Amazingly, former arch-swindler-turned-Postmaster General Moist von Lipwig has somehow managed to get the woefully inefficient Ankh-Morpork Post Office running like . . . well, not like a government office at all. Now the supreme despot Lord Vetinari is asking Moist if he'd like to make some real money. Vetinari wants Moist to resuscitate the venerable Royal Mint–so that perhaps it will no longer cost considerably more than a penny to make a penny.Moist doesn't want the job.
However, a request from Ankh-Morpork's current ruling tyrant isn't a “request” per se, more like a “once-in-a-lifetime-offer-you-can-certainly-refuse-if-you-feel-you've-lived-quite-long-enough.” So Moist will just have to learn to deal with elderly Royal Bank chairman Topsy (nee Turvy) Lavish and her two loaded crossbows, a face-lapping Mint manager, and a chief clerk who's probably a vampire. But he'll soon be making lethal enemies as well as money, especially if he can't figure out where all the gold has gone.
Discworld stories stand alone as independent works set in the same fantasy universe. However, a number of the books can be grouped into grand story arcs dealing with a set number of characters and events – This title is part of the MOIST VON LIPWIG and ANKH MORPORK arcs, and was the 36th Discworld book to be published.
