of the proper stamp, of resounding metal amongst the Greeks and foreigners everywhere, we never use, but the inferior bronze ones instead, minted just yesterday or the day before with the basest stamp." -- Aristophanes, Frogs (718-726) Here we have one of the earliest versions of what later became famous as "Gresham's Law": If two currencies of differing base-value are available, and if the two currencies exchange for the same price, people will spend the weaker coins and hoard the stronger. Over time, "the bad money drives out the good." So what has all of this to do with technical
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