Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-06-22
dollars. that being it's actual value in


In addition to these special private
orizes the minting of military medals
which are bestowed on1soldiers who
have performed valuable service to
the country. There are civil war med.
ais, Spanish war medals, medals of tho
Indian wars, the Boxer srebellion and
the Philippine Instruction. The civil
war medal bears on its diverse side
the head of Abraham Lincoln and the
words, United States Army while on
the reverse is border of stars within
words For Merit" The Spanish Amer.
rounded by leaf scrolls; that Of the
Philippine insurrectiou bears the un-
usual design of palm tree, balance
scales and ancient lamp; the Chinese
relief medal has on its diverse side d
Chinese dragon, and the Indian wars
medal shows an India on horseback
carrying spear, below which Is a
buffalo head surrounded by leaf scrolls.
At first thought, The design on a
coin seems comparatively unimpor-
tant matter, and one wonders why
people should 60 to 50 much trouble to
plan them when plain round piece Of
gold, silver or copper would answer
, the same purpose. But coins them
selves have always had curious sig
nificance in the history of the world
and its individual nations. Today the
coin collections Of Enumismatists both
in this country and9 in Europe are the
means Of tracing the remote and vague
history Of lost nations and peoples.
For example, no one ever heard of the
kingdom of Bactria>until some ancient
coins of that realm were unearthed III
Afghanistan about forty years ago.
Bactria was conquered by Alexander
the Great, together with Persia, but al
forwards managed to establish its in
dependence and resume communica'
ton with the or ent. The coins dis
covered explained this circumstance,
one of the many gaps in ancient his
tory, and also gave a record OF BAG
trials kings and many historical cpl
sodes.
This Is unique case, Of course, but
there are many instances where coins
have cleared upi mysteries In history
and corrected erroneous records. In
our own country there are several
coins carefully guarded In valuable col
lections, which depict the unique art
and crude conditions of the American
colonies, for each state had its own
particular coin age. When the colon1sts
first arrived the only medium Of ex-
change was combination of wampum
strings of shells and beads with which
they bartered with the Indians, but as
early as 1852 1.-THE general court OF
Massachusetts, minted some silver
pieces bearines simply the initials, IN.
E."-standing for New England-and
the denomination of the coin in Roman
numerals. TIE coins were not popular
on account of their lack of design, how.
ever, and later the same year others
were issued decorated with an oak
tree enclosed in circle Of dots and
bearing the inscription, "Massachu
SETS on onep side and New England
on the other. Afterwards the oak tree
was changed to pine tree which is
still extensively used in designs as
symbolical CT America. -
Formerly a valuable collection OF
some Of the original American coins
!! was on Wow IN Baltimore, but later
was rifed by thieves who unsorewed
the lid Of the case and escaped with
the best of the collection in broad day
light. The loss was estimated at TWEEN
ty-flve thousand dollars. ..-
From thjb it may be seen that coins
mere dimes and nickels and pennies
slightingly referred to by popular hum
orists are hlthy lucre-may some day
be the means of tracing the history OF
la lost and remarkable nation known az
the Unitetl States Of America.