The quality of the coins in the early part of the reign was poor, as the moneyers made a large profit by producing underweight coins or coins of debased fineness. In 1124 Henry called all 150 moneyers to Winchester, and called them to account for their activities — 94 of them were convicted of issuing sub-standard coins and were mutilated, their right hands and one testicle being cut off, as a result of which the quality of coins improved for most of the remainder of his reign.

More recently, on March 22 1699, William Chaloner was hung from the neck until he died. He had been convicted of debasing the coinage.

In 1789, Catherine Murphy became the last woman to be executed by burning. Again, she and her co-defendants were convicted of coining.

In June 2005 Anatasios Arnaouti was jailed for 8 years for his part in producing £2.5m worth of fake £10 notes.

In 2012, Barclays was fined £290m after illegally manipulating interest rates. The head of Barclays - Bob Diamond - decided to forgo his multi-million pound bonus. He will still be awarded millions of pounds worth of shares.

The traders at RBS - fined £150 million pounds for involvement in the same crime - will not have to pay back their bonuses. Because RBS is state owned, the public will have to pay the fine.

In a mere eight hundred and eighty-eight years, we've gone from castrating people who attempt to destroy our economy - to letting them fuck us.

Mistake #1

Take a look at this rather charming advert on the Guardian's mobile site. The more astute among you will recognise the problem. I'm being advertised an iPhone game when I'm browsing the site using an Android phone. This is the fault of the Guardian - or, more likely, whoever runs their advertising department.

Well, let's click on it.

Mistake #2

The image expansion doesn't work. This is probably because it uses iPhone specific code.

Mistake #3

Let's take a look at the raw image. The image is a 135KB PNG. That's massive. At a time when unlimited downloads are under threat, it is incumbent on the mobile web designer to minimise needless data usage.

If we convert the image to a JPG, the size goes down to 26KB. Can you spot the difference in quality?

Mistake #4

What happens if we visit the destination? Ah. Apple send us to the desktop version of iTunes. This is better than what used to happen, where they tried to install iTunes!

Preventing The Problem

Every browser sends a User-Agent String. The advertising server should be configured to only send iPhone-specific adverts to iPhones.

It really is that simple. You can use services like WURFL and DeviceAtlas to automate this process if you like.

What Should Have Happened

• The advert shouldn't have been shown in the first place. The Guardian needs to ensure that the advertising space it is selling is being correctly targeted.
• The click should have gone directly to Barclays - if they saw the phone viewing the content wasn't an iPhone they should display alternate content.
• Apple needs to have a mobile friendly page. It really is that simple. A great mobile friendly page with a link that says "Want to play this games? Find your nearest Apple Store here".

Well, for those of us in the UK. For the poor sods who find themselves living in the wilderness of ROW (Rest Of World) this is their BBC experience...

BBC With Adverts

The reasons for me seeing this are rather complex and involve VPNs and a co-located BES.

Regardless, what's this advert like? The text is small and indistinct. The purpose of the message is rather vague. There's no allure. Just a static banner. How very 1996. Well, gentle reader, as you know from previous excursions, I am prepared to click where no ordinary mortal would.

Click

www.BarCap.com

Oh - as the kids say - Em Gee. What is this?

For those of you with poor eyesight, Barclays have pointed me straight at the desktop version of their website. There is no mobile friendly site in view. Not even a link to say "On a mobile? Click here."

To compound the error - the site is JavaScript heavy.  Too heavy for the BlackBerry I use to view the site.  You remember BlackBerry? The incredibly popular handset that every successful business-person carries.  You know, the target demographic.

What To Do

• Make your advert interesting.
• Make your site mobile friendly - or at least suitable for your target demographic's handset

Is it really that hard?