OCR Text |
Show H (INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MONEY H: By H. B. Fairchild, Ogden Numismatist 14 The writer of this : rt id g a rain collator. :i iid has ooins from everv country :inl colony of the world, hence hi wish thai tho United Suites had lurd fl coin commemorative of the ornilwtlce. France nrvrr hud a better opportunity opportun-ity than the present for Issuing commemorative com-memorative 'lctory Coin, .-is'dld I'rns-sl:" I'rns-sl:" in 1ST I when nhe struck the ' Slepi lhaler" to COIfl m-m OXa to her vjrtnrv over France Denmark has Issued four commemorative commem-orative two Kronnr pieces 5lnce ism hut the last Issue Is of epcelal Imports:'! Im-ports:'! e, and of greater 'Ugnlfioance, as they on to commemorate the reunion re-union of Scl.leswlp-Holstcln with Ix-n-te mark, rjj. Tt was on February 1st 1 SM. that Jhe combined aVnilcs of Prussia and Austria crossed the KJder rlvi r It V was In this district that in the year M Kin? Gotrli H the advance of the great mORne H The Klntc ChrLMlun IX HsfH restated the invaders, but courage, ureal u It n is, i ould nol avail against - JjQ the I I HujB a Vienna on October 30th. 1864. Lrn- H mark wa Ore. I o SchiPOWig- In r -HgfSfl WhMi Maace-Lorralne wma to France M Rchh wig Holstcin been 1 " ich- H mark tor over fifty years, unl It Is VH fittinp that Its restoration and reunion! HAI should in- commemorated on the coin-1 jHLfl Denmark HrH The world's largest coin comes from! . :ejp Bwi i tv lish coppei plot H from Inches to 13x18 H squa're, unique pocket piece. H The natives of Central Africa use, B pieces of ore ten inches lone as money Let us co hack to the eighth century B R C. look at some of H tile money. t i l I l l I H FJrsI L'ncolned Money In General: .,H Ancient nations who wi re without J coinage weighed the precious metal Eg-lV Gold and silver In forms of ilnsr jThe KoM rings Found In Celtic COUn-r'.es- have been held to have had the same use. We have no certain recpVd I of the use of rliig money excepting j-among the Egyptians, it can scarcely Lb doubted thai the Assyrians and Babylonians adopted, if they did not ' originate this custom, i second The Antiquity .of Coined ' Morn v: fti spec tmc the orlcin of oolri-I oolri-I a bo there are two accounts seemingly , .it variance, some saying that Fhidon. King of Argos. first struck money, and ; according to Enhoros. In Aeirina. hut. Herodotus ncrlhes Its invention to the il.ydiaii. a tirer-k nation 8JS B C. The, I former statement probably refers to in origin of the coinage of European Greece; the latter to thai of Aslatlt Greece. There is no distinct mention of coined money in the hooks of the Old Testament written before the re-j turn of Babylon, in the history of' AbHtham we read that Aplmelech ir.ie a thousund pieces of silver to Sarah anrl those with her. CGenestsj 80 iii The purchase of s burial place from Kphron (Oenesls 88:15-! 88:15-! i i . Mere a currency la clc;irlv lull lu-ll rated like (hat which the monuments of Egypt show to have been there used In a very remote ape. Jacob bought a parol of field at Shalem for a hundred kesitohs. The; Writer is unable to say Just, what the! kesitohs are. Some claim them to he lambs, 'ienesls 48:21-4713-16 speaks of money also. In the time of BxodUS money was weighed (Exodus 30-: 13 1. 1 The i" i ii k money of Egypt resembles the ring money of the Celts, among whom It probably was first Introduced hy the Phoenician trailers. We find, no evidence In the Bible of the use of j money by the Jew s before the time of I Ezra. The Principal Monetary Systems ofj Antiquity: Some notice of the principal princi-pal monetary systems of antiquity, as determined by the joint evidence oty the coins, and of ancient writers, is necessary to render the next section ' om prehenslble. ' The earliest Greek coins by which jwe here intend those struck In the ogc before the Persian war. an of three j talent or standards the Attic the Aegliitcn. and the Macedonian or earlier ear-lier Phoenician. The oldest coins of Athens, of Aegina. and of Macedonia land Thrace we should select as typical respectively of three standards, obtaining obtain-ing as the Weight of the Attic p rah ml about 07-5 Troy, of the AOglnetOD about 96, and of the Macedonian about :X or 116. If its drahni he that Which I is now generally held to he the di-l drachm. The enntinage of Asia Mino-- show s j a forth talent, or we may so call later Phoenician If we hold the si iKerj in have beeii tetradrarhmsr; for their full I weight li about 848 gr& but it Is possible that the pflre sold which they contain, i t out 186, should he alone taken Into account In which case they sre'dldrachms on the Aeglhctlan standard stand-ard The Attic Talent was from a very early period the standard of Athens. in Sicily and Italy, after, in the case of the former, a limited tise of the .Wainetan Talent, the Attic weipht be.i tune universal, and after