mortua manus, dead hand — property held in perpetuity by something that never dies, and so never lets go.
Why it works
Post something in a custom typeface and the app sets it in its own font instead — the same way Pages or Word swaps a face it does not have. Every platform does this, and there is no setting that stops it.
Mortmain goes around the problem rather than at it. The converter does not send a font anywhere; it swaps each letter for a currency character that already exists in Unicode and is already installed on every phone. A bio, a caption, a display name, a comment, a text message: the characters arrive intact, because to the platform they are just text.
X, Instagram, TikTok, Discord, LinkedIn, iMessage, email subject lines, Spotify playlist titles. Copy from the note above and paste. The device picks the face, so the letterforms will not be Mortmain's own — use As it posts to see roughly what other people will get.
Install the typeface and the substitution happens in the font itself: type MORTMAIN in plain letters and it sets as marks, with the text underneath still readable and searchable. This is the version with the real drawing in it — for covers, titles, print, and anything you export as an image or PDF.
The plate
| A ▾ | Mark | Currency ▾ | Issuer | Standing ▾ | In use from ▾ | Years in circulation ▾ | Note |
|---|
Roman dates are conventional and approximate; coins do not stop circulating on a Tuesday. Sterling is dated from the Anglo-Saxon silver penny standard, which is the usual claim behind calling it the oldest currency still in use.
Since 1450
Three of them are in this alphabet. Only one of the three still holds it — and it is the one you are currently paid in.
Specimen
A unicase display face. High contrast, flat serifs, every capital struck through or overlaid until it reads as currency. Set here in the face itself — if you are seeing plain letters, the font did not load.
Reverse
The alphabet is one-to-one, so anything encoded can be decoded. Case does not survive the trip — everything comes back as capitals.
Plain text
The typeface
Mortmain Regular — free to download and use.
One weight, unicase, TrueType and WOFF2. Glyphs are derived from GNU FreeFont (FreeSerif) and inherit its licence: the GNU General Public License with the font exception. That means it stays free — you may use it in any document or product, including commercially, but the typeface itself may not be sold on its own, and derivative fonts must carry the same licence.
Glyphs derived from GNU FreeFont (FreeSerif) · GPL with font exception · Version 1.0