Coin of the realm: what it is? or, Talks about gold and silver coins, with a few practical lessons based on "Norman's Single Grain System", also, as an Appendix, an exchange calculus, five papers and a memorandum on money, with valuable and original tables

Front matter

' 0: i WHAT IS ITP

E. C. SHARLAND.

Vv'ITri AN APPENDIX

Preface

J

ANY persons are fond of collecting coins. They spare no pains in hunting up the history of every fresh specimen that they are fortunate enough to add to their collection ; and a most interesting and instructive form of amusement this is. But so few collectors of coins carry their researches up to the present date ! so very few persons know anything concerning the coinage of their own day beyond its shopping value.

I hope to induce my young readers to confess, after reading the following pages, that " Money " is not so dry a subject as they have hitherto believed it to be ; and I feel sure that among the great number of boys and girls who nowadays delight in mastering difficult arithmetical problems, some will be found who will enjoy the practical application of Mr. J. H. Norman's Single Grain System, fully explained in the second series of this work.

It is strange that almost all authors of geographies describe the religion, language, physical conditions, products, and manufactures of the countries about which they write ; whilst the history of the standard and token coins circulated in those countries has hitherto been omitted. The addition of this latter subject would prove of great value to all students intending to follow a commercial career, or to travel in foreign lands ; and I trust that some day the monetary systems of the countries that possess a standard currency will be taught in schools with geography.

6 PREFACE.

I am indebted to many resources for the information given in the following chapters ; more especially to the late Professor Jevons' delightful work, " Money " ; to Blackie's " Popular Encyclopaedia," or Conversations Lexicon ; also to Mr. Alexander Watts' " Lump of Gold " ; and to the report of the Director of the Mint, U.S.A., for the year 1885.

For the benefit of those who are sufficiently interested in the " Money " subject to pursue the study further, Mr. J. H. Norman has kindly added an appendix to this work, containing an exchange calculus, five papers, and a memorandum on money, with valuable and original tables. These papers I commend to the notice of all thoughtful readers.

EMILY CKTJWYS SHAELAND.

82, Sinclair Road,

West Kbnsington Park, W.

COIN OF THE EEALM: WHAT IS IT?*

Introduction

" John Smith," said I one day to a certain young friend of What is mine, " do you know what money is ? " money .

" Yes, Miss Sweet," he replied, laughing, "I rather think I do. It is the gold, and silver, and copper with which we buy things."

" And no doubt you can tell me the names and value of every English coin in present use ? " I continued.

"To be sure I can," John answered ; and he rattled off the following list glibly enough : — "I'll begin with the money of John Smith least value, which is made of copper. A farthing is the smallest copper coin ; two farthings make one half-penny ; two half-pence go to a penny ; twelve copper pence go to one silver shilling."

" Stop a minute," I interrupted, " you are not quite correct, John. We no longer use copper money; our farthings, halfpence, and pence being now made of bronze."

" Oh, are they % " said John, carelessly ; " we call them coppers, at any rate. Well, to go on to the silver coins. A threepenny bit, worth three pence, is the smallest ; two of them go to a sixpence ; two sixpences make a shilling ; two shillings go to a florin, commonly called a two- shilling bit ; and a half-crown is worth two shillings and sixpence. That's all correct, Miss Sweet, I believe?"

"Quite right, John," I answered. " And now let me hear about the gold coins."

* For index to "Coin of the Realm: What is itP" see end of the pamphlet. For contents of Appendix see page 127.

On the value of coins.

John Smith gives their exchange value.

Miss Sweet is asked to define money.

tl There are only two kinds of gold coins used in England now," said John ; li the sovereign, or pound, which is worth twenty shillings, and the half-sovereign worth ten shillings. Bank notes and cheques are used for large sums of money. A man can carry thousands of pounds at a time in his pocket if he use these."

" That's true enough," I answered, " and there are a great many other kinds of paper money in use besides bank notes and cheques. — But just now we are talking about coins. You are a ready reckoner I know, John ; your father tells me that you are a great help to him on busy evenings. Suppose you give me an idea of the value of the different coins you named, by telling me some of the things that could be bought with them at your father's shop."

