6 



The Golden State Scientist. 



CHINESE MONEY. 

 It is only the present dynasty, 

 the Ta Tsing Mandchu, who is- 

 sued a regular and efficient mint- 

 age. From the time of the Ming 

 dynasty the year-names have been 

 reduced to one for each reign, so 

 that the legend was henceforth the 

 same for the whole mintage of a 

 ruler. 



Regularity in standard is now 

 fairly secured in the issues from 

 the mint of the Board of Finance 

 in the capital, which are the pat- 

 tern for the provincial mints; but 

 the shrinking of the cool metal, 

 when frequently repeated by the 

 casting from moulds made from 

 pieces and not from the pattern, 

 produces sometimes a sensible dif- 

 ference, which is certainly not dis- 

 advantageous to some of the mint 

 masters. The authorized propor- 

 tion of the alloys was, till 1722, 

 copper, 50; zinc, 41}^; lead, 6^^; 

 tin, 2,; after that time the composi- 

 tion consisted of equal parts of cop- 

 per and zinc. The obverse bears 

 the name of the reign, read from 

 top to bottom, and the words titng 

 pao, or "current money," from right 

 to left. On the reverse the name 

 of the mint in Chinese, or in Mand- 

 chu and Chinese, or in Mandchu 

 only. There has been only one 

 dark period in the present mintage, 

 which for the time sunk to the low- 

 est level during the great Taiping 

 rebellion. The supply of the cop- 

 per mines was stopped, and it was 

 necessary to cast iron money, the 

 worst of its kind that ever was 

 made. 



Silver circulates generally, cast in ingots, in 

 shape rudely resembling shoes, and for that 

 reason called shoe-silver, with the exception of 

 two unsuccessful (because counterfeited) at- 

 I tempts in 1835 and 1856 to cast silver dollars^ 

 the government never issued silver money. In 

 Fuhkien province and Formosa island in 1855^ 

 a large issue of native dollars was made to pay 

 the troops on that island; the legend was,, 

 Pure silver for curretit use from the Tchang 

 tchon commissariat (weight) seven mace two 

 candareens„ At Shanghai, in 1856, the taels,, 

 or dollars, were of the same weight and purity 

 (417.4 grs. troy); and besides the inscription 

 in Chinese and in Mandchu, they had an effigy 

 of the god of longevity on the head, and a tri- 

 pod on the tail to avithenticate the official ori- 

 gin. Gold, cast in ingots, also circulates by 

 weight. 



Private individuals have sometimes caused 

 silver to be east as money; but they are gen- 

 erally satisfied to make, with Eufopean appH- 

 ances, imitations of the Mexican and old Span- 

 ish dollars which are in currency; these, as 

 they pass from hand to hand, are punched with 

 the seal or stamp of the owner by way of in- 

 dorsement; and when the marks are so numer- 

 ous that there is no room left on the coin for 

 more, they are melted. 



Prof. La Couperie, 

 In Keystone S. and C. Gazette. 



A ROAD-BED OF SALT. 

 I In the Colorado desert, near Ida- 

 I ho, there is a large bed of rock salt, 

 and the Southern Pacific R. R. in 

 laying the track to the salt bed 

 have been obliged to grade the 

 road for twelve hundred feet with 

 blocks of these beautiful crystals. 

 This is the only instance where a 

 railroad's road-bed is laid an^d bal- 

 lasted on salt. The sea which once 

 rolled over this place dried up, and 

 left a vast bed of salt nearly fifty 

 miles long. The supply is inex- 

 haustible, and the quality excellent. 

 Grasshoppers and centipedes of gi- 

 gantic size have been pickled in 

 this chloride of sodium, and after a. 

 lapse of many cciUuries they arc 

 to-day in full size and perfection of 

 sh ape. — Agossiz Com pan ion . 



