Page:Pleasing art of money-catching (4).pdf/3

 of what metal that money was made, and whether it was coined or not he is silent. Herodotus writeth that the first that coined silver and gold, to buy and sell with, were the Lydians. For silver and gold being the most precious of metals, were so much valued, that whatever any man wanted, might be purchased for it.

Homer indeed tells us that before the siege of Troy, men used to change or barter one commodity for another. But it is undeniable that money was in use long before that time; for when Abraham purchased the field of Machpelah, and the field in which it was, for a burying-place for his family, he gave four hundred shekels of silver for it; which the secret texts tells us was current money with the merchant; and that was about the year of the world 2088, which was near 700 years before the destruction of Troy. But though the money was current with the merchant, yet I question whether it was coined or not; for it rather appears, that it received its value from its weight than from any stamp that was upon it: The weight of an shekel being a quarter of an ounce and the true value of that 15 pence of our money. Abraham paid £25 English money, for that burying place. We read likewise of pieces of silver, or silverlings, before this, which was current-money among the nation at that day; for Abimelech, king of Gerar, having taken Abraham's wife from him, upon a supposition that she was his sister, when he came to understand the truth of the matter, not only restored his wife to him again, but also gave him a thousand pieces of silver, or silverlings; the value of which thousand pieces (each piece being