Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/231

CH. XIV.] he expressed much satisfaction at receiving it, and no less surprise; for, although he had heard of the work, he was not aware, he said, that I was the author of it.

The next day, I visited the Mint, and was shewn the whole establishment by the director, Don Benito Muñozo. It is a moderately sized building, and there were two presses employed in coining the new money of the republic: the greater part of the small silver currency, at this time, consisted of money called masququina, or pieces of ragged silver of all shapes and dimensions, varying between half the size of a sixpence and half-a-crown: it was almost impossible to know their relative values: the public, however, had no difficulty in doing so, by the assistance of some coarse and, in most cases, almost obliterated marks upon them. These pieces of tokens, for they had neither the shape nor appearance of coin, had been issued, from time immemorial, at the two provincial mints of Nicaragua and Honduras, and, in spite of