Alexander's time the Attic always remained the chief COINS in BIBL1 The earliest distinct mention of cplnS In the Uihle Is held to referto tlv Persian money in r.r.i (S,:(8-S:27i (S,:(8-S:27i and Nehemiah (7:70-78) the CUt'reni Kold coins are spoken of under un-der the name darcemon adarcon which we believe to be the Dkrlo. Rlrsl Jewish coined money In the First Book of Macabees that Antiihus 7th granted to simnn. tin- Macabee permission per-mission to coin money with his own stamp 1 to years B. C. The average weight of the silver OOinS Is ii bruit 220 K'"-'iins Troy fur the shekel and IK' for the half-shekel. The shekel corresponds almost exactly in the tetrndrochm or dldrachTn of the earlier Phoenician Talent In use In the cities of Phoenicia under Per-i slan rule, and after Alexander's time at Tyre. Sldon and Berytus as well as In t'.ffypt It Is represigted hy some as dldrachm, a rendering which has occasioned great difficulty to nulsmat-Ists. nulsmat-Ists. The proper Jewish srles closes with the money of the famous Barkobah who headed the revolt In the time of important of his coins. Hadrian, the shekel heinK the most important of his coins. Herod's 'money Lb abundant ntid Is all of copper, and Is Inferior interest to the earlir coinage, anil Is of Greek character, and only three denominations, denomina-tions, the smallest hut a small pli-f of brass, the next larner Its double, and the largest Its triple. The smallest is the farthlnc of the New Testament There :ro several passages In the rosin ros-in Is which throw lijrht on the coinage of the time. ' w h n the twelve Were scnl forth our Lord commanded them "Provide neither rold nor silver, nor brass In your purses" (Matt 10!9). In St. Mark 6 B copper alone is mentioned i- rnbney. the Palestinian currency being mainly of this metal, although vhi-i vas c. dned i'. sunn- i f the citi- ": I 'hoi nil la and Syria and gold anrl silver Roman money was also us-d. St. Luke, however, used the term I oney" (!.3). a less Hebraistic title. Tt r. illill-lnhin Ib III nllll l.nl I r, Ihn Hebrew shekel. The denarius, or Roman Ro-man penny as well as the Greek drahni. thou of about the same weight (Ma 82 18-18 and I. like 80:19-K). i), copper coins the farthing and its half the mite The mile here Is little bronze lepton (Mark 12:24), the widow's mite. As far back as S62 B. C. we find n ..... y , onslsted of some metal, gold. silver and brohie being the ones most generally used. The value was regu-lati regu-lati I by weigh:, and th- names of coins used bj different nations were dnrlved from the name of their weight; as the Hebro shekel, and the English pound, the latter bring formerh a pound of .silver. The As or Ase, as It i a sometimes Spelled is a Roman . up- pel coin which originally weighed 8 pound Its weight was cut down to two ounces in the first Punic war. mid to one ounce In the second The "Puntc." a small cupper mn were made during the Punic wars between Rome and Carthage in the third century cen-tury B. C. Dear reader, let me tae up some of the coins and medals of North America, anrl see if something ot interest in-terest can he found In them. Let us study the I'nlted States coins and medals, med-als, and sec what lessons we can learn from them, but let us not have our thoughts too much on the "almlghtj dollar." but Wore on Almighty Clod, and "thank HiSr for ghing us the pow-ei pow-ei to earn and collect them. Pon't make the dollar your God ( oi r.i OF MiRI'll tM ERICA. One would would have to work along numismatic lines long and well tu become be-come familiar with four hundred odri patterns and designs of the Ignited States coins, and the great number of I pattern coins, commemorative coins. I memorial coins memorial and necessity neces-sity pieces, that were not issued for general circulation; There are also cracked dies, large and small date i large and small eagles, hroad and nar-I nar-I ro wplanchet. and the mint marks ,801110 of us may have studied these (well which Is right and proper, but many of us have woefully neglected our ni iKhfcors In the north and south. We may he quite familiar with the I Canadian coins, hut what about the Latin-American coinage? Whatever might be said of the old j Spanish rules or their rule of misrule I of the American colonies .they must I he given credit for one thing. They never made any attempt to deb. is.' the coinage, a trick other kings have tiled to nlav. To the silver nnlnOM 'of the Spanish-American mints and llater to the Mexican dollar, justly be-1 be-1 lone the title and distinction of international inter-national coinage an importance that ! has marked comparatively fe-.v Issues 1 In I he Itisto'-v of the world. I The firs: mint 10 be established on I the American continent w ;is at the city I of Mexico In the reign oft Charles I '( Charles V of the empire) by decree daterl May 1 1th 1 S 3 R . in the vlce-royaltj of South Amsri- ca the first mint was