MONK Y. 
652 
Seba’s delineation of this plant is given on the annexed 
Plate fig. i. 
2. Monetia diacantha, or two-fpined monetia : fpines 
two; leaves downy beneath. This is an evergeen (hrub, 
rifing to the height of fix feet, with a thickifh Item, and 
numerous afli-coloured branches, which are very fpinous. 
Leaves two or three together, almoft fefiile, roundi(h-ob- 
long, thick, clofe ; dark green, finooth and (hining above, 
paler and hairy beneath. Flowers axillary, at the bafe of 
the fpines, fmall and greenifli. The whole herb has a bit¬ 
ter flavour. It is a native of India. 
MONETOU' I'SLANDS, two iflands of North Ame¬ 
rica, in Lake Michigan. Lat. 44.. 50. N. Ion. 85. 28. W. 
MON'EY,/ [ monetu , Lat. mynet, Sax. from mynetnan, 
to coin.] Metal coined for the purpofes of commerce.— 
Money differs from uncoined filver, in that the quantity 
of filver in each piece of money is ascertained by the ftamp 
it bears, which is a publick voucher. Locke. —Any mat¬ 
ter of comfort or convenience.—My difcourfe to the hen- 
peck’d has produced many correfpondents; fuch a dif¬ 
courfe is of general ufe, and every married man’s money. 
Add Jon's Spectator. 
The origin of money feems to have been coeval with 
the firft regulations of civil fociety, or at leaftitis too re¬ 
mote .to be traced by any authentic hiftory. The inven¬ 
tion of this common meafure, or ftandard, according to 
which all other things lhould be eftimated, is afcribed by 
forne perfons, on the authority of Jofephus, to Cain; al¬ 
though the firft information that has been tranfmitted 
concerning it, originates with the patriarch Abraham, 
who paid 400 (hekels for a burying-place. Gen. xxiii. 16. 
.The Greeks refer the invention of money to Hermodice, 
wife of king Midas; and .the Latins to Janus. 
Barter, that is, the exchange of one commodity for an¬ 
other, was the ordinary mode of traffic in the earlier pe¬ 
riods of the world : thus we find in Homer, that Glaucus’s 
.golden armour was valued at 100 oxen, and Diomedes’s 
armour at 10. This method, which Hill obtains among 
favage nations, muff have been found extremely incon¬ 
venient in the early ages of commerce, and hence the ne- 
ceffity of adopting fome commodity of general utility and 
demand as a meafure of value. This neceffity and its ex¬ 
pedient are well explained by Ariftotle in his Politics, 
(book i. chap. 6.) “ All ufeful things,” fays the philofo- 
pher, “ could not, without great difficulty, be tranfported 
from place to place ; it was refolved, by common confent, 
that in bartering commodities, they fhould reciprocally 
give and receive fome fubftance, which, being in its nature 
applicable to the purpofes of life, might, at the fame time, 
be eafily carried about.” 
The fubftance which has been adopted as a circulating 
.medium, or meafure of value, has been various indiffe¬ 
rent ages and countries. In Italy it was originally cattle, 
if we may judge from the Latin word pecunia, money, 
which is (aid to be derived from pecus, a herd or flock. 
Thus Scaliger fays, “ a pecu formatur pecnnius, unde pe¬ 
cunia: fubintelligatur res vel quid fimile, et ficut veterum 
diyitiae confiftebant in copia pecudis effigie primum notata 
tuit. Et apud Athenienfes nummi figura bourn fignati 
fuerunt.” Pliny fays, that money was called pecunia, be- 
caufe their firft coin was ftamped with the figure of a cow. 
The Latin word moneta for money is however probably 
more modern thanpewoMe, and is faid to be derived from 
moneo, to advife or mark ; that is, to (how by fome mark 
the weight and finenefs of the metal of which coins were 
compofed. Thus, according to Ifidorus, “ Moneta ita ap- 
pellatur, quia monet ne qua fraus in pondere vel metallo 
fiat.” In favour of this etymology, Suidas obferves, that, 
when the Romans were in want of money, Juno admo- 
nijhed them to practice juftice, and then there would be no 
wapt of money; and, when they had found the good ef¬ 
fect of this counfel, (he was furnamed Juno Moneta, and 
money was coined in her temple. In procefs of time, 
money was made a goddefs, and enlhrined by the name of 
Dea Pecunia, under the figure of a woman holding a ba¬ 
lance in one hand, and a cornucopia in the other. 