"All right," said John. " Let me see ; 1 want to bring in a farthing first, don't I % Oh, well ! you can get a farthing reel of cotton, or a farthing row of pins. Then potatoes are ^d, a pound just now, or lOd. a score. A sixpenny and a threepenny bit — 9d. in all — will get you 6 lbs. of flour. One shilling is the price of a £ lb. of the best shag tobacco. A two-shilling piece will buy 1 lb. of tea, though our half-crown article is better. A half-sovereign was the price of my last new trousers ; whilst a whole sovereign, or £1, would, I believe, buy a coat for father."

"Well done, John," said I, laughing. "You have been quick about it, and you have reckoned it all capitally, I must say. But what more can you tell me about money 1 "

" What more 1 " repeated John. " What more do you want ? There's nothing more to tell."

" Nothing more to tell, John ? " cried I, turning up my eyes, and throwing up my hands. "I am afraid you must be very ignorant to say so ! "

" John's face turned very red, for he was a clever boy, and my last remark wounded his pride greatly. But he was a thoroughly good fellow, and the next minute he looked into my face with a roguish smile.

" Ah, Miss Sweet," said he, " you are at your old tricks again, /know! That's always your way of going on when you want to tell me something jolly and interesting. Come ! let's hear what you've got to tell about money, now that I've had my say."

" It would take a longer time to tell than I can stand here talking, John," I answered ; " but if you will drink tea with me next Saturday evening, we will sit over the fire afterwards, and have a talk about the history of money. If you find that you would like to hear more about it, why, you must come to tea again, that's all."

So that was how young John Smith came to know so much This leads to

about money. Many a cosy tea and chat did we two have a senes °* J j j con versa -

together that winter, until John knew as much about the subject tions. as I could tell him.

In the following chapters I hope to give my readers those particulars concerning money which proved of so much interest to John Smith.

Chapter I. I suppose everybody values money; but if you could get

each of your friends to tell you truly why they like to possess

pounds, shillings, and pence, you would be quite surprised to

discover what a variety of reasons people would be able to give

for doing so. Children, I am glad to say, generally value

money for its true worth, and that is, for what it will get. I do

not mean to say that you young people are to be depended On the value

upon to spend your money always in the best and wisest way ;

on the contrary, a present of money often burns a hole in a

girl's or boy's pocket — you cannot be happy until you have

spent it. For this reason it is a very good thing that you

are not likely to possess much money until you have learnt to

keep it for real wants, and not to spend it simply because you

have it. Yet you do value it, I am sure, for what it will buy

rather than for its own sake. Jt is a very rare thing for

either of you to put by your little presents of money just for

the pleasure of looking at them. At times poor miserly men

and women have thus most sadly misused the money they have

earned, depriving themselves of all the comforts of life, and of

many of its necessities also, for the sake of keeping their poor

little coins in a secret place, and counting them over when no

one was by. Could anything be more pitiable than this ?

To appreciate the real value of money, you must go back Exchange or

barter.

The difficulty of establishing a fair system of exchange.

■with ine many hundreds of years, and try to imagine how our forefathers lived before money had been invented. How do you suppose men managed to buy and sell in those days, when they had no money to part with, and their neighbours also had none to offer them ? They used to exchange things that they did not want, for things that they did want. Suppose a man had a flock of sheep, but no corn, he would give a sheep, or part of one, for so many measures of corn. This way of exchanging goods was called barter or truck (from the French, troc), and I suspect that men tried to overreach their neighbours, even in those early times, by asking them to accept worthless things in return for valuable ones, because the word truck is now a common expression of contempt in Devonshire : " I don't want any of your truck /" a Devonshire man will say if he is offered anything that he considers rubbishy.

Bui the worst of this sort of trading was tbe difficulty of establishing a proper ratio of exchange — that is, to determine what number of articles of one description should be considered equivalent to a certain number of articles of another description.

