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 country.* 



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 archaeology 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 circnlation 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 



*Dcl Mar : A History of Money in Ancient Countries, p. 109. 



