The present publication features one of the most important though long-forgotten, treatises of Nicolaus Copernicus – Monete cudende ratio (On the Minting of Coin), composed around 1526–1528.
It is a mature treatise on money, in which Copernicus analyses the consequences of currency debasement, formulates recommendations of the Prussian monetary system, and for the first time articulates the principle whereby “bad money drives out good” – known today as the Copernicus–Gresham Law. The publication includes a facsimile of the manuscript preserved in the Czartoryski Princes Museum, its transcription, as well as translations into Polish and English.
Selected Bibliography:
· Bochenek, Mirosław. Mikołaj Kopernik czy Thomas Gresham? O historii i dyspucie wokół prawa gorszego pieniądza [Nicolaus Copernicus or Thomas Gresham? On the History and the Debate around the Law of Bad Money]. Toruń, 2023.
· Cackowski, Stefan. Mikołaj Kopernik jako ekonomista [Nicolaus Copernicus as an Economist]. Toruń, 1970.
· Dmochowski, Jan. Mikołaja Kopernika rozprawy o monecie i inne pisma ekonomiczne oraz J.L. Decjusza Traktat o biciu monety [Nicolaus Copernicus’s Treatises on Coinage and Other Economic Writings, Together with J.L. Decjus’s Treatise on Minting]. Warsaw, 1923.
· Die Geldlehre des Nicolaus Copernicus. Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentare [The Monetary Theory of Nicolaus Copernicus. Texts, Translations, Commentaries], ed. Erich Sommerfeld. Vaduz, 1978.
· Copernicus, Nicolaus. Dzieła wszystkie, vol. 3: Pisma pomniejsze [Complete Works, vol. 3: Minor Writings], ed. Andrzej Wyczański. Warsaw, 2007.
· Copernicus, Nicolaus. Minor Works, ed. Paweł Czartoryski, trans. and comm. Edward Rosen with the assistance of Erna Hilfstein. Warsaw–Cracow, 1985.
