The Royal Mint is introducing a new pound coin to combat counterfeiters (story here). The pound has a long and fascinating history and it is probably the oldest living currency in the world. You can read a short biography of the pound here. Over its 1200-year history, the pound has lost a considerable amount of its value. However, a substantial proportion of this inflation has occurred since 1970.
My colleague and former PhD student Gareth Campbell has created a website about the British Railway Mania - click here . This episode has been described by the Economist as probably the greatest bubble in human history. Gareth's website provides background on the Mania and posits some explanations for the 'bubble'. In his explanation of why the bubble happened, Gareth places a lot of emphasis on investor myopia regarding future dividends and uncalled capital. His study of investors during the episode does not support the view that this episode was fuelled by naive and irrational investors.