Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-07-23
OLD SPANISH COINS.
Recollections IQf the fps pnd Levics
of our Grnndfnthers' Days.

RecollectiOns ,Qf the fps pnd Levies
of our Grnndfnthers' Days.
mo one born in this generation In this
country knows anything about the old-time
fps AMI levies that constituted a large por-
ton Of the subsidiary coin in circulation as
late as the breaking out of the civil war,
says Col. c. A Pine of the Port Jervis Ca
zette, who remembers everything. 'These
were Spanish coins. and they got into cir
culation in this country through some pc
cuniary settlement between the government
of the United Stdtes and SPAIN
Fifty years ago very few silver coins
from our mint were in circulation, especially
the smaller ones. A few half dollars and
dollars were in use. The Spanish small
coins were essentially the peoples money in
those days.
THE ftp represented one-sixteenth Of a
dollar the levy one-eighth of a dollar Flip
was the abbreviation of an abbreviation of
five-penny-bit. When people spoke Of the
whole OF what they meant In talking Of a
iive-penny-bit they called it a fippenny bit
but just ftp was sufficient for ordinary
everyday transactions Similarly, foika
didn't often say eleven-penny-bit; they con-
tracted it t. lsVy-that is, except in New
York state, i.,iiheastern Pennsylvania and
northern New Jersey and In New England,
where they had no use for either eleven
was q shilling.
But in southern New Jersey, southern
Pennsylvania, Delaware. Maryland and
other border states If you said shilling peo-
pie wouldn't know what you meant They
called 1t levy. Further south levy became
a bit and the ftp was picayune This was
especially the case at and about New Or
leans and this nomenclature was carried
up the Mississippi river by the popular
means Of communication in those days the
steamboat to Rock Island. Dubuque, Ga
lena, st. Paul and other river points.
In the same way the terms were carried
from New Orleans up the Missouri river as
far as the white people had pursued 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 1t was easy to tell
from what part of the country a man had
emigrated, according to the way he handled
the names Of the coins. II he said levy he
was sure not to be from the New England
states, New York. northern New Jersey or
northern Pennsylvania.
These Spanish coins must have been
circulated many years. for they were gener-
ally worn very smooth. Some Of them were
so smooth, in fact, that they would not pass
current. The rule was that II the pillars on
them could be plainly seen the coins We're
all right. l have seen fps that We're go
ing more closely than shad scale and
levies that had been so long in use that
they were like smooth circles.
I'm some parts Of the country, notably in
the southwest, the fps and leyies were
rated equal with scent and 10-cent pieces,
but in the east, and particularly in Phila-
delphia and the Quaker country about 1t,
the people wouldn't have it that way. They
lIsista I'd that eight levieS made a dollar,
while ii required ten 1O-cent pieces to make
a dollar. Hence, IL the levy hal been recog-
nized on u par with the dime, the frugal
Philadelphia argued that he was out Just
% cents On every deal of that kind. Then,
again, twenty scent pieces had to be gotten
together before man had a dollar. whereas
ne had only 10 accumulate sixteen lips to
have the same amount. This was because
The levy WAS valued at l. IL cents and the
ftp at Ii oGnts. The same rule existed
among those Uha called the levy a shilling.
Down south, however. there was more
feXibility in The rule of the value Of these
coins and they were passed for either their
face value as dimes and half dimes. This
was owing 10 thcTccntempt and Indifference
with which the ,southerDers of that day
regarded small coins. Tney held pennies
especially in contempt. Back in the early
days a NickSourg gentleman told me how
the people OF that town scorned TO take
pennies in change at the post Office and
brushed them contemptuously of the cOun-
ter to the floor, from which even the mig
gers wouldn't, copdescend 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 wnuli ,bs a, great curiosity today"