The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1894-12-13
:SHARPSHIN MONEY
fTrPASSED AS CURRENCY oNcE.
IN THIS COUNTRY.
The Paper Money of the Revolution
After That Pounds, DouDloons, Ducats,
Motdores, Joes, Pistareens, and Sous
without Coinage.

After That Pounds DouDloons, Ducats,
AIoidores, Joes, Pistareens, and Sous
without Coinage.
The currency question was burn.
Ing one in the United States ITO years
ago. Indeed, much Of the paper cur
rency had come to be OF such q plight
that it seemed fit for nothing else but
burning. The Continental paper
money which had largely contri buted
to win liberty had been disabled, like
most of the soldiers, and sinking from
par to 1000 for one, had gone out
of use.
After this revolutionary paper
money had passed out of existence
there remained only for the transac-
ton of business personal notes of hand
and the debris of a specie currency,
to which all the civilized nations of
the world, except the United States,
had contributed. Mr.. Roosevelt, in
his .'Life of Norris, y well describes
these times. He says:
''We had no proper coins OF our
| own; nothing but hopelessly depreci-
ated paper bills, a mass of copper, and
some clipped and counterfeited gold
England, France, Spain and even Ger
many. Dollars, pounds, shillfngs,
doubloons, ducats, moidores, joes.
crowns, pistareens, coppers and sous
circulated indifferently, and with va
rious values in each colony. A dollar
was worth six shillings in Massachu-
setts, eight in New York, seven and
sixpence in Pennsylvania, six again
in Virginia, eight again in North Car
DINA, 324 in South Carolina and five
in Georgia"
In this condition of affairs the clip
ping and sweating of silver coins was
carried to an extent which would now
be deemed impossible; and the figures
or shape of the coin, originally in
tended to be circular, was sometimes
so grotesque as to excite merriment as
it passed from hand to hand, serving
the ordinary uses of currency. Change
had to be made, and in default of small
coins, larger coins were cut into parts,
and these parts served to make the
current change needed in the small
transactions of business. This, of
course, was open to an extensive
fraud. Fair dealing in the cutting of
coins soon became the exception and
not the rule.
These cut triangular fractions Of
coins were called sssharpshins," from
their pointed shape. They were often
cut SO irregular that their value could
only be guessed. A ''sharpshin''
worth five cents to sober man would
easily be passed on half drunken
man for ten cents, and, as at the
South tsreckonn is the synonym for
..guess,' these pieces which had once
been named ssdrink reckoners" came
to be called for short .sdrinkuns"
s'Sharpshins, ''of which the name
of Sharp Shin alley, adjoining the
Alexandria market, is a memorial,
came to be less and less exact. Gen
Grayson in 1888, makes this vehement
complaint: eve are without coin
age, and unless some stop can be put
to the cutting and clipping of money
= our dollars, pistareens, &c. will be
converted, as league says, into five
quarters; and man must travel with
pair of scales in his pocket or run
the risk of receiving gold at one
fourth less in weight than it counts. y
From this chaos of currency, as well
as chaos in other public matters, the
constitution of the United States came
in 1887 to deliver the people; as it
gave to the congress the power to
coin money, regulate the value there
E ~ ~ ~ r.,
the punishment of counterfeiting the
securities and current coin of the
United States; and forbade any state
to coin money, emit bills of credit, or
to make anything but golu and silver
coins tender in payment of debts.
Alexander Hamilton brought order
out Of the chaos of the currency; but
Governor Morris had preceded him in
proposing that decimal scale should
be established for the United States
money. Morris had proposed that the
basis of currency should be one-fourth
of one grain of silver, and his plan
, States money: Ten quarters make one
, penn, 10 penns make one bill, 10 bills
l make 81.
> But Hamilton's plan was adopted,
! and the coinage act provided the
present United States money: Ter
q cents make one dime, 10 dimes make
3 one dollar. 10 dollars make one eagle.
$ Preparations for coinage were al
J: once begun. Then the act establish
:" ing the United States mint was passed
g April 2, 1892, and in the summer O
L that year a plain brick building wa
: erected in Philadelphia at site on thu
Q east side of Seventh street above
9 Sugar Tree alley, afterward called
/ Farmer and now Flbert street. Davic
g Rittenhouse had been appointed di
rector Of the mint on the 18th O
April, 1892, and he at once ordered
coming presses. from England. Thes
: reached Philadelphia in September
= and in the early part Of October. 1892
the coming began upon six pounds Q
old copper which had been purchase
II Z sf,,s