John Law. From Riches To Ruin, 1720. B.128, B.XXI. Unsigned. Silver. 40.7 mm. 349.0 gns. Obverse: Speculator overestimating the value of his paper money which he has bought with coins from the money chest behind him. Reverse: the same hanged to a tree as two of his fellows run about in despair and a third casts himself into a river. Uncirculated, nearly Gem. The legends, as might be expected from the types, underline the message about the perils of imprudent investing. The exergual tagline DER GANZEN WELT EIN DENKMAL IST shows the engraver to be aware of the historically transcendent character of Law's failed system, which, justly or no, takes its place alongside the Tulip Mania, the soi disant War on Terror and the Great South Sea Bubble as public madnesses from which the world eventually recovers.
Ex Virgil M. Brand Collection Part 10 (Sotheby's, October 24, 1985, lot 505).
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