198 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MONEY—DAVIDSON. 
the outside, in course of time the piece of double wire would 
have become a bullet-shaped piece of metal, just as the bullet coins 
of Siam struck in European fashion represent the last stage of 
the original ring currency of that cduntry.* 
At one time axes served as money in many countries, At 
first it was the actual implement or weapon itself; but in time a 
conventionalized form was adopted. In West Africa to-day 
almost the sole currency in many districts has the form of an 
axe. These are too small now to be actually used, either as 
weapons of war or as implements of industry ; but the shape 
has been preserved unchanged, and it is evident that the days 
are not long past when a currency of actual axes was employed. 
We have evidence from archzeology and from literature of a 
similar usage among the Greeks. There seems to be little ground 
for doubting that the earliest coins were imitations in metal of 
the older article which the metallic currency replaced. Thus, 
the coins of many Greek states and cities bear on their faces 
evidence of the nature of the commodity currency they replaced. 
When the coins were for circulation among a purely Greek 
people, there could be no difficulty in passing at once from the 
commodity to a piece of metal stamped with the image of the 
article whose value the coin represented. For instance, the 
Greeks of Cyzicus stamped their coins with the image of a 
tunny fish which was probably a part of their commodity cur- 
rency at an earlier date ; and these coins are, in most respects, 
like modern coins. But, in Olbia, a Greek colony on the Black 
Sea, where the Greeks traded with the barbarians, and the 
population moreover was of mixed race, the tunny fish was also 
the chief article of trade. There it was found necessary to 
make a concession to the lower level of intelligence of those with 
whom they traded, and perhaps also of many of their own 
citizens ; and consequently a coin in the actual shape of a tunny 
fish was struck to represent the probable original commodity 
currency. In the same way the axe appears on the coins of 
*Del Mar: A History of Money in Ancient Countries, p. 109. 
