Andre's expression slightly froze for a moment upon hearing this.
He certainly knew what Luo Yan was referring to, but it wasn't appropriate for him to comment further.
Every year, the Royal Mint would quietly mix some other metals in with the Gold Coins; "watering down" had long become standard practice. Perhaps this was unacceptable in the eyes of the Colin family, but in his view, it was not worth a fuss, nor even worth mentioning.
After all, what backed the Imperial Gold Coins was not gold, but the invincible fleet of the Empire and the unshakeable Imperial power.
Of course, Andre also understood that this model was unsustainable. After all, the quality of the gold ultimately had a threshold; you can't have Gold Coins with no gold at all. The Council of Elders had been troubled about this matter more than once.
Ultimately, the Empire's colonial system is far behind the current era.
