Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1905-03-09
Some Peculiar Currency.

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nor even metals in the rough were IN
use among mankind as circulating
medium. Numismatics, as a rule, go
no farther back than eight or nine
hundred years before the Christian
Era to the stamped pieces of metal
circulated among the Greeks and
Lydians.
1t may be of interest to glance at
some of the early forms of currency
and at the strange substitutes for
money still in use among barbarous
peoples.
The earliest substitute for coin cur
rent used by man is believed to have
been the SKINS of animals This me-
dlum of exchange was employed by
the ancient Russians and also by the
first settlers of this country. Certain
tribes of the Alaskan Indians today
use the pelts of bears and foxes for
currency
The pastoral age succeeded the
hunting age, and men began to use
animals themselves instead Of their
skins for a circulating medium
The animals principally employed
were sheep and oxen; their relative
value being determined by the ancient
Romans at ten sheep for one OK, which
standard is still recognized among the
Mongol tribes. Traces Of this custom
are still visible in the Irish and Ice
landic laws.
Among the early Teutonic races,
fines were often paid in cattle, and
the Zulus and the Kafhrs in this year
Of grace make use of this old-time
medium.
A direct link between this practice
and the use of metal coins for money
is found in the currency of the early
Romans, who used pieces Of brass
clipped off from mass.
Later, il the time of Servius Tul-
lius, the brass was coined and marked
with the figure Of an OK. An inter-
esting little bit of chronological lore is
connected with this custom, for the
Latin word for money, pentnlG-
whence our modern term pecuniary
was derived from peco8, cattle.
Metal money Was used, however,
long before the time of the Romans.
AS far back as the days OF Abraham,
the Egyptians used gold and silver
for currency. 1t was counted by
weight and not by face value.
The Hebrews had "jewel money"
in addition to shekels and talents and
drachms of gold and silver. On the
Egyptian tombs gold is represented
as being weighed in rings for CONNER
cial purposes, rather an improvement,
it may be considered, on the earlier
metal lump.
Before the introduction Of coined
money into Greece, skewers or spikes
of iron and copper constituted the
currency, elk making a drachm or
| handful.
This iron money continued in use
among the Spartans for many GEN.
turies, and Plutarch tells US that to a
great quantity and weight of this, but
small value was assigned, so that to
lay up ten mine "a little over thirty
one pounds sterling) a whole room
was required, and to remove it, moth
ing less than a yoke Of oxen.
In certain parts of Central Africa,
iron spikes are still used after the,
Spartan fashion and according to
Adam Smith, it was not so long after
the nails were used as a subsidiary
coin in Scotland. Hence, perhaps,
we obtain the term "tenpenny nail, "
/. 6, ten for penny.
During the commercial supremacy
of Carthage, the common currency
used by her merchants and sailors,
both in their trade at home and with
foreign nations, was pieces Of leather
stamped with the arms Of the power
ful republic.
The currency of the Aztecs consist
ed of transparent quills of gold dust,
Of bits of tin cut in the form of 7,
and of bags of cocoa containing a
specified number Of grains. Blessed
money" exclaims the old sDnalist,
Peter Martyr, (which e1cepts its pos