Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-11-20
interesting Facts About Money.
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Interesting Facts About Money.
lContinued from first page.]
changed the unit of value from thesilver
dollar to the gold dollar and in order to
remove all doubts In relation to the silver
dollar being any longer the unit of value,
Its weight was increased y grains, al
though withou increase. it was Intrinsic
ally worth three cents more than the
gold dollar, at the price of silver bullion
at that time. In February, 1873, the
old silver dollar was restored by act Of
Congress, but its quality as the unit Of
value was not restored, and the gold dol
lar Is now the unit of value in the United
States. Congress has, from time to time,
enacted laws making legal tender, for
limited sums, of copper and nickle coins,
Notwithstanding the deni.l that Con-
gress has the right to make any thing
but gold and silver coins legal tender,
and these minor coins are now legal
tender for sums of twenty-five cents or
less. The coinage of the half cent was
prohibited BY an act passed in 1857.
THE INVENTION OF COINED MONEY, ETC.
History is silent in respect TO the in
vention of coined metal for use as money.
Nearly 1900 years before Christ, Abra>
ham returned from Egypt every rich in
cattle, in silver, and in gold;" and in his
purchase Of the cave of Machpelah, he
weighed out the co consideration agreed
upon, 1900 shekels of silver, current
money with the merchant" The pre-
cious metals were not coined at that
time, but were used in the form of wedges
or bars, and had to be carefully weighed
every time they were used in making a
purchase. Herodotus says that the Lyd-
ians, as far as he knew. were the first
who struck money; and although the
oldest specimens of coin now extant have
usually been supposed to be Grecian,
there are reasons for thinking with Her.
odotus that the invention was Asiatic.
Coins were probably used as early as the
eighth century before Christ, and by tho
fourth century before CHRIST they were
found throughout the civilized world, ev-
cry nation having its proper coinage.
The early coins of ASIA Minor we're of
-electrum, mixture of gold and silver, in
the proportion of three parts of gold to
one part of silver. Lycurgus banished
gold and silver, and made the money of
Sparta OF iron, 500 worth Of which re-
CURED a cart and two oxen to remove it.
Copper formed the early money of the
Romans; and when Caesar landed in
Britain, coins of brass and iron were
found. Tin was coined by Charles H.,
and JAMES II. even resorted to gun met>
al and pewter. Coins Of platinum were
formerly struck in Russia, but its use for
that purpose has recently been abandoned.
PRIVATE COINAGE.
In the United States the power to coin
money is prohibited to the several States,
but individually citizens are left perfectly
free to coin money, provided the coins
thus made be not in resemblance or
similitude'' of the gold or silver coins is
sued from the mint. Considerable
amounts Of private gold coins have been
struck and circulated in different parts of
the country Such were the coins issued
by Reid, of Georgia; the Bechtlers, of
North Carolina; the Mormons in Utah,
and several private minis in California.
1.-THE MONEY OF THE WORLD"
Much has been said about the money
of the world, but there is no such thing
in existence. Gold and silver in state
Of purity are soft and ductile, and guam
tity of alloy is added to these metals,
when coined, to give the pieces sufficient
hardness to render them reasonably Sc
cure from abrasion. There is differ
ence in the quantity of alloy used by the
nations respectively, SO that the quality
and value of the metal in the coins differs
very materially. The tineness ofthe met
al is usually designated by fractions of a
thousand; that is, coin 986 fine would
contain 986 parts Of pure metal and IA
parts of alloy, making thousand parts
in all. How near any Of the coins come
to being the money of the world" is
shown by the following, which exhibits
the great diversity of the fineness and
consequent value of the metal coined into
money in the several countries. Both the
gold and silver money of the United States
are 900 fine; nine-tenths pure metal and
one-tenth alloy. The gold coins of the
principal countries are as follows: The
ducat, of Austria, is 986 fine; the coins
of Belgium, 800 fine; Bolivia, $40 fine;
Brazil, 9171S fine; Central America,
$3.50 fine; Chilli, $40 and 900 fine; Den
mark, 1916 fine; England, 91615 fine;
France, 800 fine; Germany, 903 and 900
fine; Italy, 1913 fine; Japan, old cobang
568 and 572 fine, and twenty yens 600
fine; Ecuador, 844 fine; Mexico, the fine
ness varies from s66 to s73; Portugal,
912 fine; Russia, 916 fine; Spain, 896 fine;
Sweden, ducat 875, carolin 900 fine; Tus-
cany 999 fine, almost perfect purity. The
fineness of the silver coins varies from the
"specie daler" Of Sweden, $50 fine to the
"itzebu" of Japan, 991 fine. The alloy is
usually copper or silver or both. Part of
| section 1914 of the Revised Statutes of
the United States reads as follows:
"The alloy of the silver coins shall be Of
| copper. The alloy of the gold coins shall DO
If copper, or Of copper and silver; but the
| silver shall in no case exceed one tenth Of the
whole alloy"
MARKET REPORT.