The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-02-13

of people who crossed his palm with q
fifty-six pound weight. In the time OF
Homer, says Mr.. Gladstone, iron was
more valuable than copper, though less
valuable than silver and gold, which
held the same relative rank that they do
now, and which they have substantially
maintained throughout the entire bis
toric period. It was therefore employed
as copper, bronze and nickel now are, in
the form, however, Of spikes and ingots,
as a subsidiary currency to the two
former metals. In Japan and, as we
have mentioned, in Scotland, it once
circulated in various small convenient
forms as the acknowledged unit Of value.
in some portions of Africa its value by
weight has frequently exceeded that Of
gold, though such reversal OF the ordi-
nary ratios Of value would, OF course, be
local and transitory. :..-.., ...-
In New England, in the early colonial
days, leaden bullets were employed to
indicate value, and that metal ls still
coined and circulated in Burmah. Pew
ter has often been coined, and in many
countries, though not to the same extent
as tin. In fact tin coins are not only OF
immense antiquity, but their, impress
has been sanctioned by Government au-
thority down to a recent period. The
Phonician mariners freighted their gal
leys with the tin of Britain before Gar
thage was founded, and coins OF the same
oiled the wheels of commerce in the
,marts of Tyre and Sidon before Solomon
built the temple at Jerusalem. In Eng
land as late as the period of William and
Mary tin haf-pence and farthings were
struck, though they failed to become a
permanent part of the circulation. In.
numismatical collections, series OF tip
coins stamped with the efigy and legend
of several of the Roman emperors are
abundant. In Java as well as Mexico
tin coins were once current, and the
metal, measured by weight, is still a sort
OF legal tender in the Straits of Malacca.
In all civilized countries, however,
gold, silver and copper have always COL
stituted the main elements of coinage and
the most familiar forms of currency.
The ratio of value between the first two
has probably varied less during the last
$500 years than that between any other
known substances. Copper has fuctu-
ated more, but it's function has always
been subsidiary and limited to small
transactions. In the hierarchy of the
metals used as coins, gold may represent
the king, silver the lord, and copper the
slave. The latter is now practically
emancipated, bronze and nickel taking
it's place, Indium, osmium, and palla'
dunn have been proposed as substitutes
for gold, and aluminium and mangan-
ese for silver, but without any practical
result thns far. Platinum, which is
mainly found in the Ural mountains, has
been coined to some extent by the Rus
sian Government; but, although beau
tiful and valuable metal, possessing
many OF the qualities to render it &C.
ceptable as coin, it's employment as
money has been found to be impracti-
cable.
Great numbers of alloys have been en-
ployed in coinage, and indeed it may be
said that almost the entire system Of me.
tallic currency throughout the world is
composed of alloys. The Tuscan sequin,
the purest coin known in history, con-
tanned 999 parts of gold in 1000. The
six-ducat piece Of Naples was next in
purity, : having unly'~an alioy of four
while old Byzantine coins called bezants,
contained an alloy of fourteen parts in
1000. Pure gold and silver, however,
are soft metals, and untempered by
others, are subject to serious loss by
abrasion. They are, therefore, rendered
more useful by the admi1ture of a small
portion of copper, which, in the English
system, in the case of gold, may be ex-
pressed decimally by 916 &c, and Of silver
925 parts in 1000. Nickel is usually
alloyed with three parts of copper. The
The old Roman as was made of the mix
ed metal called gs. q compound OF cop
per and tin, and in quality and value not
unlike bronze. Brass was also extensive.
" used from the time of Hiram of Tyre
to that Of the Emperor Otho. The old
kings of Northumbria coined small
money called stycas out of natural all
10y, composed of "copper", zinc, gold,
61t6l, 1c2tU huA olu, W11ASa oho h1Ss<SAAoA
gists of that rude northern coast had not
enough chemical skill to separate.
While the iron coins of Lycurgus al
ready referred to were the largest OF
which historic mention is made, the
Portuguese rel, too small to be actually
coined, is doubtless the smallest unit OF
value in the money systems of the world:
1t is only about the nineteenth part OF
an English penny, and is considerably
smaller than the Chinese cash, which, of
actual coins, is perhaps of the lowest
value. known. In Sweden, during the
last century. huge squares OF copper,
weighing between three and four pounds,
with stamp in each corner and one in
the center, were issued as coin, and Gu
rious specimens ofithem may still be seen
in numismatical collections. These,
with the Maundsy money, small por-
ton of which is still annually struck at
the British mint, and distributed by her
majesty in aims, probably represent the
EXTREMIST variation of dimensions known
among modern systems of coinage, the
smallest piece of the Maunday money
being silver penny.
puffalo RuIlS prOtpcfing Calf.