Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/28

24 silver, or copper, bearing certain marks or devices to indicate their origin and value, and designed to be used as money. How early gold and silver began to be used as money, history does not inform us. Nearly 2,000 years before Christ Abraham returned from Egypt "very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold;" and in his purchase of the cave of Machpelah, he weighed out the consideration agreed upon, "400 shekels of silver, current money with the merchant." The use of the metals, however, in the form of wedges or bars, though an immense improvement upon simple barter, or the use of cattle, grain, and other commodities, was still attended with inconveniences. At every transaction the precise weight of metal must be computed; a hammer and chisel must be at hand to cut it off, and a balance to weigh it. The fineness of the metal was also to be ascertained. All these troubles were at length ended by the expedient of shaping the metals into pieces of convenient size, and stamping upon each its exact value. He who first did this was the inventor of coins; but history is silent respecting his name, his country, or the date of his invention. Homer, although he speaks of workers in metals, makes no mention of coined money. Herodotus says that the Lydians, as far as he knew, were the first who struck money; and although the oldest specimens of coin now extant have usually been supposed to be Grecian, there are reasons for thinking with Herodotus that the invention was Asiatic. Coins were probably used as early as the 8th century B. C., and by the 4th century money was found throughout the civilized world, every state having its proper coinage. Most of the commoner metals have in turn been used for making coins. The early corns of Asia Minor were of electrum, a mixture of gold and silver, in the proportion of three of the former to one of the latter. Lycurgus banished gold and silver, and made the money of Sparta of iron, $100 worth of which required a cart and two oxen to remove it. Copper formed the early money of the Komans; and when Caesar landed in Britain, coins of brass and iron were found in use. Tin was coined by Charles II., and James II. even resorted to gun metal and pewter. At the present day, however, the precious metals, gold and silver, with copper for the lowest denomination, are almost universally employed as the material of coins. Coins of platinum were formerly struck in Russia, but its use for this purpose has recently been abandoned. Gold and silver in a state of purity are soft and ductile; and coins made of these metals would suffer loss and injury to a certain degree by abrasion, if there no means of hardening them. The addition of a small quantity of alloy is found to produce this effect, without materially impairing the ductility or beauty of the metals. Although in a few countries coins are issued of almost absolute purity, such as the gold sequins of Tuscany and the silver florins of Hanover yet for the most part the coins of the world consist not of pure gold and silver, but of these metals alloyed with some other, generally copper, in definite proportions fixed by law. The difficulty of ridding gold entirely of the silver with which it is always found combined in nature has led in some countries to the practice of leaving enough silver to serve for alloy. This is the case in Spanish America, as is indicated by the paleness of their doubloons. In some European countries the silver is entirely removed, and copper introduced for alloy, giving to the coins a reddish cast. In the United States the practice of the mint is to imitate the true color of gold in the coinage, by using an alloy of about T 9 7 copper and T V silver; that is, in 1,000 oz. of standard gold there are 900 oz. pure gold, 10 oz. silver, and 90 oz. copper. The term standard, as applied to coins, means strictly the conditions of fineness and weight to which they are required by law to conform. Thus, in the United States, the gold coins must be made of metal consisting of ^ftfc P ure g^ and T^Pfe alloy; in other words, they must be T 9 fine. This is the standard fineness, and gold of this quality is called standard gold. The weight of such gold required by law in each gold coin is its standard weight. Thus in the eagle there must be 258 grains. In estimating the value of coins, it is the quantity of fine metal contained, in them which is considered; the alloy goes for nothing. The practice of the world is not uniform in regard to standard fineness of coins; some countries issuing coins of as low fineness as 250 thousandths, and others aiming at absolute purity. Great Britain still retains the old proportion of -fa alloy; while in the United States, France, Spain, Belgium, and some other countries, the decimal proportion of T V alloy has been adopted. Different modes of expressing the fineness of coins and bullion prevail in different countries. Where the decimal system of notation is employed, it is expressed in thousandths. Thus the standard fineness of fr would be written -j^ftfc, or simply -900; and bullion containing three fourths pure metal .would be said to be '750 fine. In Great Britain two systems prevail, one for gold and one for silver. The fineness of gold is expressed in carats, absolute purity being 24 carats fine. The standard fineness of British gold coins is 22 carats, which is equivalent to |, or 916f thousandths; so that if a given weight of American gold coin is worth $54, the same weight of British coin is worth $55. For the purpose of expressing minute degrees of fineness in bullion, the carat is divided into four carat grains, and these again into quarters. At the British mint, assays are carried to the half quarter, or the ^V P art f * ne carat. In this system the United States standard of -j 9 ^ would be expressed 21 carats. The fineness of silver is estimated by stating the number of ounces of fine silver in a pound troy of the metal. Thus pure silver is 12 fine; and English silver coins, are 11 T V fine, because in a pound troy of