CURIOSITIES OF AMERICAN COINAGE. 593 



of Lake Ontario — so gently developed as not to produce bold fea- 

 tures. On tlie other hand, portions of the barrier have been squeezed 

 up by local movements, causing the plateaus, whether above or below 

 the surface of the sea, to rise rather suddenly from the plains ,in 

 front of them. 



Thus the story of the "West Indian bridge and the geological 

 water ways across Central America * are only different chapters of 

 the great changes of level of land and sea which have occurred in 

 the most recent geological times, illustrating terrestrial movements 

 now in progress, which have the power of completely altering the 

 physical features of the earth, transposing tropical and arctic climates, 

 and scattering or exterminating animal and plant life of continental 

 regions. 



CUKIOSITIES OF AMEEICAI^ COIN'AGE.f 



By ALEXANDER E. OUTERBRIDGE, Jr. 



IT is remarkable, in view of the universal desire of mankind to 

 obtain money, that so few persons, comparatively, really know 

 anything about the early history of money, or the social and indus- 

 trial conditions which led, long ago, to the substitution of pieces of 

 coined money for direct barter — in short, when, where, and how the 

 art of coining and use of metallic money originated. These are 

 interesting subjects for historical and archaeological research, and they 

 have a direct practical relation to the development of the modern 

 science of money. Elsewhere I have gone over this classical ground, 

 and I propose, on this occasion, to limit the field to be surveyed to 

 that portion of the subject which relates particularly to the early 

 history of American coinage and its modern developments. There 

 are many curious and important facts relative to this coinage with 

 which the people are either wholly or in part unacquainted. 



My subject will be comprised under four heads — viz.: 1. The 

 Eunctions of Money. 2. The Early Colonial Coinage. 3. The 

 Coinage by Private Individuals or Companies. 4. The ISTational 

 Coinage. 



* For further details, see Great Changes of Level in Mexico and the Interoceanic Con- 

 nections. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, vol. ix, pp. 13-34, 1897. 



f An address delivered in the Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania, 

 March 23, 1898. The illustrations of rare gold coins of the " private issues," accompanying 

 this article, were made from the collection deposited in the museum of the university by 

 Mr. R. C. H. Brock, of Philadelphia, and were furnished by the director to this magazine 

 several weeks in advance of the publication of the address in a bulletin of the museum to 

 be issued in the future, and containing many other communications of archiBological mterest. 

 VOL. Mil. — 41 



