The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-01-22
COINS.
Some Interesting Facts About Metal
Money.


Robert Morris, IL. D., writing upon
the subject of coins and their collection,
says so many errors prevail among hose
whose opportunities are limited that he
gives few notes to remove false i'm
pressions. He continues: Although
some look upon coin collecting and coin
study as mere hobbies, yet thousands of
persons, even in this country, are en-
gagged in it. In all civilized countries
people are fond of following particular
pursuit for mental occupation. The
over-wrought mind must have relief,
and what subject worthier of leisure
hours than the coins which afforded
mediums of trade to nations now van
ished! l am acquainted with most of
those who, in the United States, devote
themselves, with more or less zeal, to
the fascinating pursuit, and am of
opinion that the study of historical
coins (numismatics) trains the faculties.
enlarges the scope of knowledge and
encourages a sound taste for the useful
and the beautiful.
In this paper / propose, in a desul-
tory way, to offer some corrections of
errors and some suggestions upon the
right basis of numismatic study.
A few weeks since you gave n para
graph from country journal, describ-
ing. dollar of 1888 There were no
dollars coined for several years after
that date. Another amateur in coins
boasts OF possessing " one of the oldest
coins ever made-over LOO years old
That is not to be reckoned as very old
coin. 1t would only be coin of Marcus
Aurelius, who was the seventeenth of
the series of Roman emperors. COM
mencing with Julius Caesar, B. G. A.
But we have coins 800 years older than
julius Cesar, and nearly 1000 years
older than Marcus Aurelius.
frequent mention is made in the press
OF American pennies, but pennies have
never been struck by the United States.
Our government strikes cents, not pen
nies. 1t would be rs proper to call our
cents teptG or SeSterceS us pennies. Great
Britain is the only country that strikes
pennies.
1t has been claimed recently that the
Confederate government struck silver
coins, and somebody in Alabama has
dime supposed to be Confederate coin.
This is not coin; it is medal. A
coin is always struck by q sovereign
power; medal (token, medallet) by an
individual. The Confederate govern
ment never ordered mintage of coins.
Had her independence been achieved,
she would have done so.
The striking of coin in America be-
gan, it is believed, at Boston, Mass, in
1852, when the home government
granted the colonial authorities leave to
make q certain amount. The first were
of the value of twelve pence, six pence
and three pence.
The small letter upon our silver
money refers to the p ace where struck.
Z denotes Charlotte; ID, Dahloneea; o,
New Orleans; S, San Francisco, etc.
Those having no letter were minted at
Philadelphia, which is the mother manu-
factory of all.
Turkish coins, which are very COM
mon in this country, are dated like our
own, except that instead OF A. ID. they
use A. H,-that is. the veal OF the fight
of Mohammed, called the Hegira.
Visitors to Philadelphia at the cen
tennial were advised to go to the mint
on Chestnut street, and see "the only
specimen of the widows mite in this
country" The statement is double
error. There are hundreds of genuine
copies of the leptOn (or" widows mite')
in this country to-day. On the other
hand the specimen at Philadelphia is
most likely Greek coin and not He
brew, for it has the Greek letter V
upon it, which is never seen on the gen
uine Hebrew mite.
A New York paper recently an
Roman silver coins Struck by Romulus
and Remus, B. c. 753. But the first sill.
yer money struck by the Romans WAS
in B. G. 269, some five centuries later
than the twin founders of Rome.
The motto "E Pluribus Unum" is
first seen upon copper medal struck in
1855. This was six years before the es-
tablishmant of the government mint,
and was struck, it is believed, at New
burg, n. Y, where there was private
mint at the time.
The beautiful copper coin, styled "the
Kentucky token" was struck in Eng
land to commemorate the introduction
of Kentucky Q792) into the American
Union. 1t is found in many collections,
being not a very rare piece.
But few persons have any idea of the
cumbrOus nature Of specie, especially
silver and copper. When the British
government remitted specie to Boston to
repay their colonies for their disburse-
ments in tie Louisburg campaign, the
bu uIlion was brought in ship of war
and weighed twcnt! tons; the copper
ten tons. The aggregate value was
Gl63, 700 (about $500, ,O0O.) 1t filled 2l5
chests, and required thirty-five two
horse wagons to transport it from the
dock to the treasury.
A Pennsylvania paper says in Il late
issue that one Boyd has dug out of his
garden Spanish coin dsted A. d. 500,
and therefore 1850 years old. There
are two objections to this statement;
first, that there was no Spanish govern
ment A. ID. 529; second, that coins were
not dated "A. D." at that period. To
which the third objection may perhaps
apply that there is no such man as Boyd,
and the whole story is yarn.
ia Cincinnati paper has correspondent
who claims possession of coin date A ID
s26. Impossible. Coins with dates re-
ferI ing to Ammo Domini cannot be
found earlier than the fourteenth cen
tury. There is one dated in Roman
MCCCLXXIV. (l374), and
one in Arabic numerals dated l40l. The
first English coin referring to A. u. Is
that of Edward VI, with MDXLIV.
(l544) The date of all coins struck
earlier than the fourteenth century may
be known by referring to the king in
whose reign they were minted.
1t is generally supposed that the
bronze cents and the nickel five-cent
pieces are worth intrinsically the value
marked upon their faces. Very far
from it. Reckoning nickel at 50 per
pound, the five-cent piece is worth a
cent ana quarter, 1t weighs seventy
seven grains and a fraction. The pro-
portions in the composition of it are
seventy-fve per cent. of copper and
twenty-five per cent of nickel Conner