70 



Coin and Currency in [No. 9, new series. 



I have alluded to the story of Lycurgus and his iron coins ; 

 and other states besides the Spartan are said to have adopted iron 

 as a medium of exchange, whether totally, as in that supposed 

 case, or only partially, I am unable to say. Byzantium is named 

 as one of these. A more unsuitable metallic material could 

 scarcely have been selected. The great tendency of iron to 

 destructive oxidation deprives it of one of the advantages I have 

 enumerated as leading to the employment of metal money ; iron 

 cannot be permanent. This circumstance may perhaps account 

 for a fact which at first view seems calculated to destroy our belief 

 in iron coin altogether ; no specimen of Spartan or Byzantine or 

 any other ancient iron coin is extant. 



The Britons in the time of Julius Caesar used iron rings for 

 money ; and I have seen some curved pieces of wrought iron 

 which I was told were coins in Western Africa. 



These are all the instances of iron currency of which I am 

 aware. 



Platinum was at one time used for coin in Russia. I do not 

 know whether the practice has been discontinued. Its hardness, 

 durability, and high comparative value would seem to make it a 

 suitable material, if these advantages are not counterbalanced 

 by its scarcity (being only found in two or three places in the 

 world,) and the great difficulty of manufacture. It is worth four 

 or five times its weight of silver, or about one-third of gold. Its 

 employment for coin would of course raise its value. 



With respect to zinc, I have seen it stated somewhere that it 

 has been coined by the Chinese. It offers many advantages for 

 the purpose. The process of obtaining the metal from the ore 

 was invented by the Chinese, and surreptitiously obtained by an 

 Englishman long after it had been in use amongst them. 



In the earliest time of which we have any record, gold was 

 known and valued ; and early used as an instrument of exchange, 

 though not always as " money" in the strict sense of the word. 

 Its beauty and its being most usually found native would naturally 

 make it known perhaps before any other metal. In the Hebrew 

 Scriptures it is mentioned in almost every page, but frequently in 

 such a manner as to confirm Bishop Patrick's statement (on Gen. 



