Evening star., 1916-06-12
Military Medals
Also Authorized.

slowed on soldiers who have performed
valuable service to the country. There
are civil war medals, Spanish war
medals. medals of the Indian wars, the
Boxer rebellion and the Philippine IN
on its diverse side the head of Abra-
ham Lincoln and the words. United
States Army" while on the reverse Is
a border of stars within which is a cir
Gle Of laurel inclosing the words For
Merit" The Spanish American war
medal shows a castle surrounded by
leaf scrolls: that of the Philippine in
surrection bears the unusual design of
. palm tree. balance scales and ancient
lamp; the Chinese relief medal has on
the Indian wars medal shows an In
dian on horseback carrying a spear,
below which is buffalo head sur
rounded by leaf scrolls.
At first thought. the design on a
coin seems comparatively un-
important matter. and one wonders
why people should go to SO much trou-
BILE to plan II when a plain round
answer the Same purpose. But coins
themselves have always had Q curious
Significance in the history Of tho world
and its individual nations. Today the
in this country and 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 Bactr1a until some ancient
coins of that realm were unearthed in
Afghanistan about forty years ago.
Bactria was conquered by Alexander
the Great. together with Persia, but
afterward managed to establish its in
dependence and resume communication
with the orient The coins discovered
explained this circumstance. one of
the many gaps IN ancient history. and
also gave a record of Bactria's kings
and many historical episodes
This is q unique case. of course. but
there are many instances where coins
have cleared up mysteries in history
and corrected erroneous records In
our own country there are several
coin collections. which depict the
unique art and crude conditions Of the
American colonies. for each state had
Its own particular coinage. When the
colonists first arrived the only medium
OF exchange was a com mbfnation of
wampum. strings of shells and beads
with which they bartered with the In
dians. but as early as 1852 the general
court OF Massachusetts minted some
silver pieces bearing simply the initials
IN. E."-Standing for New England
and the denomination OF the coin in
Roman numerals. The coins were not
popular. on account of their lack of
design. however. and later the same
year others were issued decorated with
an OAK tree fnclosed In q circle Of dots
and bearing the Inscription 'Nassa-
chusetts" on one side and New Eng
land" on the other. Afterward the
oak tree was changed to q pine tree.
which 10 still extensively used In de,
signs as symbolical OF America.
-
Formerly. q valuable collection Of
some OF the original American coins
was on view in
Collection Worth Baltimore. but
eok mn w. cx., later was rinsd
r~ S by Thieves.
who unscrewed the lid Of the case ana
escaped with the best Of the collection
IN broad daylight. The loss vas esd.
mated at $4,000.
From this II may be seen that eetas-
mere dfmes and nicksls and 1ennias.
sltghtingly referred 70 ~ poDd1aS hu.
morists ~ dlthy luere-msy semo day
Be the means Of tracing the hiseery ef
. lost and remarkable natto0 noWR
I. nDIthA u05f04 ,9tnkon-ofgZxaonn0nGS