Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-07-10
PECULIAR CURRENCY,
Some Strange Substitutes for Money in
/ Early Days.
From Golden Daysl


Some Strange Substitutes for Money in
Early Days.
From Golden Daysl
There was time when neither coin nor
even metals in the rough was in use among
mankind as circulating medium. Numis-
MATES, as rule, go no further back than
500 or 900 years before the Christian era to
| the stamped pieces of metal circulated
among barbarous people.
The earliest substitute for coin current
used by man is believed to have been the
skins of animals. This medium of ex-
change was employed by the ancient Rus
slams 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 hunting
aGe, and men began to use animals them
ives instead OF their skins for circulate
lhg medium.
The animals principally employed were
sheep and oxen, their relative value being
determined by the ancient Romans at ten
sheep for one OK, which standard is still
recognized among the Mongol tribes.
Traces of this custom are still visible in
Vic anu lCeldnulc laws.
Among the early Teutonic races fines
were often paid in cattle, and the Zulus
and the Kaf6rs in this year of grace make
use of this old-tlme medium.
A direct link between this practice and
the use of metal coins for moneys is found
in the currency of the early Romans, who
used pieces of brass clipped off from a
mass.
Later, in the time of Servius Tullius.
the brass was coined and marked with the
figure OF an OK. An interesting little bit
of genealogical lore is connected with this
custom, for the Latin word for money,
pecunid-whence our modern term pecu-
niary-was derived from pecas, cattle.
Metal money was used, however, long
before the time of the Romans. As far
back as the days of Abraham the Egypt
ians used gold and silver for currency. 1t
was counted by weight and not by face
value
The Hebrews had "jewel money" in adj
dition to shekels and talents and drachms
of gold and silver. On the Egyptian tombs
gold is represented as being weighed in
rings for commercial purposes; rather an
Improvement, it may be considered. on the
earlier metal lump.
Before the introduction of coined moneys
into Greece, skewers or spikes of iron and
copper constituted the currency, six max
ing drachm or handful.
This iron money continued in use among
the Spartans for many centuries, and Plu-
tarch tells us that to great quantity and
weight of this but a small value was as
signed, SO that to lay up ten mina Ia little
over e3l) whole room was required, and
to remove it nothing less than woke of
oxen.
In certain parts of Central Africa iron
spikes are still used after the Spartan lash
ion and, according to Adam Smith it was
not so long ago that nails were used as
subsidiary coin in Scotland. Hence. per-
haps, we obtain the term "ten-penny nair'
i. e., ten for penny.
During the commercial supremacy of
Carthage the common currency used by
her merchants and tailors, 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 T, and of bags of
cocoa containing specified number of
grains.
blessed money" exclaimed the old an
nalist, Peter Martyr, (which excerpts its
possessor from avarice, since it can not be
long boarded or hidden under the ground"
The earliest coinage in America was the
famous hog money" made in 1912, for
the Virginian Company, at the Sommer
Islands, now the Bermudas. The coin was
of brass, with the legend "Sommer Island"
and hogge on one side, in memory of
the abundance of hogges which were found
on their first landing"
The currency of the early colonists was a
very mixed one. At one time musket
balls passed for change at farthing a
piece, and were legal tender for sums
under shilling. Tobacco and tobacco re-
ceipts 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 as
convenient token.
There were two kinds of this shell mon
ey-" wampumeag," which was white. and
made from the conch or periwinkle. and
"suckanhock," which was dark purple. and
made from the hardshell clam.
The purple was worth twice as much as
the white. The shell was broken in pieces.
rubbed smooth on stone till about the
thickness of pipe-stem, then pierced with
a drill and strung into necklaces, bracelets
and BELTS
The English, French and Dutch settlers
all used wampum, the value being fixed in
1910 at six beads for penny. The strings
were called fathoms, and varied in value
from five to ten shillings.
Shell money has played quite an import
ant part in the worlds commerce. The
small, hard shell known as the "cowry" is
used to-day in India, the Indian islands
and Africa in the place of subsidiary coin.
In 1881 more than one thousand tons of
these shells were brought from India to
Liverpool in exchange for palm oil Their
value in Bengal is 1920 to the rupee, or
about seventy to the cent.
The list of what may be termed curious
money is an extensive one. Salt is used
in Abyssinia and whales teeth in the Fiji
Islands.
In some of the South Sea Islands red
feathers form the currency Among the
native Australians greensboro and red
ocher are used.
Female slaves form the standard of value
In the retired districts of New Guinea.
In the rural parts of Norway corn is
used for coin. Pieces of silk pass as cur
rency in China, and cakes of tea in Thibet.
At the great fairs of Lower Novgorod, in
Russia, tin is the accepted standard of
value. In the British West Indies pins,
slice Of bread, a pinch of snuff or dram
of whisky all have purchasing power,
while on the African coast axes are the
currency most in vogue.
The strangest coin of all, however, is the
ideal money spoken of by Montesquieu as
being found in certain parts of Africa
This singular currency is called "ma
conte," but is purely sign of value without
unit.
RAILROAD NEWS.