The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1896-08-06

j. b. L. James B. Langacre). In near
ly the same position on the diverse Of
the BLAND" dollar is the letter "M"; 1t
also appears on the reverse, upon the left
fold Of the ribbon uniting the wreath, be-
ing the initial letter OF Morgan.
One million standard silver dollars
weigh 3l2,50O0,000 grains or s59,375
ounces troy, or II ,624.5s pounds troy, or
5S,92S.57 pounds avoirdupois, or %, AGA
"short" tons of 1000 pounds avoirdupois
each, or 26,3o7 "long" tons of 2240
pounds avoirdupois each.
The zoe piece was authorized March 8,
1875, and its coinage was begun the same
year. Its coinage was discontinued by
act OF congress May 2, 1873; great incon-
venience and annoyance to the public
arising from the Commissions of this coin
with the 25c piece.
In 1884 Thomas Jefferson made a re-
port to congress recommending the
Spanish dollar and subsidiary coinage as
the system OF currency. The smallest coins
were to be OF copper, 200 making dollar
and suggested that the decimal syste n of
increase In the different pieces should be
used.
Our nickel coins arc really misnamed,
and should be styled copper coins. The
&c nickel contains rs per cent Of copper
and only % per cent OF nickel. The ordi-
nary &c nickel in common use has the
same proportions of copper and nickel,
three-fourths of the former and one fourth
OF the latter.
Ii is not generally known that the word
dollar" appears in Shakespeare works,
being used in Measure for Measure, writ
ten in 1908, in act l., scene 2, ITO $4,000
year; in Macbeth, written in 1906,
act l., scene 2, where burial is refused to
Sweno's men until Zen thousand dol
lars to our general use" have been paid.
The first coins really deserving the
name of United States coinage were stuck
off as 'pattern pieces" by Benjamin Dud-
ley, at the instigation OF Robert Morris,
and were laid before congress- in 1888 as
specimens Of What the coinage should
be. They were "mark" and "quint"
and thus described: The mark" Obj
verse; an eye, the center OF "a glory, thir-
teen points, cross equidistant, circle OF
as many stars. The "quint" il similar
10 design. the value on reverse being
noted.
Seven different explanations have been
made Of the origin OF the dollar mark,
one OF the most reasonable making II
contraction of the letters U. S. written
over each other in the style of mono
gram, willis another declares il to be a
contraction Of the emblem formerly used
on a Spanish piece of eight. This was
rude representation OF the pillars of Her
eules, crossed aud united by scroll,
with the motto, Plus ultra. The hurried
attempt to represent this device in writ
ten characters resulted, it is said, In the
sign now used.
Miss Anna Williams 10 the name OF the
lady whose profile is stamped upon the
Bland silver dollar. When the designer
Morgan came to this country from Eng
land in 1876 to make drawing for a new
dollar he settled in Philadelphia with the
aim of Americanizing his work, being
DESTROYS to present as the principle figure
representative head OF an American
beauty, finally selecting Miss Williams,
who was living at the time with her aunt
in the city. She was unconscious OF the
ultimate use OF the sketch she gave sit
tings for, and not until two years after
ward was the secret disclosed.
To gain an idea ct billion OF coins
''place fve-dollar gold piece on the
ground and pile upon 1t as many as Will
reach 20 feet in height then place num-
bers II similar columns in close contact,
forming straight line. and making a
wall 20 feet high, showing only the
thin edges Of the coin. Imagine two
such walls running parallel to each other
and forming long street. 1t would be
necessary to keep on extending these
walls for miles; nay, hundreds of miles,
and still be far short OF the required
number, and not until we had extended
our imaginative street to a distance OF
23861a miles that We shall have present.
ed for inspection one billion of coins.n
According to one authority, the word
dollar" is a corruption Of the German
word "thaler," the form in Dutch being
'daalder," Danish ''daler" and Italian
"tallero." All these different forms were
derived from, Joachim's Thai, Bohem-
ian town where the Count OF Schlick, A.
D. 1913, coined some excellent pieces in
silver OF ounce in weight. From the
name OF the town came Joachim's Thai
er, applied to the aboye-named coins as
we'll as that of Schlicken thaler. Hence,
Joachim's thaler pieces were first con-
tracted into Joachim's thalers and then
into thalers. These coins gained such
reputation that they became a pattern,
so that others of the same kind, though
made in other places, took the name, the
word assuming different spelling through
the Low Countries, reaching Spain as
dollars. and throuph its provinees trans-