The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-08-09
THE OLD SPANISH COINS.
Recollections of the fps and Levies of OuI
Grandfather's Days.

Recollections of the fps and Levies of Our
Grandfather's Days.
''No one born in this generation in
this country knows anything about the
Old-time fps and levies that consti-
tuted a large portion of the subsidiary
coin in circulation as late as the break
ing out of the civil war" said Col. c. A.
Pine, of the Port Jervis Gazette, who
remembers everything. These We're
Spanish coins, and they got into circu-
ldtion in this country through some
pecuniary settlement between the gov
ernments of the United States and
Spain.
Fifty years ago very few silver coins
from our mint were in circulation. es-
pecially the smaller ones. A few half
dollars and dollars We're in use. The
Spanish small coins were essentially
the peoples money in those days.
The ftp represented the one-siX-
teenth of a dollar, the levy one-eighth
of dollar. Flip was the abbreviation
of an abbreviation of fivc-penny bit.
When people spoke out the whole of
what they meant in talking of a five
penny bit they @5lled it tippenny bit.
but just ftp was sufficient for ordinary
everyday transactions. Similarly, folks
didn't often say eleven-penny bit. They
contracted it to levy. That is, except
in New York state. northeastern Penn
sylvania, and northern New Jersey and
in New England, where they had no
use for either eleven-penny bit or levy.
In those localities the levy was a
shilling.
but in southern New Jersey. south
ern Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland
and other border states, if you said
shilling people wouldn't know what
You meant. They called it levy. Fur
Their south a levy became bit, and the
ftp was picayune. This was especially
the case at and about New Orleans
and this nomenclature was carried up
the Mississippi river by the popular
means of communication in those
days, the steamboat to Rock Island
Dubuque, Galena, st. Paul and other
river points.
In the same way the terms were
carried from New O rleans up the Mis-
souri, river as far as the white people
had pushed their way, up the Ohio to
Louisville and above, and even up the
Illinois river to Peoria and Peru, and
they took root in California when the
Pacific coast was settled by people
from the east. In the west it was easy
to tell from what part of the country
man had emigrated, according to the
way he handled the names of the coins.
If he said levy he was sure not to be
from the New England States, New
York, northern New Jersey or north
ern Pennsylvania.
''These Spanish coins must have been
circulated many years, for they were
generally worn very smooth. Some of
them were so smooth, in fact. that they
would not pass current. The rule was
that if the pillars on them could be
plainly seen, the coins We're all right.
| have seen fps that We're so smooth
and thin that they res embed nothing
more closely than shad scale, and
levies that had been 50 long in use that
they were like smooth circles.
In some parts of the country, notably
in the southwest the fps and levies
were rated equal with fve-cent and
ten-cent pieces, but in the east. and
particularly in Philadelphia and the
Quaker country about it, the people
wouldn't have it that way. They in
sisted that eight levies made a dollar,
while it required ten ten-cent pieces to
make dollar. Hence, if the levy had
been recognized on a par with the dime,
the frugal Philadelphia argued that
he was out just twenty-five cents on
every deal of that kind. Then, again,
twenty tive-cent pieces had to be got
together before a man had a dollar,
whereas he only had to accumulate
sixteen fps to have the same amount.
This was because the levy was valued
at twelve and half cents and the ftp
at six and a fourth cents. The same
rule existed among those who called
the levy a shilling.
Down south, however, there was
more feasibility in the rule of value of
these coins, and they were passed for
either their face value or as dimes and
half-dimes. This was owing to the
contempt and Indifference with which
Inc OutlltTHcfS VI IHtG udN IcSdIueu
small coins. They held pennies es-
pecially in contempt. Back in the
early ffties Vicksburg gentleman
told me how the people of that town
scorned to take pennies in change at
the post office and brushed them con-
temptuously off the counter to the
floor, from which even the 'niggers
wouldn't condescend to pick them.
Those old Spanish pieces, worn as
they might be, contained more pure
silver than the newest of our own
coins, and one of them would be a
great curiosity to-day. N. Y. Sun.
The summer Bedroom.
However the summer bedroom may
be furnished and whatever part of the
house it NAV be in. it should be well