56 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



"Pound," as said before, originally was not a coin, but a pound of 

 silver, or 240 pennies. The origin of penny is not known, but is 

 said to be from "pender" to weigh. The word "sterling' as applied 

 to money, was used in connection with the Easterlings or North 

 German merchants, whose transactions were mostly of a monetary 

 nature. In the reign of Henry I. of England, the legal tender 

 money was frabicated out of wood. This instrument was called an 

 exchange tally, and, by virtue of it, the holder was entitled to receive 

 from the crown, the value inscribed thereon. It consisted of one- 

 half of a four-sided rod on which was carved in tranverse notches, 

 the sum it purported to represent. These signs were for the un- 

 learned, whilst for the educated, the sum was written on two opposite 

 sides of the rod, which being then split, one-half, called the tally or 

 check, was given to the party for whose use it was intended ; the 

 other half, called the. counter tally, was laid up in safe keeping till its 

 corresponding tally should be brought in by the person who had last 

 given value for it It was a current token of real money, and served 

 to distribute it from man to man by this exchange. From this was 

 derived the Exchequer Bill in 1696. The word ''bill'" was derived 

 from the Norman word bille, a rod or staff. Soldiers are to day 

 said to be billeted because formerly they tendered wooden billes, or 

 tallies to those on whom they were quartered. Oflficers of the army, 

 taken into the King^s own pay, were said to be "put on the staff,'' 

 because they were paid with wooden tallies or billets. 



Of gold coinage, that of England and the United States is 

 probably as graceful and attractive as any that now exists, and the 

 twenty franc pieces of Italy are also very handsome. Half, and 

 quarter dollar gold pieces struck in California are the smallest gold 

 coins known, but they were never in circulation. The most 

 beautiful silver coinage is that of Russia, each piece being in itself 

 a work of art, so finely and elaborately is the die cast. The ugliest 

 silver coinage is that of Hamburg, the metal adulterated and poorly 

 executed, and from its dirty looking condition it resembles a piece of 

 refuse tin more than any other metal. The neatest paper money is 

 that of Greece, and the old bank currency of America in its day was 

 well executed. The worst is the Austrian 5 kreutzrer note, printed 

 on a soft thick greyish paper, which has the faculty of rubbing away 

 like ordinary blotting paper. 



To enumerate the coins of antiquity, which grace various cabi- 



