Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/615

Rh the history of civilization, of certain substances which, by common consent, were received by all persons in exchange for all commodities at certain rates by mutual agreement. A curious variety of materials have, at different times and in different countries, served this useful purpose, and it is evident that such substances would soon come to possess the two great functions of money, viz.:

1. A common medium of exchange.

2. A common measure of value.

In the most primitive age the skins of wild animals were usually selected, being both useful and portable. Even in the early part of this century the business of the Hudson Bay Trading Company was transacted with the North American Indians entirely on this basis; a gun, for example, was valued at "twenty beaver skins." In Massachusetts (and other colonies) prior to the Revolution specie was at times so scarce that laws were passed legalizing the payment of taxes in skins, cattle, and farm products.

It is said that in the mountainous districts of Kentucky skins are used even to this day as currency to a limited extent by the natives.

In Massachusetts a law was enacted, March 4, 1634, as follows: "It is likewise ordered that muskett bulletts, of a full boare, shall pass currantly for a farthing a-piece, provided that noe man be compelled to take above XII pence att a tyme in them."

—The inconvenience experienced from the want of specie caused the colony of Massachusetts to establish a mint as long ago as the year 1652; this was exactly one hundred and forty years before the establishment of the National Mint in Philadelphia. The Massachusetts law provided for the coinage of "shillings," "6 pence," and "3 pence," all of sterling silver—that is, 925 parts of pure silver and 75 parts of copper; the law stipulated that the coins were "to be reduced in weight 2 pence in the shilling less than the English coin." A curious mistake occurred in the calculation whereby these shillings were made 5½ grains too light, but they served a good purpose notwithstanding. The device upon the coins is a "pine tree," and the Massachusetts pine-tree shillings are now so rare that they are only to be found in cabinets of coins.

The British Government opposed the establishment of this mint.