WHITE] ARCHAIC MONETARY TERMS OF THE UNITED STATES IO3 



New England Archaic Monetary Terms 



Monetary terms. 



Current coins. 



Value. 



Cent Large American copper coin . 



Half-dime ! American silver coin 



Dime American silver coin 



Four pence and half-penny. . . . Spanish half-real or medio. . . 



Sixpence No coin 



Ninepence Spanish real 



Shilling No coin 



One shilling and sixpence American or Spanish coin. . . 



Two shillings No coin 



Two shillings and sixpence . . No coin 



Three shdlings American or Spanish coin. . . . 



Three shillings and sixpence. 



Four shillings 



Four shillings and sixpence. 



Five shillings 



Five shillings and sixpence 



Six shillings 



Nine shillings American or Spanish coins. 



Ten shillings and sixpence . . . American or Spanish coins. 



No coin. 



No coin 



American or Spanish coins. 



No coin 



No coin .... 



American or Spanish coins. 



One cent. 



5 cents.. 

 10 cents. 



6% cents. 



8/^ cents.* 

 \2% cents. 

 16% cents.* 

 25 cents. 

 33 /j' cents.* 

 4 1 % cent.-*.*" 

 50 cents. 

 58^ cents.* 

 66% cents.* 

 75 cents. 

 83J/3 cents.* 

 91% cents.* 

 $1.00 



$1-75 



The foregoing table illustrates the peculiar tendency of the 

 original New England people to adhere to old forms of speech and 

 old names of familiar objects. After the first issue of our national 

 coins they necessarily called them, as coins, by the names which 

 our Congress had authoritatively given them, and they also used 

 the official designations and values exclusively in keeping their ac- 

 counts, just as we now do. In colloquial speech, however, they 

 continued to use the English monetary terms of their ancestors for 

 all values above five cents and up to a dollar and a half, whether 

 the coins they had in hand were American or Spanish. For ex- 

 ample, a merchant would tell his customer the prices of his. 

 goods in shillings and pence, and when the sale was made he would 

 accept either American or Spanish coins in payment and turn to his 

 cash book and enter the transaction in terms of our national cur- 

 rency only. 



The respective values assigned to the shilling and pound in the 

 New England bills of credit made it impracticable to recognize the 

 cent as a single penny, because its value as one-twelfth of sixteen 

 and two-thirds cents, became one and a third cents, but the penny 

 was freely recognized and expressed in multiples. For example, the 



* There were not only no coins in existence to represent these several values, 

 but they could not be accurately represented by combinations of any coins of 

 smaller values. 



