264 



SPECIMENS OF JAPANESE COIN AND AUSTRIAN MONEY, 



1. In Japan, the normal money of account is the itzehu, which in 

 silver is a coin equal to one-third of a Mexican dollar, as near as 

 may be. Our treaty stipulations with that country provided that 

 Mexican dollars should be received from Americans in exchange for 

 Japanese silver coins, by weight ', a natural and just arrangement, 

 assuming the quality of silver to be the same. It was necessary for 

 our shippers to have Japanese coin to make purchases. Just at this 

 juncture, a new coin made its appearance at Hakodadi, the port 

 where American trade then chiefly centred, a coin not known to the 

 regular series of Japanese money, and probably not yet known to the 

 Japanese nation at large. It weighed as much as a half dollar, and 

 in fact erred a little on the side of liberality. An American having 

 a thousand dollars to exchange, would receive two thousand of 

 these pieces under the treaty. But when he came to buy goods 

 with them, he was told that their legal value was a half itzebu. They 

 were, indeed, considerably larger than the whole itzebu, but such 

 was the law of the land. In a word, a Japanese could jja?/ them to 

 an American at the rate of two to the dollar, but could only receive 

 them at six to the dollar. This remarkable piece of political economy 

 has caused our traders much annoyance. The piece here shown is 

 the coin referred to. 



2. The other specimen partakes still more largely of the suggestive. 

 It is a paper bill issued by the Austrian Government, dated November 

 1, 1860, and is declared to be receivable at all public offices for ten 

 Icreutzers. This amount is equal to five cents of our money. But 

 we are informed that this paper is at a discount of sixty per cent, 

 against silver, so that its actual current value is only two cents. In 

 fact, even the copper coin bears a high premium, as compared with 

 these bills. 



The following is the wording of the bill : 



^' Wird fiir zehn (10) Kreuzer silberscheidemiinze bei alien Zah- 

 lungen an offentliche Cassen statt Barem angcnommen. Wien. 1 

 November, 1860. Oesterr. Wiihrung.'' 



The value of the bill is stated on its face in seven different lan- 

 guages, German, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, &c., to suit the various 

 populations of the empire. 



Mr. Peale read a paper on the stone implements of the In- 

 dians of North America, and illustrated it with a numerous 

 collection of specimens from his own cabinet. 



