218 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



of dust or nuggets passing by weight before the invention of coinage. 

 He presents a good deal of proof that the first coin made of electron in 

 Lydia, about 700 B. c, was equated with the cow at about one hundred 

 and thirty-five grains of this alloy. He cites the proof of the common 

 use of the bull's head and other signs upon the early coins. Thence 

 coinage was carried into Greece, where the gold stater, or standard, or 

 unit of value, was first coined by Philip of Macedon at a very similar 

 weight ; and that gold stater was for a very long period the standard or 

 unit of the world's commerce of that period. 



Again. There are few races of men so low in intellect as not to have 

 invented money, choosing the many articles with which you are familiar 

 which have for the time being served the purpose. At a later period 

 came the invention of the decree or law of legal tender. From the dawn 

 of history to the present time this conception of a legal tender born in 

 fraud and nursed in corruption has been made use of to debase the coin- 

 age in order to cheat the masses of the people, or else for the collection 

 of a forced loan, as in the instances of the Continental currency of our 

 Revolutionary time and of our legal tender currency of the present day. 

 The only exceptions to this rule regarding legal tender have been specific 

 laws passed for the purpose of keeping the small change or subsidiary 

 coinage within the limits of the country by which it has been coined, as a 

 token of light weight in metal, redeemable in coin of full value. In these 

 facts we surely find the basis of a science. 



It is proved that in the very earliest stages of civilization men have in- 

 vented money and have used it as a medium of commerce. Commerce 

 rests upon mutual benefit. From period to period the thing used for 

 money has changed, passing through various stages. Non-metallic sub- 

 jects, such as cattle, stock fish, shells or cowries, wampum, leather, tobacco, 

 furs and skins, have been adopted. Metals in useful forms, like hoes in 

 Africa, have been used. The several metals iron, copper, silver, and gold 

 have been used, one successively displacing the other with the progress of 

 wealth and with the enlargement of commerce. In the end sfold has be- 

 come by a process of natural selection, and in total disregard of legislation, 

 the unit or standard of the world's international commerce. For that pur- 

 pose it is used now under a weight name, "pound sterling." There is no 

 lawful coin of that name. The equivalent is named a sovereign. Pound 

 sterling is now the definition of 113.0016 grains of gold, having originally 

 been the name of a pound Easterling of silver, based on the Troy or 

 Troyes table of 57G0 grains, which was the standard of the Steel Yard 

 where foreign goods were held in stock for sale in England. Drafts and 



