The pretext for socialization of minting - one which has curiously been accepted by almost every economist - is that private minters would defraud the public on the weight and fineness of the coins.
In contrast, central to Vardaman's thesis is the claim that most of these inscriptions were created by the minters and thus reflect official records.
These excesses removed so much gold and silver from circulation that the coin minters were forced to add other metals to the aureus and the denarius.
