4 EARLIEST KNOWLEDGE 



may be viewed as one of the precious metals ; 

 yet the changes that have since taken place have 

 rendered gold and silver more especially entitled 

 to that name, and will be so considered in the 

 farther progress of this inquiry. 



Some of the earliest notices which have reached 

 the present day of the estimation of gold and 

 silver, are in the account of the condition of 

 Abraham, the progenitor of the Hebrew people, 

 supposed to have lived two thousand years be- 

 fore our Christian era. We read "that he was 

 rich in cattle, and in silver, and in gold 1 ." On 

 the death of his wife, he purchased a field for a 

 burying-place, the payment for which was made 

 with four hundred shekels of silver, which he 

 delivered not in coin, but " by weight according 

 to the currency of the merchants 2 ." 



Joseph, the great grandson of Abraham, was 

 sold by his brethren to a caravan of Arabs tra- 

 velling towards Egypt with the productions of 

 their country, for twenty pieces of silver 3 . 

 Afterwards, when established in Egypt as mi- 

 nister of the king of that country, his brothers 

 brought " silver in their sacks 5 mouth," to pur- 

 chase corn during a season of scarcity in their 

 native land. In the interesting sequel of the 

 history of Joseph, when making himself known 



1 Genesis, cap. xii. v. 2. 



2 Genesis, cap. xxiii. v. 14, 15, and 16. 



3 Genesis, cap. xxxviii. v. 29. 





