The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-08-07

aMoNEy-FtlNaIIsH on STERIINef AND
UNIyED STATES BoNDs. heard the
other day an argument 6oncerning the
value OF English money, some contend.
ing,that aspound was "a. Al 40. uthers
$4.S4. From the bopks we gather the
condensed: - - ~" !'''''' '.-.'s.''' y
Before the revolution OF 1776, the cur
renoy Of Great Britain was thet of the
United States. The value of the pound
sterling was fixed by act Of the United
States Congress in 1899, ct 81. 40 or
$4.44 40, and this continued to be the
ferent kinds of value. The English
pound sterling is represented by gold
coin called sovereign. Its intrinsic
value, taking the United States gold CO.
gle as the standard, is $4-861. It's COM
mercial value varies, depending upon
the state Of trade between this country
and England. The tolegraphic quota
tions show the changes. The legal value
is $4.S4!. This is the United States Co.
vernment value, and is adopted in all the
custom houses in collecting duties on
goods imported, when the invoice is in
sterling money. It will readily be seen
that S4.861, the intrinsic value Of the
pound sterling is 99S per cent. above the
old par value of 81. A 40. This per cent
age is called the premium of exchange,
and must be added to the old value, in
order to express the current commercial
value Of the pound sterling. For some
reason, not perfectly clear, exchange on
England is always quoted at certain per
cent. on the old par, $444 4-1O, instead
Of the legal value in United States gold,
50. "a. and it is this the kilograms give.
The symbol e is employed to desig-
nate the pound, because it is the first
letter Of the Latain word Libra; which
signifies o pound; the first letter of the
Latin solidus, which is the name of q
Roman coin, about equal in value to the
modern shilling, "a 2-1O, or % 2.1O
cents, taking the legal or commercial
value of the pound is issued to denote
shilling. Dendrius is the name of O Ro-
man coin, which being about equal to
the modern penny, the initial letter d
has been taken to signify penny, equal
to about two cents. according to legal,
and, l-S cents commercial value; and q
stands for the Ladin quadrans, signify
ing a.quarter or fourth, equal to about
5 mills, no, or mills, according to the
legal or commercial value
1t Is said the penny was originally
divided by deeply indented cross, into
four quarters, which might be separated
by breaking them apart, and thus the
penny would be divided into four things
or farthings:
The English current coin is described
IN legal language as sterling money.
During the middle ages, certain enter
prising traders from Germany and the
shores of the Baltic visited London, and
some of them were probably engaged in
coming. The common people gave the
name OF .sEasterling" to these traders,
because they came from country East
of England. The pence coined by these
traders were called ''Easterlings'' also,
and by easy transition the name elides
into ''sterlings."
A grain of wheat is said to be the foun-
dation of all weights in use in England.
A law passed 1866 declared that an "Eng-
ish penny, called the sterling, round,
without clipping, shall weigh 80 grains
of wheat, we'll dried and gathered ont of
the middle of the ear" The penny
weight was afterwards divided into ri
equal parts, still called grains, md in
this form we still have it.
UNITED STATES MONEY. word
dime was formerly spelt disme, and is
French word meaning 1.-THE or tenth.
Lie cent, ono-nundredth part OF dol
lar, takes its name from the Latin word
centuna, hundred; the mill, one thou
sandth of o dollar, is from the Latin
word mile, one thousand.
By act of Congress in 17SG, the dollar
was declared the unit of Federal money,
and divided into decimals Tho mark,
5. is supposed to have originated from
the letters U S written one upon the
other.
The dollar German, dahler) is a piece
OF money first coined in 1913, in the val
ley of st. Joachim, in Bohemia. The
silver coin of the United States Weighs
All grains, and is equivalent to four
shillings, two pence sterling. AS every
body knows, the eagle is gold coin of
the value of ten dollars Columbus San.
A FINANCIAL WARNING.-The New
York Times says: