COHOES 



1466 



COINAGE 



that it applies to particles of the same kind, 

 wliilt- adlu-Mon is the force that holds together 

 unlike particle*. 



COHOES, kohott', N. Y.. an industrial city 

 with a population which increased from 24,709 

 in 1910 to 25.049 in 1914. Three mills were 

 destroyed by fire in December, 1913, \\lm-h 

 !>r.>l>:tl>ly accounts for the decrease to 23,433, 

 it-ported liy the state census of 1915. Cohoes 

 :irst settled by the Dutch, us early as 

 1630; it was incorporated as a village in 1848 

 and chartered as a city in 1870. The falls of 

 the Mohawk River suggested the name, which 

 is the Indian word for falls. The area is more 

 than three square miles. 



Cohoes is situated in Albany County, on 

 the Krie Canal and at the confluence of the 

 Hudson and Mohawk rivers. Troy is three 

 miles east, Albany, the state capital, is nine 

 miles north, and Schenectady is eighteen miles 

 northwest. The city is served by the Delaware 

 * Hudson Railroad, constructed to the city 

 in 1853. and by the Troy-Schenectady branch 

 of the New York Central, built in 1842. Elec- 



tric railways connect with Troy, Albany and 



atljarriit towns. 



The Mohawk Valley, in which Cohoes is lo- 

 cated, is famous for its beautiful scenery. At 

 this point the river is spanned by a bridge 

 which affords an excellent view of the falls, 

 which are about seventy feet high. Abundant 

 water power is furnished for the operation of 

 over 300 manufacturing plants. The cotton- 

 goods industry is the most important, and 

 owing to its extent Cohoes is popularly called 

 the Spindle City. There are five large cotton 

 mills, including one of the well-known Har- 

 mony Mills. These mills employ 3,250 people. 

 The Harmony Mills alone have 275,000 spindles 

 and use 300,000 pounds of cotton per week. 

 The city is also noted for its knit-goods trade, 

 and is actively engaged in the manufacture of 

 boxes, iron-pipe, machinery, wood pulp, and 

 collars and cuffs. The Cohoes Company has 

 constructed a power plant at a cost of $1,500,- 

 000, which generates from 30,000 to 50,000 

 horse power. The mills of Cohoes will be 

 operated by this plant. .I.K.C. 



THE STORY T)F COINS AND COINAGE 



OINAGE, koyn'aj. As far back as 



we can trace real money we find it to consist 

 of some metal gold, silver and bronze being 

 the ones most generally used. The value was 

 regulated by weight, and the names of coins 

 used by different nations were derived from 

 the names of these weights, as the Hebrew 

 shekel and the English pound, the latter be- 

 ing formerly a pound of silver. This method 

 of exchange was very inconvenient, and govern- 

 ments at an early day, centuries before the 

 Christian Era, issued pieces of metal stamped 

 with their value, and bearing some symbol of 

 authority to denote that they were issued by 

 the government. These pieces of metal were 

 named coins. The word means wedge. A 

 wedge-shaped die was used in stamping the 

 metal, and in time the name of the die was 

 given to the metal stamped by it. The manu- 

 facture and regulation of coins is called coinage, 

 and is a function of national governments. 



Qualities of Coin. The value of coins de- 

 pends upon the uniformity of weight and fine- 

 ness, that is, upon the degree of purity of the 

 metal of which they are made. In order that 

 coins may be acceptable to the people and 

 therefore circulate freely, they must bear some 

 mark indicating that the qualities of weight 

 and fineness, which determine value, are guar- 

 anteed. The Roman penny bore a raised por- 

 trait of the emperor. The English sovereign 

 has the head of the ruling sovereign on one 

 side and Saint George and the dragon on the 

 other. The dollar of the United States has the 

 American eagle with the legend "United States 

 of America" on one side and the head of the 

 Goddess of Liberty with the legend E pluribus 

 unum and the date of coinage on the other. 

 Every coin has its value stamped on one side. 

 Canadian coins have the bust of the English 

 sovereign on the face, and the value stamped 

 on the reverse side. 



