Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/756

 738 MONEY that the native bronze coin of China, the tsien or cash, bearing the inscription tung-pan, i. e., current money, had its origin about 1120 B. C., at the beginning of the Chan dynasty. The original coins of Asia Minor were of gold or electrum (a mixture of gold and silver), and those of Greece of silver ; while in Rome for nearly 500 years after its foundation no metal was coined but copper or brass. The CBS, o, or libra, a pound weight of copper or brass, was stamped by the state in the reign of Servius Tul- lius (578-534 B. C.). This coin, the unit of Ro- man money, was originally oblong like a brick, but subsequently was made round, and was cast, not struck. Before this reign they used for money unstamped bars of copper. According to Pliny, silver was first coined at Rome in 269 B. 0., the principal coin being the denarius; and gold in 207, although it is believed that the latter did not form a part of the ordinary and regular currency of the country until the time of Julius Caesar, about 49. The emperors pos- sessed the privilege of coining gold and silver, but copper could only be coined ex senatus consulto. At the date of the invasion of Brit- ain by Cffisar, 55 B. C., the ancient Britons had money of brass and iron, and it was paid by weight. During the reign of Augustus, Cu- nobelin, one of the native kings, had established his mint at Camulodunum (Colchester), where he caused to be coined money of gold, silver, and brass. Under the emperor Claudius the coin- age of the Romans took the place of that of the natives, and circulated until after the aban- donment of the country by the conquerors in the 5th century. The earliest coins of Eng- land subsequently issued are supposed to be the pennies of Ethelbert, king of Kent (560- 616). These were coarsely stamped with the king's image on one side and either the name of the mint master or the city in which they were coined on the other. At this time all money accounts began to be expressed in pounds, shillings, pence, and mancas or man- cuses, although there was no coin but the pen- ny, all other denominations being mere mon- eys of account; 30 pence made a manca, 5 pence a shilling, and 40 shillings a pound. The mancas were reckoned both in gold and silver. In King Canute's laws the distinction is made that a mancusa was as much as a mark of silver, while a manca was a square piece of gold valued at 30 pence. King Athelstan (930) decreed that money should be uniform and only coined in towns, and this decree mentions the fact that the clergy shared with the king the privilege of coinage. The Norman kings continued the practice of coining only pence, which were of silver, and with a cross so deeply impressed that they might easily be broken into halfpence and farthings. The date of the earliest use of the word sterling to denote the standard money of England has given rise to much learned discussion ; but it has been well established by the testimony of the chronicler Ordericus Vitalis (1075-1143) that it was used as early as during the reign of William the Conqueror. The etymology of the word is by no means so certain. Henry I. in 1108 attached severe penalties to the counter- feiting of money, and during this reign half- pence were first regularly coined. At the commencement of his reign (1154) Henry II. found the money so much debased and reduced in value from various causes, that he pro- vided for a new coinage, and punished those convicted of tampering with it. In 1222 silver farthings were coined. In 1248 it was found that the money of the realm had been so clipped and otherwise defaced that its real worth bore no fixed proportion to its nominal value. Henry III. therefore ordered that the old coins should be brought to the mint and exchanged for new ones, weight for weight; thus entailing the entire loss, which was very great, upon the then present holders of these coins, which justly caused great complaint. During this reign, in 1257, gold pennies were first coined, which weighed y^ of - a pound tower, and passed for 20<?. In 1279 Edward I. caused a new coinage of halfpence and far- things to be made, providing at the same time that the old, which were principally mere frac- tions cut to suit, should no longer pass current. Twenty years subsequently, and during the same reign, so much trouble and loss were suffered from foreign coins of inferior value, known as "pollards," "crockards," &c., that it was decreed that all importers of such money should be punished by death and the confiscation of their property. All persons arriving from abroad were to be searched, and those having such money were to be immediately impris- oned. All good foreign money was to be ta- ken forthwith on its arrival to the exchange, and all false English money imported was to be seized. No person was allowed to sell wool, hides, skins, lead, or tin, except for good sterling money, silver stamped at the king's ex- change, or for a good and sufficient quantity of merchandise ; and no money or bullion was to be taken out of the dominions without a li- cense from the king, under penalty of seizure. Persons going abroad, or coming to England, were to be furnished at Dover with a quantity of money of the country to which they were going, sufficient to pay their expenses. The following year (1300) Edward positively pro- hibited the circulation of any money not of his own coinage. In 1301 he diminished the weight of the pound sterling three pennies, equal to one per cent. This was " a departure from the ancient strict and honorable adhe- rence to the integrity of the national money ; and a breach, once begun, was with less scru- ple enlarged by the succeeding kings." Ed- ward II., having married a daughter of the king of France, gave permission to the French merchants to trade with England, and return with their goods and money, notwithstanding the edicts of preceding monarchs against the exportation of coin and bullion. In the reign