APAD: Bad money drives out good.

Meaning:

   It is known as Gresham's Law, which is that money which is labelled as 'bad'

   will harm the prospects of money that is labelled as 'good'. Of course, we

   need to know what bad and good money are to understand that (see below).

 

   The saying is also used in a wider, non-financial, sense to mean 'bad

   things/people drive out good things/people'.

 

Background:

   Coins used to derive their value from the value of the precious metal, gold

   or silver, that they were made from. A good coin was one that was freshly minted.

 

   However, good money could be turned into bad money...

 

   Unscrupulous people were in the habit of clipping small pieces from the edges

   of coins and selling the gold/silver obtained. A pound coin was still called

   a pound coin, with the value of a pound, if it was missing some of its edge.

 

   Anyone in possession of a newly minted good silver coin was tempted to steal

   some of the silver from the edge. After all, they would then have a pound

   coin and some silver.

 

   So, the existence of 'bad' money caused all the 'good' money to disappear.

   Hence, 'bad money drives out good'.

 

   Bad money could also be made by adulterating the precious metal it was minted from.

 

   In Tudor England, Henry VIII devised a scheme to boost the royal coffers. He

   decreed that the silver coinage should be made, not of pure silver as before,

   but of silver mixed with 40% base metal.

 

   This soon caused the previous 'good' coins to disappear as they were then

   worth more than the value of the debased coins.

 

   This 'bad money driving out good' was explained in a letter to to Henry's

   daughter Elizabeth I from her courtier Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-79).

 

 

   The actual phrase 'bad money drives out good' wasn't used by Gresham. He

   explained the principle without using the proverb. The first time it was put

   into print was in the 1902 New English Dictionary:

 

       Gresham's law, the principle, involved in Sir Thomas Gresham's letter to

       Q. Elizabeth in 1558, that `bad money drives out good'.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk

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A revelation: a couple of a minimalist and a hoarder can only live in clutter.

所有跟帖： 

• so at the end, all money is bad. got it. ;-) -最西邊的島上- ♀ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 09:28:46

• here r 3 silver coins inOur possession (hope they r good 1s) -最西邊的島上- ♀ (238 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 09:32:40

• They are all good money and can't be driven out :-) -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 09:35:39

• Bad apples drive out good:)) -暖冬cool夏- ♀ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 09:34:43

• It applies more to people than the fruit. -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 09:39:03

• Counterfeit $ cause people disbelieve ture $. Non-financial -移花接木- ♂ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 10:32:15

• In groups, minor negatives drive off major positive is true -移花接木- ♂ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 10:35:02

• quibbling, nit-picking, hair-splitting? -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 15:02:06

• 中文：劣幣驅逐良幣。 -盈盈一笑間- ♀ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 11:22:11

• +100086 -方外居士- ♂ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 11:34:03

• 中文應該有相似概念。聽著像是翻譯的。 -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 14:12:38

• Learned “Gresham's Law” -妖妖靈- ♀ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 14:52:57

• How about my corollary (i.e., the revelation)? -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 15:00:05

• Y？I don‘t get it -妖妖靈- ♀ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 15:07:24

• a minimalist and a hoarder can only live in clutter. -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 15:51:41

• 看到了，沒懂什麽意思～ -妖妖靈- ♀ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 16:28:00

• 兩口子，一個極簡主義者和一個hoarder, 家裏肯定堆滿了東西。The hoarder wins. -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 16:58:32

• and may finally drives out the minimalist :-) -7grizzly- ♂ (0 bytes) () 04/15/2024 postreply 17:00:40