Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1908-06-09
Early Money.
THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL HAS BEEN
WITH Us LONG TINE.

While the first actual coming OF money
IL attributed to Pheidon, king OF Argos,
in S95 B. c., 1t must not be supposed
that there had not existed keen appre-
citation of the value and use of money
for centuries previous to the introduce
ton of coinage. The ancient Egyptians
had gold and silver standard Of cur
rency and their money was in the form
of gold and silver ornaments, rings and
nuggets, the purchasing value of which
depended on their weight.
The Greeks improved somewhat on
this system by first marking the weight
on gold and silver nuggets 30 that 1t
would no longer be necessary to reweigh
them every. time they were to be used
for the purpose Of exchange or trade.
Then, says the New York World, came
the introduction of gold, silver and cop.
per nuggets of graded uniform sizes and
values. The next step was the holding
and stamping of discs made from the
precious metals.
Some of these first coins were enor-
nous, the idea apparently being to dis
courage the greedy from attempting to
accumulate and carry around too many
of them. There were copper coins as
large as dinner plates. While the idea
was based on excellent motives, 1t had to
give way before the demand for smaller
and more convenient forms of currency,
and the giant pennies soon dwindled in
size to meet the popular demand.
The earliest trace of the use Of gold as
money is to be found in the pictures of
the ancient Egyptians, weighing in scales
heaps of rings of gold and silver. There
is no actual record, however, that these
rings were what may be termed coins
with a fixed value.
Iron, judging from the statement OF
Aristotle, was once extensively employ
ed as currency. Lead has also served as
money. In fact, it still does in Burmah.
Copper has been more widely employ
ed as money than either of the two last
mentioned metals. The early Hebrew
coins were chiefly composed of it, while
down to 269 B. G. the sole Roman COIN
age was an alloy of copper.
Tin money was once used in England,
probably on account of the rich tin
mines Of Cornwall. Early English coin
ages contained much of this tin money,
principally in the form of farthing and
half-pence. >.
Silver formed the basis for the early
Greek coins and was introduced in Rome
in 269 B. G. Medieval money was
principally composed of silver.
The only other metals for money are
platinum and nickel. The former was
coined for short time by the Russian
government and then given up as un-
suitable. The latter is used as an alloy
and In this country for the scent piece
familiarly referred to as nickel.
Coined money was first used on the
Continent of Europe twenty-five years
before the Christian era. 1t was in cop
per and silver. The gold was not coined
there till the eleventh century, and
money did not receive the round form to
which we are accustomed until the lapse
of another hundred years or so.
The oldest coin in the United States is
owned by Southern collector. 1t
was minted about the year TOO B. g. in
Egina. The design in high relief repre-
sents tortoise. crawling across the face
of the piece.
The Swiss were the first to date their
coinage. They introduced the dated
coin 400 years ago, and the style was
universally adopted within very short
time.
The coin of the smallest value ever
issued is the "mite," 80 called, such as
the widow of the Bible story contributed
to the poor. Its shape was hexagonal,
and It's face value one-fiftieth of cent.
Five thousand "mites" are the equiva-
lent in value of one American dollar.
Probably the queerest coins in the
world are the roundish, irregular Jumps
of silver used in Siam. They vary in
size from that of walnut to hall
buckshot, according to the value repre-
scented.
All kinds of guesses have been made
as to the number of one.dollar, bills that
would be required to equal the weight OF
a five-dollar gold piece. The guesses
range as a rule from from about 80 to
500. And when a humorst in the sub
treasury asks a visitor which he would
prefer, all the five dollar gold pieces he
could lift or the same weight in one-dol-
lar bills, the visitor Immediately votes
for bills, imagining az he does that the
proportion will be about ten to one in
favor of one-dollar bills as against gold.
As matter of fact, there is very little
difference between the weight of one five
dollar gold piece and five one-dollar
bills. To be exact, just six and hall
bills will balance the five-dollar gold
niece