What IS Money ?

From the same 1890 source:


The Moneys of the World—San Francisco Chronicle

The money of all civilized nations today consists of round tokens, of varying denominations, made of gold, silver, copper, and nickel, and of paper notes either redeemable by the government or by some well-established bank. There was a time, though, when such a short general description could not have been written, and there are still sundry odd corners of the earth where some curious currency is in use.

According to most authorities, the skins of animals was the earliest form of money, the very word pecuniary, tracing its derivation back to the Latin pecus—cattle. Certain of the Alaskan Indians still use pelts for currency; skins of wild animals were so used by the ancient Muscovites, and in the early days of settlement in Illinois raccoon and deer skins passed as money.

After the hunting age came the pastoral, and then the animals themselves took the place of money. Sheep and oxen were principally employed, their relative value by the old Romans being set at ten sheep for one ox, a standard that still obtains among Indian races.

The Icelandic and Irish laws yet bear traces of the use of cattle for money; many Teutonic lines were paid in cattle, and oxen form the circulating medium among the Zulus and Kaffirs in this year of grace. A direct link between this practice and the metal coins for money is found in the fact that the earliest Roman money was first shapeless pieces of bronze chipped off from a lump, these being followed by lumps of regulated weight, on which were stamped the image of an ox or a sheep.
The Romans, however, were by no means the first to use metal for money. The Egyptians used both gold and silver as far back as the days of Abraham, but it was counted by weight, and not by face value, and it was the ingenious man who conceived the happy idea of stamping these pieces to show their value, who was the first coiner.

Numismatics, as a rule, go no further back than the use of stamped pieces of metal by the Libyans and Greeks, at a date varying from nine hundred to four hundred years B.C.
Before the introduction of coined money into Greece, skewers or spikes of iron and copper were a currency, six being a drachm or handful. Iron spikes are still employed in the same way in certain parts of Central Africa, and, according to Adam Smith, it is not so very long ago that nails were used as a subsidiary coin in Scotland. Hence, perhaps, the term "tenpenny nail" —i.e., ten for a penny.



The archaic Greek money was in the form of thick, round lumps of metal, stamped with the given value. The metals so used, whether in Europe or Asia, were electrum, an amalgam of four parts of gold to one of silver; billon, for the baser coins, made of silver with a great deal of alloy, and poten, a softer quality of billon.

The term " brass " is generally supposed to have stood for copper.
The Jews, in addition to shekels, talents, and drachms of silver, had a "jewel money."
The Egyptians improved on their metal lumps by introducing gold and silver rings.
The earliest coinage for America was that made in 16 12 for the Virginia Company, at the Somers Islands, now called Bermudas. The coin was of brass, with the legend " Sommer Island," and a " hogge on one side, in memory of the abundance of hogges which were found on their first landing." This was the famous " hog money."

The earliest colonial coinage was in Massachusetts in 1652, a " Mint howse " being established at Boston, and the " quoines " being a shilling, sixpence, and three-penny piece. Before this the currency of the colonists was a very mixed one. Musket-balls passed for change at a farthing apiece, and were a legal tender for sums under a shilling. Tobacco and tobacco receipts were legal tender j corn and beans and codfish were also employed.

Wampum, however, was the commonest currency of all. It was the shellbead money of the Indians, and was soon accepted by the colonists as a convenient token. There were two kinds of wampum—wampumeag, which was white and made from the conch or periwinkle; and suckanhock, which was dark-purple and made from the hard-shell clam. The purple was worth twice as much as the white. The shell was broken in pieces, rubbed smooth on a stone till about the thickness of a pipe-stem, then pierced with a drill, and strung into necklaces, bracelets, and belts. The English, French, and Dutch settlers all used wampum, the value being fixed in 1640 at six beads for a penny. The strings were called fathoms, and varied in value from five to ten shillings.

Shell money has played quite an important part in the world's commerce. The small hard shell known as the cowry, is still used in India, the Indian islands, and Africa, in the place of subsidiary coin.
In 1851 more than one thousand tons of these shells were brought from India to Liverpool, to be exported to the coast of Africa in exchange for palm-oil. In Bengal they are worth thirty-two thousand to the rupee (forty six cents), or about seventy to the cent. The cowry is a gasteropod mollusk, is beautifully marked, and is strung on a tough grass string for convenience of transportation.
The British Columbia Indians still use a variety of wampum made of haiqua shells. These they string up, and use as an ornamental border to dresses, their currency value being one string for a beaver's skin.

Looking back to the pre-wampum days, it is learned that of the aboriginal money of the American continent, the mounds in and adjoining the valley of the Mississippi have produced specimens of lignite, coal, bone, terra-cotta, mica, pearl, carnelian, chalcedony, agate, jasper, gold, silver, copper, lead, and iron, which were fashioned into forms evincing considerable skill and art.

According to Prescott, the money of the Aztecs and the nations in kin consisted of quills filled with gold-dust and bags of chocolate grains. Chocolate is still used in the interior of South America for the same purpose, as are cocoanuts and eggs.

