The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-12-09
n.a HE coinage of an American s4 gold
 piece has probably excited more

piece has probably excited more
 mail inquiry from MT. A. E.. From the Philadelphia Public Ledger. Preston, director of the mint, than any | or all the other coinage of Ele United States, says the Washington Post The mining of the coin was authorized by the coinage committee of the house of repre- sentatives in 1878, as also what Is termed the galoid dollar and gold metric dollar The goloid dollar, so-caned, is composed of one part of gold and twenty-four parts silver, mak king total of twenty-five parts nine-tenths fine, and weighing 25S.
 The gold metric dollar (of 1s7s) Is also composed of one part gold, but has 16.1 parts silver and 19 parts copper, making a total of 19 parts. and is in weight 142 grammes, while the standard metric dol- lar of 1879 contains S95.S parts silver, AZ parts gold, 100 parts copper, making to- tai of 1000 and the weight of the coin 25 grammes.
 The Stella or s4 gold coin, which be- longs to this authorized series, contains six grammes of pure gold. three parts silver. and seven parts copper making a 
 45O of each of these coins struck, and they were distributed among the mem bers of congress and a few officials, the price for the series being $6.75 coin of the realm. It is easily inferred that none of the coins are in circulation, nor will the United States pay their face value for them as stated by Dil ector Preston. The presentation of these coins by their sev- eral holders in different parts of the country accounts for the numerous mall inquiries addressed to the director of the mint as to their genuineness and also by numismatists, who desire to purchase specimens for their collections
 In fact, it is from this latter class that the greater part of the inquiries come as but few people outside the students or the deyotees of numismatics know aught of the coinage in question. It .s pre- sumed that some of the original holders of the pieces parted with them to friends as presents and these presents or souven- frs being exhibited by the grateful recip- ients has given rise to the supposition that the mint issued them in large quant- ities as circulating medium.
 There is a popular illusion as to the value of old and rare coins. of which nu- mismatists in the business for profit na- turally take advantage. Few know that copper coins of certain dates will sell for
 
 than a gold piece of the same date, or that an American cent with the date of 17S6 will bring a better price than a gold piece of the reign of Trajan Hadrian, or the Antoines. This is easily accounted for. so far as the Roman coins are con oerned The ancients secreted their hoardings in the ground. md whenever these hoardings are discovered in modern tines large quantities of the same issue af. irfa o11t of iy1a Thus the rarity of the coin, which gives it it's value, is destroyed by the quantity fot nd
 An American cent of 17ss will readily sell for $2O0, while a half penny of 1795. 1 bearing the legend payable at London, Liverpool or Bristol" is worth $500. The fancy prices paid for rare coins became Inducements to the forger and counterfeiter to go into the business of coining them, and it Is only the expert numismatist who can, in a great many cases. detect the spurious from the gen. uine. This he does with the aid of a powerful magnifying glass. It is worthy of note to recall the fact that the Ro- man laws punished the counterfeiter with death. It was comparatively easy work for the ancient counterfeiter to float his spurious coinage as the genuine for the | government coinage was crude produc- tion at best.
 l The American dollar of 1894 is about the best specimen of the modern forger s art and the numismatist alone can de- tect the fraud. The dollar of 1901 Is used by the forger, who removes the figure | '1' and inserts the figure "A"
 The first mint established in Boston 1T 1852 was sixteen feet square and ten feet in height, but the first coin was struck for the colonies in 1616 in memory oi Sir George Sommers, who was lost of the Bermudas or Sommer islands in 1612 These coins were made in England, ana