The historic times., 1891-10-17

Of the soldiers monument which is to
be placed In Garfield square, Potts
vile, says: 81 have sought everywhere
almost for true head of Liberty, and
/ have come to the conclusion that the
best head is that which at the present
time has place on our silver dollar
I propose to use it on account of its be-
ing the best representation of Liberty
that can, in my judgment, be found. T"
Mr. Morgan, in order to get the de-
sirn for the head which was accepted.
selected as his model Miss Annie
Williams, a young school-teacher, who
had, Mr. Morgan said, ''the purely
American features"
Quite a number of people have been
under the impression that Mr.. Morgan's
wife's head had been used as a model
for the perfection of the design, but
such was not the case.
Regarding the dollar mark writers
are not agreed as to the derivation of
this sign to represent the word dollar
or dollars. Some contend that it comes
from the letters u and S, which, after
the adoption of the federal constitution,
were prefxed to the currency OF the
new United States, and which after
ward, in the hurry of writing, were
run into each other, the being made
first and the over it
Others say that the contraction Is
from the Spanish pesos. dollars; others
still believe 1t to be derived from 7Lne
Spanish word fuertes, meaning hard,
SO called to designate silver and gold
from paper or soft money. The more
plausible explanation of the puzzle is
this: That it is a modification of the
figure s, and that the character, as we
mark It, denotes that we are speaking,
or writing, of a sum of money equal to
eight reals; or, as the dollar was former
" called "a piece of eight.
In the early history of the dollar,
when everybody knew it as a piece of
mention it in their articles did so by
making this character: (S)
0
The two eights and the double hy-
phen gradually "evoluted" until it
came out as S
A word relative to the origin of the
old shinplasters, emanating from no
less source than the late Gen. t. L.
Spinner, whose unique autograph will
long be remembered, may not be amiss
at this particular point:
"When all the silver mad been paid
out of the treasury of the United States
early in 1862 procured from the post
Office department quantities of postage
stamps for the purpose of making
change My recollection now Is that at
that time five and ten-cent stamps
were the only kind in use.
$50, to facilitate the making of change,
had the stamps pasted on slips of pa
per so as to make 25 and 80 cents. This
was done after an agreement with Mr..
Montgomery Blair, the then postmas-
ter general, that he would redeem them
in that condition in postage stamps 1t
was soon found that this mode Of pro-
cedure was impracticable.
Il then persuaded the postmaster
general to procure the engraving and
printing of fac SMILES of the postal
compound postage stamp. These the
treasurer bought from the postmaster
general under an agreement that the
post Office department should redeem
them. This was what was called pos
tai currency"
The postmaster general soon became
tired of the additional responsibility
and labor that the issuing and redemp-
tion of this currency threw upon his
Office, and he urged that the treasurer
should relieve him of it. lie then pro-
cured the passage of law by congress
for the printing of a currency which
would represent the fractions Of dol
lar
These were engraved and printed in
denominations of 8, 5, 10, Is, IS and so
cent notes, and in contradistinctlon To
the postal currency were called frac-
tional currency, and were receivable
for all government dues.
Connected with the Unit cd States
treasury is one of the most re markable
coin experts in the world lie is the
coin examiner. and has the remarkable
gift of discerning the slightest fraud in
specie without being able exactly TO
tell how it is done.
If counterfeit piece be conc ealed in
q heap of money he will detect it blind
folded. lie runs his fingers through
the mass, and in few moments every
coin is tested This is the result of
that remarkable power of touch which
is only perfected by long practice.
When Treasurer Huston came into |
his Office he gave a receipt for what the !
treasury vaults contained, and this re-
ceiptswas the largest ever given In the |
history of the world A fac-simile OF
it is framed and hung up in the trcasur-
er's Office and it represents S77i,432, |
80. 453l.
Over 90 per cent of the silver
produced in The country passes through |
the hands Of q few banks and firms /
which make it their special business in /
New York and San Francisco In fact, |
three or four houses moropolize tho /
greater part of the trade, and to them |
silver IS consigned for sale by the min