The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-29
oLD-rsME FIps AND LEvIEs.
Spanish Coins in Common Use in the
United States Before the War.


New York Sun.
ut may sound strange to this generation,
and especially at this time, said an old
time New York merchant, but fifty years
ago in the United States the money OF
Spain was the peoples money; in fact.
Spanish coin constituted large portion or
the subsidiary coin circulation in this coun-
try as late as ne breaking out of the civil
war. This Spanish coin got into circulation
in this country through some early pc
cunlary transaction between the United
States and Spain, and for more than a
generation it was commoner than our own:
1t included the fps and the 1eVles OF
ante-bellum days.
Fifty years ago very few silver coins
from our own mint were in circulation, par
ticularly the smaller ones. A few dollars
and half dollars were in use. The Spanish
coins must have been circulated good
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 resembled nothing more
closely than shad scales, and leyleS that
had been so long in use that they were like
smooth discs. But these old Spanish coins,
worn as they might be, contained more pure
silver than the most of our. own coins, and
one of them would be a curiosity to-day
The ftp represented one-sixteenth OF L,
dollar. the levy one-eighth of a dollar. Ftp
was the abbreviation of an abbreY1atIon OF
hve-penny-bit. When people spoke out the
whole of what they meant in talking of a
but just ftp was sufficient for ordinary, ev-
eryday transactions. Levy was the con-
venient contraction of eleven-penny-b bit.
This nomenclature for the Spanish coins
was used generally except in New York
State, northern and northeastern Pennsyl-
vania, northern New Jersey and New Eng
lalnd In those localities the people had no
use for the eleven-penny-bit or levy, nor
for the ftp or tippenny-bit or ive-penny-blt.
They called the one shilling ana the other
a sixpence, and our own little silver three
cent piece was a thTtppence. But in south
ern New Jersey, southern pennsylvania.
Delaware, Maryland and other border
know what he meant. With them 1t was
levy. Further south 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, Du-
buque. Galena, St. Paul and other river
points In the same way the terms We're
Sippi river as far the white people mad
pushed their way, up the Ohio to Louisville
and above, and even up the Illinois NOS river TO
California when the Pacific coast was set
tied by people from the East. In the. West
it was easy to tell from what part of the
country man had emgrated, according to
the way he handled the names of the coins
II he said levy and ftp he was sure not TO be
from the New England States, New York,
northern New Jersey or the New York bor-
der counties.
IN some parts OF the country, notably IN
the Southwest, our 5 and 10-cent silver pieces
We're rated equal with the Spanish fps and
leves. but in the East, and particularly in
Philadelphia and the Quaker country about
it, the people wouldn't recognize such a rat
irg. They insisted that it required only
eight Spanish levies to make dollar, while
you had to get ten American dimes before
you had a dollar. Hence. if we should rec
ognize the dime on a parity with a levy, the
frugal Philadelphia argued that he would
be out just two levies or % cents on every
deal of that kind. Then, again, it required
twenty scent pieces or half dimes to make
a dollar, whereas a person had to accum-
ulate only sixteen fps to have the same
amount OF money, This was because the
levys valuation was 121. cents and the fps
Gil cents. The same rule existed among
those who called the levy shilling.
''Those old Spanish coins were plentiful up
to the breaking out of the war, but disap-
peared suddenly and entirely with the war.
No one knows what became of them. With
the war, also, the nomenclature that came
with the Spanish coins disappeared except
in rural New England and the New York
and PENNSYLVANIA border counties. where
the old-timers still cling to the shilling, the
siXpence and the thrippence.