Spot the frippet: mint.

Well, there's mint and then there's mint.

There's the herb, excellent with new potatoes and in a mint julep:


Photo by Ewan Munro

and in mint jelly, mouthwash, and sweets; and then there's a place where you make money:


That's the Bank of England. Panoramic photo by Katie Chan

Something in mint condition is as good as new. A shiny new mint condition coin should be easy to spot - and surely will always give pleasure: humans do like shiny things!


(These coins are from the 1400s, but still look in mint condition to me.)

Perhaps this is why in Britain something that's mint is something that's excellent.

And even on a Monday morning, you should have no problem at all spotting one of those.

Spot the frippet: mint. The herb word comes from the Old English minte, from the Latin mentha, from the Greek Minthē, who was a nymph who was turned into a mint plant.The money-making place comes from the Old English mynet, coin, from the Latin monēta, money, mint, from the Temple of Juno Monēta (Juno meaning something like the one and only, and Moneta meaning either instruct (if it's Latin) or alone (if it's Greek)). The temple was used as a mint in Roman times.