XXX/3 The coins of Florence which were becoming an international currency (hence the Florins of Britain and Holland) showed the emblematic lily on one side and the figure of John the Baptist on the other (cf. Canto XIII/4). These were the coins that Master Adam falsified, by the addition of a percentage of dross to the metal (thus in his punishment he himself becomes swollen with waste matter). The progressive degradation of the coin in his hands is shown here by progressively more inaccurate pressings (of a rubber stamp that I had made of the coin) into the soft ground of the original plate, themselves progressively more crudely bitten. The image of the coin also rotates as one reads downwards through the image until one reaches the final punning text. The stamping on the plate seemed to have an appropriate relationship with coining and various metallic colours were used in the original printing. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.