[Avodah] Panim Chadashos in an era of mass production

[Akiva Miller]

.
R' Micha Berger asked:

> But if it's about appearnace (tzurah, mar'eh according to the
> SM or dimensions according to Rashi), then is this still true?
> Aren't today's mass produced items so consistent that a human
> can't tell them apart? And therefore if the same metal was made
> using the same die to make a coin, there would be no change.
> Seems to me.

At first I wanted to agree. To the modern eye, modern coins are all
clones of each other, but the ancient ones are unique pieces of
artwork, each unto themselves: This one is a little off-center in this
direction, and that one has a little too much metal over there, and so
on.

But I think Perek Eilu Metzios would disagree. See Rashi, right there
at the beginning of the perek (Bava Metzia, chap 2): "Maos mefuzaros -
Scattered coins, since they don't have a recognizable siman, people
give up on them, and they are hefker."

Mass-produced is mass-produced. Things haven't changed as much as we
might think.

Akiva Miller