Copper is now used in the subsidiary coinage of all civilized nations, except Persia ; tin and zinc in none of them, except as an alloy. There was a time, though, when both these latter metals were employed. Halfpence and farthings of tin were coined in England during the time of the early Stuarts, possibly because at that time the tin sup ply of Cornwall was greater than the demand. In this the English kings were only reviving a very ancient fashion, stamped lumps of tin having been found in use in Britain at the time of its invasion by the Romans. Tin was also coined by Dionysius.

Of the other base metals, iron was always more or less used by Asiatic nations ; the Byzantines were especially addicted to its employment. Lead was also employed. There is a leaden stater among the coins of the British Museum, and it still forms part of the currency of Burmah.

Platinum was coined in Russia from 1828 to 1845, but the experiment was not a success.
The Carthaginians had leather money. Barbarossa, during his fight with Milan in 1158, issued leather tokens, and so did John the Good of France in 1360. William I. of Sicily (1154-66) compelled his subjects to give gold and silver in exchange for leather money, and when Leyden was besieged by Spain in 1574, the resolute burghers issued a leather coinage. Numa Pompilius went even further than this, and made a money of wood, while Marco Polo brought back the report from China in the thirteenth century that he had seen there a coinage made of the middle bark of the mulberry, cut in disks, and stamped with the king's mark, which money it was death either to counterfeit or refuse.

The list of what may be curious money is a long one. Among some of the native Australians greenstone (jade) and red ochre form the currency. In the retired districts of New Guinea female slaves form the standard of value. Norway even now uses corn for coin. Whales' teeth are used by the Fijians, red feathers by some of the South Sea Islanders, and salt in Abyssinia. In India, cakes of tea pass as currency,.and in China pieces of silk. Tin, indeed, to-day forms the standard of value at the great fairs of Nijni Novgorod. In the British West Indies pins, a slice of bread, a pinch of snuff, or a dram of whiskey have all a purchasing power, while on the African coast axes are the accepted currency. The strangest coin of all, though, is the ideal money spoken of by Montesquieu as being found in certain parts of Africa. It is an ideal money called " maconte," but is purely a sign of value without a unit.

The notes of the nations of today are as follows:
The Bank of England note is about five inches by eight in dimensions, and is printed in black ink on Irish linen water-lined paper, plain white and with ragged edges, which lacks the oily smoothness of American bank-notes.

The notes of the Banque de France are made of white water-lined, printed in blue and black, with numerous mythological and allegorical pictures, and running in denominations from the twenty franc note to the one-thousand-franc. South American currency, in most countries, is about the size and general appearance of American bills, except that cinnamon-brown and slate-blue are the prevailing colors, and the Spanish and Portuguese language the prevalent language engraved on the face.

The German currency is rather artistic. The bills are printed in green and black, upon paper lighter than American gold certificates, and about an inch wider. They run in denominations from five marks to one thousand marks. Their later bills are being printed on the silk-fibre paper.

The Chinese paper currency is in red, white, and yellow paper, with gilt lettering and gorgeous little hand-drawn devices. The bills, to the ordinary financier, might pass for wash-checks or prayer-papers in a joss-house, but they are worth good money in the Flowery Kingdom.

Italian notes are of all shapes, sizes, and colors. The smaller bills—five and ten lire notes—are about the size and shape of our own old twenty-five-cent " shinplaster " fractional currency, and printed on white paper in pink, blue, and carmine inks, and ornamented with a finely-engraved vignette of King Humbert.

The one-hundred-ruble note of Russia is barred from top to bottom with all the colors of the rainbow, blended as when shown through a prism. In the centre, in bold relief, stands a large, finely-executed vignette of the Empress Catherine I. This is in black. The other engraving is not at all intricate or elaborate, but is well done in dark and light brown and black inks.

The Norwegians have a curious currency, but it is rarely seen in the United States, for the reason that it circulates very little among the common people, and the class that come to America as emigrants. These stick to their copper and silver coins, and shun the little cinnamon-brown bills of their government, which are about the size of our old "shin-plasters."

The Austrian bill is printed on light-colored thick paper, which shows none of the silk-fibre marks or geometric lines used in American currency as a protection against counterfeiting.

The principal methods by which money is put into circulation in the United States were recently given by the Atlanta Constitution.
First, through the paying out of sums appropriated by the government for various purposes. The appropriations for the current year are $460,000,000. About $100,000,000 is paid out in pensions and thus scattered in every State. A large amount goes for the redemption of bonds and the payment of interest; other large amounts for rivers and harbors, for the civil, military and naval establishments, for the diplomatic service, for public buildings, in the government of the District of Columbia, and for the Indians. In this way $460,000,000 will go out from the treasury this year, and the amount increases annually.
A second method is through the coinage of silver and gold. The government buys bullion and must pay for it with something ; it pays for it with silver and gold certificates, which thus get into the hands of the people.
A third method is through the national bank system, by which, as everybody knows, a duly chartered corporation, on deposit of United States bonds, is allowed to issue 90 per cent, of their face value in currency of their own. This currency the bank loans to its customers.
A fourth method is through the government depositories. All over the United States federal officers are collecting internal revenue taxes, over $100,000,000 a year, sometimes as high as $150,000,000. The local officers must have a place of deposit, and so the government designates depositories in convenient places. The banks so designated have to secure the government fully by bonds.