The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1894-03-24
CURIOUS COINS.
SPECIMENS PRESERVED IN
TIE PHILADELPHIA MINT.
Some of Them Of Vast Antiquity
The Pet Eagle Of the Mint Queer
Things for Money.

Things for Money.
The wonderful collection OF coins
at the United States Mint in Phila
delphia has been made at cost Il
the government hardly more thar
nominal. 1t was begun in 1888 says
the Washington Star but previously
custom had been established Of pre-
serving what are termed master
coinsP'-that is to say. the first pieces
of new issues. Such proof pieces
are always made with unusual care,
and retain the beauty which is sc
quickly marred in circulation. Thus
the numismatic cabinet had already
a nucleus, which exhibited the his
tory ana development Of American
coinage up TO that date. Since then
the series Of proof pieces has been
Congress has supplied money for
purchasing foreign coins. In 1899
81 600 was appropriated for that pur-
pose, and since then $500 year has
been given.
OF course, such small sums would
not 90 very far, but other means have
been adopted for adding to and en-
riching the collection. A good many
coins have been secured by exchange,
while thousands of valuable ones have
been obtained for merely their bull
lion value by keeping watch on the
foreign money Of all sorts sent into
the mint for melting. In such money
every now and then rare and inter
esting piece turns up and is rescued
from destruction. United States
consuIs abroad missionaries and
other citizens have presented numer-
Gus coins 10 Uncle Sam for this coll
lection.
One OF the most interesting of the
coins is an oval plate of gold four
inches long. 1t is the 'oban" OF
Japan and is worth S75. 1t has a
smooth and polished surface, into
which an inscription is burned with
chemicals. Formerly it was the law
that anybody who took gold oban
out ot Japan should be punished with
death, supposing the crime TO be
intentional; if it were accidental,
the offender was to be imprisoned
for life. Recently Japan has
adopted the American system Of
coinage.
one trouble that embarrasses the
financial problem in the land of the
mikado j. that the ordinary working
people i'm that country have no pock-
cts. Without pockets what is one go
ing TO do with coins? TO carry ones
ready cash in one : mouth is not al
ways convenient, particularly at
meal time, though many persons me
satisfied t. use that receptacle on or
dinary occasions as II portemonnaie.
In Japan the difficulty was got over
formerly by making the coins with
square holes in the centre, through
which II was easy to pass string
thus rendering il practicable TO carry
them about i'm the shape OF neck
lace. The absence Of perforations in
the modern japanese currency has
given rise to SO much popular diScon-
tent that new copper piece worth
nearly cent is now being struck for
the benefit Of the masses.
The Chinese claim that they have
had coined money for more than
1000 years. Many Of their coins are
supposed to have magical properties
aud TO operate rs charms for the pro-
lection of the pOS>esSor against fever
and the devil. 1t is ON this account
that when a Chinaman dies II small
piece oi money is placed in his mouth.
The same custom was followed in
ancient Rome. but the coin was in
tended to pay the passage Of the de- !
funct across the waters of the river |
Styx. Some Of the Chinese coins used |.
as charms are covered with mystical |
characters and symbolic animals. The |
Chinese have money Of porcelain al |
so. The coin Of the least value in the
world is Japanese, 1000 being re-
quired to make Sl.
Not less curious are the Samese
coins. some Of them are known as
bullet money being merely Jumps |
of silver and gold hammered into a
rudely spherical shape, with charac-
ters stamped on them. They bear as
h'Nl't lllt NuCEtu Nilllt tltDD0tlU. |
In Burmah the peacock is a sacred |
animal, and for that reason il APP
pears on some Of the coins from |
that country. A very extraordinary |
Burmese piece of money is an ordi-
nary gravel stone iuclosed in circlet |
of brass.
There is one small case i'm the cab |
met which contains only one solitary !
coin. An inscription says that the |
piece was struck in the Philadel- |
phia mint at least 1900 years ago"
The mint in which it was stamped, |
however, was not in the Quaker City, !
bnt in the city Of Attalus Philadel- |
phus, Asia Minor, from which Will !
liam Penn took the name for the
town OF 'brotherly love" There are
also some specimens of the gold shell
money-made out OF gold beaten into
the shape of shells by African ma
tives, who supplied Portuguese slave
traHarS with 9Iaua1 TLaaa ,..o.,