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AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vol. III. —MARCH, 1869, — No. 1. 
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SHELL-MONEY. 
BY R. E. C. STEARNS. 

To THE numismatist the love of money is not fraught 
with evil; his love is not the worship of Mammon or the 
miser’s greed, but rather the ardor of the philosopher or the 
enthusiasm of the naturalist; he glorifies his coins, not for 
their commercial value, but for their antiquity or historical 
associations. As he ponders over his collection, a panorama 
of past centuries unrolls before him; he sees a long proces- 
sion of great events, the rise and fall of nations and of men 
whose emblems and effigies, embossed upon their money, 
have outlived the national life. More eloquent than written 
history are these speechless coins. Though silent, they tell 
of epochs in the lives of the nations they represent, and of 
eras in the history of the human race. 
Notwithstanding the importance of money from an historical 
point of view, it is not probable that its invention was due 
to any other cause than commercial necessity ; although coins 
for money are the offspring of civilization, yet the conven- 
ience of some medium, less bulky and more durable than or- 
dinary merchandise, by which the differences occurring in 
transactions of trade or barter may be adjusted, has bdi 
recognized by barbarous tribes as well as by civilized people. 

Act of Congress, in the year 1869, the PEABODY ACADEMY OF 
SCIENCE, in the Vie Cl Oloo of the Discs Court othe of Massachusetts. 
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