VII 

 ANTHROPOLOGY 



THE EVOLUTION OF CURRENCY AND COINAGE 

 (SiR RICHARD C. TEMPLE, BART.) 



THE task set before me to-day is to elucidate for 

 students the vast Natural Science of Anthropology by 

 the selection of typical data from one small branch of 

 it and by generalizations drawn from the study of these. 

 I may add that practically in a single lecture it is possi- 

 ble to consider but a portion of this small branch, and 

 even then I feel constrained to apologize for the rapidity 

 of my survey. 



The terms Currency and Coinage are frequently used 

 in common parlance as denominating the same thing, 

 though this is not the fact. The latter term is really 

 included in the former. All coinage is used for currency, 

 but currency does not by any means consist only of 

 coinage. Coinage is, however, so late a development 

 of currency that a consideration of it offers a suitable 

 subject for the present purpose a study of the working 

 of the mind of man in devising means for the conveni- 

 ence of mankind. It goes further, indeed, and illustrates, 

 perhaps better than any other subject, the methods by 

 which the human mind meets the daily requirements 

 of mankind. 