In all nations where commerce has made any confider- 
able progrefs, the precious metals, either in coins or in¬ 
gots, or their reprefentative value in paper, have been 
adopted as money. Other fubftances, however, are ftili 
ufed for this purpofe in different countries v elpecially for 
the common or inferior purpofes of trade, as cowries or 
fmall (hells in India, and (alt bricks, and beads, in Abyi- 
finia. See the article Medal, vol. xiv. p. 804. 
Money is diftinguifhed into real and imaginary. By real 
money is underftood coin, or any other circulating me¬ 
dium ; and by imaginary or ideal money, a nominal fum, 
which is not reprefented by any piece or coin, but which 
is ufed in keeping accounts, as the pound llerling, the 
livre tournois, &c. Imaginary moneys have had their ori¬ 
gin, for the moft part, in real coins, or in weights. Thefe 
units, which were originally adopted as meafures of va¬ 
lue, have been always continued under the fame denomi¬ 
nation, notwithftanding the fluctuations which may have 
taken place in the prices of metals, or of merchandife. 
There are, however, imaginary moneys which have not 
thus originated, but have been contrived for the purpofe 
of Amplifying accounts, as the centimes of France, and 
the cents in America. It (hould, however, be obferved, 
that all moneys of account are not imaginary, nor are 
they, in all places, the moneys of exchange ; but they are 
moft generally fo. 
Of ANCIENT MONEY. 
The firft coining of money (fays Mr. Landfeer, in his 
LeCtures on Engraving) was not only a very curious and 
ufeful adaptation of the art of engraving to the purpoles 
of fociety, but is an important event in the hiftory of the 
world. Stamping impreflionson medals and money, was 
a mode of printing the moft eminently calculated to refift 
the attacks of time, and alfo a mode of circulating and 
tranfmitting information the moft certain, becaufe itfelf 
conftituted the woof that gave texture to commerce, and 
ftrength and extenfion to the bands of civil fociety. If 
Truth, therefore, be the bafis of Hiftory, as furely it is, 
Hiftory muft appear to have been peculiarly ungrateful to 
an art which has contributed perhaps more than all other 
arts to the detection of remote error, and the verification 
of faCt; for, notwithftanding thefe its extenfive energies, 
and this its ineftimable importance, it is not known when 
or in what country money firft became the fubftitute for 
cattle, and undamped bullion, as the general reprefenta¬ 
tive of property and the meafure of value. The Egyptians 
do not appear to have had any, while they remained an 
independent people: none is mentioned in hiftory, and 
none has been found in Egypt, excepting certain fmall 
thin pieces of undamped gold, the fuppofed fares of the 
Stygian ferrymen, in the mouths of the mummies; and 
even of this faCt, though mentioned by Pinkerton, there 
is reafon to doubt. The Aflyrians, the ancient Hebrews, 
and even the Greeks of the age of Agamemnon, appear 
to have been equally ignorant of the art of coining money, 
and to have ufed cattle and bullion upon commercial oc- 
calions : from the time of Abraham’s purchafing the cave 
of Machpelah, down to a very late period, the Scrip¬ 
tures refer to the feales as a current tell of the value of 
metals. ' 
Montefquieu fays that the Lydians firft found out the 
art of coining money. The wealth of their kings, and 
particularly of Crcefus, is ftili proverbial, and perhaps 
from this very circumftance ; but Pinkerton, who appears 
to haveconfidered the fubjeCt attentively, is at laft doubt¬ 
ful whether Lydia, or whether Egina, or any other of the 
free commercial cities of Greece, may claim the honour of 
the invention. He fays, there is great room to believe 
that coinage was invented in Lydia, though other nations 
had before this ufed undamped pieces of metal; and the 
fmall civic coins of gold, ele&rum, and filver, (truck in 
Alia Minor, are perhaps fome of the eariieft, though, if 
we may judge from workmanlhip, thefe coins are fo ex- 
quifite, that the coins of Greece, from their rudenefs, ap¬ 
pear to claim priority of era. In flxort, all other countries 
are 
