The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1890-08-16
MONEY In EARLY DAYS
SOME STRANGE sUBsTTrUrEs Used
FOR GOLD AND SILVER COIN.


Were tho First 20 Adopt Metal Cur
yency- Musket balls and Wampum OF
Colonial Days-shsii Money.
There was time when neither coin
nor even metals in the rough was in use
among mankind as a circulating medium.
Numismatics. as a rule, 90 no further
back than 800 or 900 years before the
Christian era 10 the stamped pieces OF
metal circulated among the Greeks and
Lydians.
1t may be OF interest. says Golden
Days, to glance at some Of the early
forms of currency and at the strange
substitutes for money still in use among
barbarous people.
The earliest substitute for coin current
used by man is believed 10 have been the
skins OF animals. This medium of ex-
change was employed by the ancient
Russians, and also by the first settlers OF
this country. Certain tribes OF the
Alaskan Indians to-day use the pelts of
bears and foxes for currency.
The pastoral age succeeded the hunt
ing age, and men began to use animals
themselves instead Of their skins for
circulating medium.
The animals principally employed were
sheep and oxen, their relative value be-
ing determined by the ancient Romans
at 10 sheep for OK, which standard is
still recognized among the Mongol tribes.
Traces of this custom are still visible in
the Irish and Iceland laws
Among the early Teutonic races fines
were often paid in cattle, and the Zulus
and Kaffirs in this year of grace make
use of this old time medium.
A direct link between the practice and
the use of metal coins for moneys Is
found in the currency of the early Ro-
mans, who used pieces of brass clipped
OIL from mass.
Later. in the time of Servius Tullius.
the brass was coined and marked with
the figure of an OK. An interesting lit.
tie bit of chronological lore Is connected
with this custom, for the Latin word for
money, "pecunia whence our modern
term pecuniary-was derived from "pe-
Gus, cattle.
Metal money was used, however, long
before the time of the Romans. As far
back as the days of Abraham the Egyp-
tians used gold and silver for currency.
1t was counted by weight, and not by
face value.
The Hebrews had Jewel money" in
addition TO shekels and talents and
drachms of gold aud silver. On the
Egyptian tombs gold is represented az
being weighed in rings for commercial
purposes, rather an Improvement, il may
be considered, on the earlier metal lump.
Before the introduction of coined
money into Greece, skewers or spikes of
iron and copper constituted the currency,
six making drachm or handful.
This iron money continued in use
among the Spartans for many centuries,
and Plutarch tells US that 10 great
quantity and weight of this but a small
value was assigned, SO that TO lay up 10
minm "a little over f3D whole room
was required, and to remove it nothing
less than yoke of oxen.
In certain parts of central Africa iron
spikes are still used after the Spartan
fashion; and, according TO Adam Smith,
it was not SO long ago that nails were
used as a subsidiary coin i'm Scotland.
Hence, perhaps. we obtain the term stem
penny nall. e., ten for penny.
During the commercial supremacy Of
Carthage the common currency used by
her merchants and sailors, both in their
trade at home and with foreign nations,
was pieces of leather stamped with the
arms of the powerful republic.
The currency of the Aztecs consisted
of transparent quilts of gold dust. of bits
of tin cut in the form of I, and of bags
of cocoa containing specified number Of
grains
Blessed money, exclaims the old an
nalist. Peter Martyr, (which excerpts its
possessor from avarice, since il can not DO
long boarded or hidden under ground.
The earliest coinage in America was
the famous "hog money. made in 1912,
for the Virginia Company. nc the Som
mer Islands, now the Bermudas The
coin was Of brass, with the legend "Som-
mer Island, and a" hogge on one side, in
memory OF the abundance of hogges
which were found on their first land
ing"
The currency of the early colonists was
very mixed one. AT one time muskct
balls passed for change at a farthing
apiece, and were legal tender for sums
under shilling. Tobacco and tobacco
receipts were also legal tender. and corn,
beans, Goldfish, and peltries were likewise
employed.
Wampum, the shell bead money of the
Indians, was the currency most in use,
however. being accepted by the colonists
a. convenient token.
There ware two kinds of thia shall