Brad DeLong Speculates on Ron Paul's First Move as Head of the Monetary Policy Subcommittee

 He links to this story:

In this year, before Christmas, king Henry sent from Normandy to England, and commanded that all the moneyers that were in England should be deprived of their members; that was the right hand of each, and their testicles beneath. That was because the man that had a pound could not buy for a penny at a market. And the bishop Roger of Salisbury sent over all England, and commanded them all that they should come to Winchester at Christmas. When they came thither they were taken one by one, and each deprived of the right hand and the testicles beneath. All this was done within the twelve nights; and that was all with great justice, because they had fordone all the land with their great quantity of false money which they all bought.


The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, p. 221 (year 1125).

(Edited, with a Translation, by Benjamin Thorpe, Vol. II

(London: Longman, Green, Longman,and Roberts, 1861)