The English businessman Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579), founder of the London Stock Exchange and financial advisor to Queen Elizabeth I formulated the phrase "bad money drives out good."

What does this mean? In Greshams time many coin makers melted down silver coins for their high silver content and replaced them with coins with an inferior silver content. The circulating "good" money was declared invalid through devious intrigue and replaced by the inferior coins.

Sir Thomas was not the first to state this law that today carries his name: Oresmius and the Astronomer

Kopernikus (1473-1543) as well as the Greek playwright Aristophanes(445-385 BC) made similar statements.

Kopernikus described the situation as such: "Although... the validity of money all but disappeared, the production of money was in no way stopped, and that there was a shortage of materials for the reminting of the circulating coins, the following coins that were then set into circulation were even less in value and quality and drove them out of circulation...",

The kipper and wipper time is an interesting illustration of this phenomenon. It had drastic effect on the general population.