Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1876-08-05
WHAT HAS PASSED FOR MONEY.

Many things have been used at diff
ferent times for money cowre shells il
Africa; wampum or beads made o.
clam shells, by American Indians; soar
by Mexico. The Carthagenians use(
leather for money, probably bearing
some mark or stamp. Frederick H., a
the siege of Milan, reviving this Gus
tom, issued stamped leather as money
In 1850, John the Good, King o.
France, who was taken prisoner by the
celebrated Black Prince, and sent te
England until ransomed, also used
leather money, having a small silver mai
in the middle. Salt is the money in
Abyssinia; Goldfish in Iceland and
Newfoundland. "Living money" slaves
and oxen, passed current in ancient
Greece and among the Anglo. Saxons
in payment of debts. Adam Smith
says that in his day there was village
in Scotland where it was not uncommon
for the women to carry nails instead oi
money to the barber's shop and ale
house. Marco Polo found in China
money made of the bark of the mulberry
tree, bearing the stamp of the sovereign,
which is death to counterfeit, it being
the earliest specimen of paper money.
Tobacco was generally used as money
in Virginia, up to 1860, fifty-seven
years after the foundation of the colony,
and men bought wives for such a
weight of tobacco; while in Canada
the beaver-skin being the great staple,
was, in like manner, made unit, and
all transactions estimated 10 beaver.
The legislature of Massachusetts once
enacted that wheat should be received
in payment of all debts, and the con-
vention lin France, during the revolu-
ton. on the proposition Of Jean Bon
Saint Andrea, long discussed the pro-
priety of adopting wheat as money, as
the measure of the value of all things.
Platina was coined in Russia from 1928
to 1845. But the metals best adapted
and most generally used as coin are
copper, nickel, silver and gold, the first
two being now used for coins of small
value, to make change; the two latter,
commonly designated as the precious
metals, measures of value and legal ten
ders. On the continent of Europe a
composition of silver and copper, called
bullion, has long been used for small
coins, which are made current at a
much higher value than that of the
metal they contain.
In China Sycee silver is the principal
currency, and is merely inSot silver of
uniform tineness paid and received by
weight. Spanish dollars also circulate
there, but only after they have been
stamped as proof that they are of the
standard fineness. As Asia Minor pro-
duced gold, its earliest coinage was that
of metal. Italy and Sicily possessing
copper, bronze was first coined there.
Heroditus says the Lydians were the
first people known to have coined gold
and silver. They had gold coins at the
close of the ninth century B. C. Greece
proper only at the close of the eight
century B. c. Servius Tullius, King
of Rome, made the pound weight of
copper currency money. The Romans
first coined silver 281 B. G., and gold
2O7 B. c. Some nations, although
they worked the metals with skill, seem
never to have coined money, and such
was the case with the Irish, of whom no
coins are know prior to the English in
vasion in the twelfth century.