Ancient and Modern Coinage

 By Bryce Shawkey

Interesting article on coinage from an old book, "A Million of Facts and Correct Data in the Entire Circle of Sciences," published in 1833, sort of an early version of "The World Almanac and Book of Facts," which is still being published today, incidentally.

 --------------------------

MONEY AND COINS.

Whatever represents property, and is portable, is called currency. When currency is abundant or cheap, property is high or dear in currency; and when less in amount, property is cheap in currency. Paper is a better and more convenient social currency, if secured, and of steady amount, than the precious metals; and among different nations, any commodity which one possesses and the other wants, is equivalent to the commodity of gold or silver, for payment and exchange.

Silver was first coined by Phidon, king of Argos, about 880, the epoch of the building of Carthage, and about 140 years after the building of Solomon's temple.

The most ancient known coins are of the fifth century B.C. and are Macedonian ; but others are believed to be more ancient. After that date they illustrate history, but not earlier. They are of gold, silver, copper, or brass. Few give dates, and, therefore, they are more curious as relics than useful as records.

Among discoveries of ancient coins, 60,000 Roman ones were once found at Modena. 40,000 gold Greek coins were found in a river in Transylvania, 30,000 Roman coins were found near Brest; and 600 lbs. of silver coins were found in Sicily. Pots full are often found in Britain.

The drachma of the Greeks was a silver coin of the eighth of an ounce, worth 9d. The sestrice of the Romans was about 2d., and was of silver and brass, or brass only, marked J. J. S. A talent among the Greeks was 1000 drachmas. On the Roman coins the date is the name of the consul or emperor; and among the Greeks the name of the Archon or king. In Italy, France, and Asia Minor, there are modern manufactories of ancient coin to supply the antiquaries; just as in most countries there are imitators of ancient pictures to supply the amateurs.

The Greek coins still extant are in variety about two thousand. A pound of gold was, by the Romans, divided into a coin called Aureus, of 40, 45, and 72 to the pound. A pound of silver into 100 denarii. The sestertius was nearly 2d. the denarius 7-1/2; the auteus 16-1-3/4. Among the Greeks, an obolus was three halfpence; a drachma, 9d.',.  The most ancient Jewish coins represented a pot of manna on one side, and Aaron’s blossoming rod on the other. Estimates are that America transmits seven or eight millions of gold and silver annually to Europe, half of which is exported to the East, an eighth coined, and the rest in plate and jewelry.




































A Johannas is a Portuguese gold coin, significant beginning in colonial trade and are now highly sought after by collectors.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some Costco History

Image
 By Bruce Shawkey Time for another Costco run. This time to the Costco outside Verona. First off, lunch in the food court.  Quarter pound hot dog and a Pepsi for $1.50. Cheapest lunch around. The Costco hot dog was introduced in 1984, one year after Costco's opened in 1983. The original hot dog was made by Hebrew National, and was sold at a hot dog cart outside a Costco location in San Diego. The price was set at $1.50 at its introduction, and has remained at $1.50 ever since.  As of 2018, Costco sold a yearly average of 135 million hot dogs, more than every Major League Baseball stadium combined. Next, shopping for supplies, starting with the rotisserie chicken.    The  chicken is one of the things Costco is famous for.  Costco has been selling rotisserie  chickens   since 1994   when sales of rotisserie chicken started becoming popular at grocery stores. The cooked bird debuted at $4.99, which is the same affordable price tag it sport...
Read more

Raymond "Skip" Henderson

Image
 By Bruce Shawkey I met Raymond "Skip" Henderson about 1986. He was (and is) a watch collector. He lives in New Orleans, and scours the antique shops along Royal Avenue in search of treasures. He also combs the local garage sales and flea markets. One time, he found an old lamp and lampshade. He inquired as to its origin. He was told the shade was made from human skin and was an artifact of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. It was $35, and Skip decided to buy it.  He held on to it for about a year and then decided to get rid of it. Said Skip, "I mean, you take it out of the box, man, people do not want to be in the same room as this thing." Skip sent the shade to a friend in Brooklyn, Mark Jacobson, who writes for New York magazine. Jacobson paid $6,000 to have it tested at a leading genetics laboratory. The results confirmed every ones' suspicion. It was made from human skin.   The story ends there. Skip did not wish to have the lampshade returned to him. Skip ...
Read more

Life Lessons Often Learned Too Late

By Bruce Shawkey Ran across this thought-provoking article on the Bored Panda website about life lessons often learned too late.  Be careful of who you vent to at work. Just because they listen or show some empathy, it doesn't mean that they're your friend or have your best interests at heart. OK, I'm retired, so this really doesn't apply to me at this juncture of my life. But I get it. Many is the time I've vented to a co-worker, and it's come back to bite me in the ass. Working harder than everyone else only means the boss will load you down with even more work. Again, I'm retired, but I can related as a former salaried employee. As the one with no kids, I was the one who was always asked (and expected) to stay late to meet a deadline (or whatever) while the co-workers with kids got to go home on time or even early. HR ain't your friend. Boy, ain't it the truth. After all, they're looking out for the company, not you. People care much less abou...
Read more