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Hand over fist

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on June 29, 2008 at 16:04

In Reply to: Hand over fist posted by Jasson on June 29, 2008 at 07:50:

: I saw on television that the origin of making money hand over fist refers to the old practice of punching coins out of sheets of silver or gold. One hand holds the punch in a fist while the other hand holds the hammer. So by this process one makes money hand over fist. I didn't see an explanation discrediting this theory and if you have any information pertaining this I would be interested in hearing it.

Well, one very obvious strike against this explanation is that when making hammered coins the die wasn't held in a fist; nor was the hammer (see illustration here: en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Hammered_coinage) (VSD)

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