Directed by This Is England creator Shane Meadows, the biopic tells the tale of the deadly forgery gang who nearly sank the economy of 18th Century Britain
It's a tale of anti-establishment criminality gone murderously wrong. For a period in late 18th Century a gang of counterfeiters in northern England were producing fake coins on an industrial scale.
The mid-18th century must have felt like the end of days for the weavers of the Calder Valley. The Industrial Revolution was coming and a traditional industry, which had grown and sustained the valley's population since the Middle Ages, was being undercut by the advent of mechanisation. The genuine coins would be filed down to remove evidence of clipping while the counterfeit coins would be minted to resemble French, Spanish and Portuguese currency. European coins were accepted as legal tender at the time due to a shortage of Royal Mint coins in circulation.
The effect on the British economy was disastrous, devaluing the Pound by 9%. Stories of the gang reached Parliament and soon the law began sniffing about the Calder Valley. The former Prime Minister and Marquess of Rockingham, Charles Watson-Wentworth, was commissioned to catch Dighton's killers. And, on Christmas Day 1769, 30 coiners, including David Hartley, were arrested.
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