One of the first commercially produced pieces of protection for rock climbers appeared in 1962 when blacksmith and mountain guide, John Brailsford produced the MOAC. Its distinctive wedge shape would be copied by various outdoor gear manufacturers for decades to come, the most notable of these perhaps being American, Yvon Chouinard, with his Stoppers which were little more than a refined version of the MOAC. Simond are a French company, based in Chamonix, beneath the mighty Mont Blanc. Its founder, Claudius Simond, was a blacksmith too, famed amongst alpinistes worldwide for his ice axes and crampons. We think around 1980, Simond, now run by descendants of Claudius, started producing wedges themselves for the vast French market. Looking remarkably similar to Chouinard Stoppers, they produced sets, as we have here in the collection, though we don’t know if they had a specific name, but as ‘wedge’ is ‘coin’ in french maybe they should have called them ‘coins’….maybe they did! Anyway, our founder, Mick Tighe, acquired this set somewhere along the way and donated them to the collection. It’s not often he parts with his ‘coins’!