established at the capital l it yof Lima by rhiiip xin (1696-1681); anil by Philip IV as second sec-ond and more important coinage establishment estab-lishment was opened POtOSt. It) Bolivia Bo-livia in the year I860. Tip. first in Central America Wp. erected at Guatemala in 1701, 1 believe. be-lieve. The United States Mint at Philadelphia, Phila-delphia, l a., r-niiimeni r-,i operation in 1793. The American mints wor.e accorded the right to 1 oin gold m 1675 Among the first gold coins was the Doubloon (816.00). in addition the series bf Coins regularly issued by the Spanish-American Spanish-American mints, a latge number of commemorative coins wi re struck., and were of great interest. Those most frequently commemorated were the accessions of Spanish monarchs, and the proclama t ion coins issued. nol only by the mints In the name Of the State, but also, and even more important impor-tant those Issued by cities and cathedrals. cathe-drals. The first coin struck hy our government govern-ment was the Kugo or Frjnklln CI nt, and was designed by Benjamin Frank-11 Frank-11 In 1776. On the obverse, or face. I of thV Fii;i. I this Inscription "Mind I four Business," beneath a sun dial. During tho month of Inly, 1818. j there were struck at the Philadelphia j mint the enormous total of 3s,i31.onn 1 pennies, 0'iii.iuui dimes and H. 306,000 nickels. The writer wpuld like to know who got the most of this chicken chick-en feed." I have read three or four articles I on Prof. Fisher's plan of stabilizing the dollar Now. 1 wish to know how : ll is possible to stabilize a dollar or nny other money. Take the dime for instance? the new typo Of 19HV The designer said the wings on the Liberty cap were to symbolize liberty of thought. May be so. but he may have been a prophet, and wisher) to give us a hint that nioney would go erv fast In the then Immediate future. For my part I do not think any chatigc for the better wtll come until khi wings arc taken off or clipped pretty close. Nirklo. as I understand It. Is a valu able and variously useful metal The nickel, a coin, is also a useful little dish of nlckle. People find the nickle handy to purchase streetcar tickets. gum Ice i-reaiii cones to throw on the Salvation Army drum, anrl on the church collection plates. It takes twenty pickles to make a dollar, but With the souring pre es T f ar ths dollar will become so smajl that only microbes can live on It. At the present time the Standard dollar has les:- purchasing pur-chasing power than ever before, but it ! Is still worth a hundred cents, and each cenl bears the legion "In Qod We Trust."' And today 'he Anierli.in dollar is king of all monetary standards. stand-ards. The English pound, the French franc, and German mark all how before be-fore It ami yield It iITk- obeisance. We will now look at a medal or two and see If there Is a lesson to be learned there, then 'o will drop the curtains for this time. MP t 1 - Germanv struck the Lusltnnla medial, med-ial, a historical souvenlor of event I leading to the downfall of the German emplrt n was designed by nerr K. iGoertX of Munich They were cir culated by the Germans to celebrate the greatest atrocity In the world's history. The submarine and crew that H fired the shot that sank the Lusltanla was sunk with all hands by being ac- j eulentally rammed by another F-hoat H in the harbor of Ueglloland. Wheth- or this was Justice meted out by a H revengeful God or was another act of K ult ur" barfed on the assumption that H do. id men ten no tales" may never i" known. The Lusltanla medal will 1 hi handed down for generslions as a H relic of barbarism and a proof of f H :the Hun's damnable dupllelty. k Dear reader, follow me a little fur- I H j ther, and see what we can find in the I H H When we take a medal having on ; one side the picture of a young man lkBBH j In an open field splitting i-alls In the I BLH , biasing sun. encircled with the words 1 H Kail Splitter of 1830'.' and on the I j other the bust of Abraham Lincoln. I H 1 and the words "President of the f,8LLfl United States lRfil" we learn the im- goeBafl ! porta nt lesson that In this American IBjBBjbI i republic, a man Is not prr-clufted hy his poverty and his privations from RsBB , rising to occupy the most exalted posl- H j t ion in the gift of a nation: that man :H conmmands his destiny, that all H achievements are possible to s reso- H lute, determined, hard working man. H and that In a Democratic society, every fH lli:ill I. Hill .... ;p'es the plaee where he rtUjntfully belongs. H Learn ,r know the coins anil medals bf America and enrich sour knowledge H j regarding ihc nublc men anil women ; of history, and to store your mind with the facts as to the effects of a H I tested, political, industrial, economical, IbBjbV land social movement, thereby enabling IH yourself to live BSt ful, and as a con- IH J sentience a happy life 11 FAIRCHTLD. 25th St., Ogdcn, Utah. 1 |