WHITE] ARCHAIC MONETARY TERMS OE THE UNITED STATES 



95 



silver, however, was summarily repudiated by the official suppression 

 of the coinage of the large copper cent and the issue in the place of 

 it of the smaller one of the same nominal value. The ratio of value 

 between silver and gold is still an open question, and at one time it 

 became a violent political issue. In designating the metal of each of 

 the coins of the foregoing table, only the principal metal of each is 

 mentioned, no reference being made to the alloys. 



The denominations pertaining to our monetary system are. as the 



Fig. 22. — Pine-tree shilling. Coined in Massachusetts in 1652. 



foregoing table shows, mills, cents, dimes, dollars, and eagles ; but 

 only two of them are used in practical monetary annotation, namely, 

 dollars and cents. The dollar being officially designated as the 

 monetary unit, the other three terms are merely nominal portions 

 of the formulated system, of which formula the mill is the con- 

 structive unit. The English monetary system consisted of four 

 denominations, namely, farthings, pence, shillings, and pounds, four 

 farthings constituting a penny, twelve pence a shilling, and twenty 



Fig. 23. — Lord Baltimore shilling. Coined in Maryland in 1659. 



shillings a pound. The commercial exchange value of the pound is 

 about $4.85 ; of the shilling, 24 cents; and of the penny, 2 cents. 

 Because Spain for more than one hundred years controlled the silver 

 supply of the world and from her mints supplied the colonies, and 

 afterward our newly formed States, with the greater part of their 

 current silver coins, reference to their denominations is also neces- 

 sary. These were the peso, which was equal in value to our dollar, 

 the half peso, the quarter peso, the real, and the medio, the value 



