The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-05
OF Lhe prnoLIoe Of eoInIpg Do LheIr

he tetIadfachm OF Athens is farther down, perhapo
The golden darc OF Persia, coined by Darius, but
which one of that name is uncertAih' It's age ~ uO"'
g. The bronze tris tone-third Of the ds OF Roman m
! pound Of the young republic OF hone' @ "oO"' '"e
couple Of farther down the dates become come
be allowed: but some cases the exact year OF coin
"ET me G o1eson, Flow many varieties counting the
@ dies 81 eannot be answered BY anybody
any no tyo snSwers s s w9uta 6e Anywhere near
largely written upon and yet much remains uncer-
tain Soilect3rs Oh ofen make trivial variation the
unable to give an answer on this point.
N'SPfctIiHy e. r. HfSDERMxN S1isR Director of the Mint
American mOney-cOins must have numbered
nearly 1000. The earliest was a brass penny,
struck in the Bermudas in 1912 for the Vir-
ginia colony. In William and Mary's reign
copper pennies made in London for our North
ern and Southern settlements bore the notices:
-"God preserve New England 20 "God pre-
serve Carolina and the Lords Proprietors !"
Massachusetts, authorized silver coinage in
1862 and other colonies soon after.
In 1855 Congress adopted our present sys-
tenn, from the $40 piece down. 1t originated
with Thomas Jefferson, that many-sided man
born of aristocraoy, yet an incarnate demo-
crat-reared in the wilderness, yet graced with
every accomplishment - interested alike in
natural science, farming, music, architecture,
and government--designing the Capitol of his
native State, adding half our present territory
to the Union, and leaving for his monument
the proud record:-"Founder of the Univer-
sity of Virginia, author of the Statute of Re-
ligious Freedom and the Declaration of Inde-
pendence."
"Mill' was from the Latin MILE one thou
sandth of dollar scent" from centtnu-one-
hundredth; "dime" (formerly written disme)
from decen-one tenth; "dollar'' from the
German dahler, or thaler, and "eagle' from
our chosen bird. We selected an American
species; but the eagle had already figured in
old mythologies, Roman, Greek, Hindoo, and
Scandinavian, and on many a martial standard
from the Etruscans to the Poles. Franklin
always cavilled at it as our national emblem,
ON the ground that this thief and pirate of the
air subsists by preying upon the defenseless.
The fathers long debated whether to adopt the
eagle or the rattlesnake. In favor of the latter
they plausibly urged that he never attacks
until mOlested, and never strikes without
giving his enemy fair warning. Upon early
devices he occupies the place Of honor, some
times with the significant nscription:-"Don't
tread on me?" A Continental note even repre-
sents him as giving the death-stroke to an at
tacking eagle. Modern days reverse the pic
ture. Now the official seals of Mexico and New
Mexico both exhibit the dishonored reptile
in the clutches of the victorious bird.
Our first Federal coin-one cent, struck in
New Haven-bore the wholesome injunction
"Mind your own business i" There is a
legend, Interesting if true," that when
Washington saw his face upon the earliest
silver dollar, he peremptorily ordered the dies
to be destroyed. Cents and half dollars of
1912 still bear his profile. The first head
of Liberty on our coin bore the features of
Martha Washington.
''Bank'' we get from banco, bench; be-
cause in Italian towns Jewish money-lenders,
in the yellow bonnets which law compelled
them to wear, used to drive their hard bar
gains upon long wooden seats in the market
places. The Bank of Venice, the first in Eu-
rope, was established in I'LL, to aid Govern
ments in raising funds for the Crusades. 1t
was monetary Methuselah and flourished for
more than six hundred years. It's earliest
paying-teller, perhaps, counted out shining
fOrins to Richard the Lion-Hearted. It's latest
may have cashed a draft for John Quincy
Adams. There, "Signor Antonio'' must have
kept his account; and the banks refusal to
discount his little note-the mere bagatelle of
three thousand ducats for ninety days-is
shrouded in mystery. Possibly "Shylock, ," and
old Tubal, that wealthy Hebrew of his tribe,
had been fomenting a panic about him.
Shakespeare AYERS that the merchant was
good; but then the poet was no money-lender.
In HGmiethe even offers to advance a thousand
pounds to the ghost, without an indorser-a
less to the Rialto.
At last the Bank of Venice fitly fell, with
the hundred-isled city. 1t was overthrown
when that gorgeous Queen of the Adriatic
yielded her crown to the revolutionary armies
of France. The Bank of England was founded
during a French war in 1894 to aid William
and Mary, who had been paying 40 per cent a
year for loans. Both our old United States
Banks-like our present National system
were also born of disorders which war had
produced in Government finances.
1t required a cart and yoke of oxen to haul
800 of the iron money of Lycurgus. Now,
the boyish messenger of National bank skips
down Broadway with a million of currency in
his little sack. And Samuel Rogers, banker
and poet, had note for one million pounds
sterling framed and hung in his parlor. Why
did he not sing the Pleasures of Possession
rather than the pleasures of Memory"
In the Congressional Library is a rare old
| scrap book filled with antique specimens OF
American paper currency. They number 26O,
though few of the early issues are there, and
none come down to the adoption of the Con-
stitution. A full collection until now would
probably reach TO- 600 notes, public and private.
The earliest simply bears the words:-"One
Penny. Massachusetts,. June, l722." 1t has
! no signature, and its execution would not serve
us for the label of a matchbox. Then follow
issues of the other colonies. New Jersey notes,
authorized in 1928, were engraved by one Ben
| iamin Franklin, then journeyman printer OF
%. He also fashioned hand-press for striking
them off. That runaway Boston apprentice
that leather-aproned Philadelphia editor-ne-
chanic and diplomat-jester and statesman
trader, inventor, patriot, philosopher, philau-
I,,vrr l. sy al