Martlet

Would exit silver, pay off the mortgage, have a holiday, a new car long before $1k.

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Looks like a mint error, premium? 

I dont know why you are giving the Royal Mint such leeway. There is no quality control, thats covered in problems that a basic manual look would show, doesnt need a technological solution.  That ding has to be from the die or blank, could be whole batch affected?  They simply need a real QA process that rejects coins not lets them through. 

As noted by interveiwee, the infrastructure isnt there for full switch.  Talk about central banks digital currency (CBDC) are them exploring the concept, the mostly likely use is for inter-bank transfers and settlement at large corporate level.  This could eliminate 2008 credit crunch scenario as all actors would know reliably how much credit and debt each other has.  It could push in to bookrunning for stock and bonds issues.  Actually finding its way down to everyday currency would be a generation out, the current systems work fine. 

Yes.