Suppose, for instance, that your mother wanted 2 lbs. of flour, 1 lb. of treacle, and half-a-dozen eggs, and that she had nothing to offer for these things but a pair of new boots : don't you think it would be difficult to arrange matters to her satisfaction? The new boots, perhaps, might be worth 10s., whilst 2 lbs. of flour would cost 3d. ; 1 lb. of treacle, 2jd ; and half-adozen eggs, 6£d. Well ; your mother would either have to carry home a lot of other things she was not in immediate want of, or else she would lose the value of 9s. O^d. by parting with her boots.

But in the early times of which I am writing there were no shops or stores. These exchanges had to be made between private persons, and were even more difficult to arrange fairly. If Mrs. Jones were to go to Mr. Brown, just after he had killed a sheep, and were to say, " I am in want of a joint of meat large enough for a family of seven, and can offer you in exchange for it my best bonnet ;" most likely Mr. Brown would reply, u I am sorry I cannot oblige you, Mrs. Jones, but, as I am a bachelor, your best bonnet would be of no use to me !" You will readily understand that this plan did not answer in olden times any better than it would do so now. People often had not suitable things of the same value to offer in exchange for what they wanted, and house-keeping must have been far more difficult to manage in the days when there was little or no money in circulation than it is now.

Hunting is one of the earliest forms of industrial employ- Furs ment of which we have any trace, and furs or skins were certainly circulated as money by many ancient nations. I daresay you will be surprised at my classing hunting amongst the industries, but I do so because in ancient times men hunted and killed wild animals for the sake of providing food and clothing for themselves and their families, and not for idle pleasure. The flesh of the beasts they killed was their food, and the skins were their clothing by night and by day. Men who were clever at hunting, however, very soon laid in a much larger supply of skins than they could possibly require for themselves and their own families ; therefore they parted with them for other things of which they were in need, and in time skins became the regular medium of exchange amongst the hunting tribes. In some parts of the world they are used thus still. When men became more civilised, and took to cultivating land, Cattle. and keeping flocks and herds of sheep and cattle, a man's live stock became his money. It will interest many of you to know that q • • f f the word fee is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word feoh, which capita/, chaWr meant either money or cattle; and another fact worth mentioning to you is, that the kine used for exchange purposes, being counted by the head, were named capitale (a word derived from the Latin word caput, head) and from it our English terms capital, chattel, and cattle had their origin.

I daresay it was convenient enough in the days when there were no shops, to possess money which walked about upon its own legs, and could be easily driven from one piece of pasture land to another ; but a cow or a sheep would be rather a cumbersome piece of money in these days, would it not ? Just imagine the confusion and commotion that would take place in a town of any size on market day, if all the countryfolk brought their sheep, or cattle, or pigs into the town with them, and left them at the shops in exchange for the articles of food and clothing that they required ! It is bad enough sometimes even now when cattle are driven through the streets of a town to and from the market place ; but then, as soon as market is over, and cattle.

Ornaments.

Leather money.

Coins.

they are driven out of the town again — not left behind to be accommodated in some tradesman's backyard or garden.

The love of finery has shown itself in all ages, though there have always been, and still are, varieties of opinions as to whether the things worn are ornamental or disfiguring to the wearers. For instance, those who imagine that they look lovely in war paint and feathers, with rings through their noses, and tobacco pipes stuck through their ears, appear to us to have rather peculiar ideas on the subject of becoming ornaments, do they not ?

At an early stage in the history of money, we find that men and women took to adorning themselves with the things which they were in the habit of exchanging for the necessaries of life. I will tell you some of the odd things which from time to time have been used for this double purpose by the different nations of the world : — Black and white polished shells, made into beads ; cowries, (the shells best known as black-a-moors' teeth) ; whales' teeth ; ivory tusks; yellow amber ; leather money* ; and metal coins.

Eastern women adorn their head-dresses to this day with small silver coins, and in India the natives often melt down

* Classical writings lead one to suspect that the earliest currency used at Eome, Lacedsemon, and Carthage was formed of leather. Leather money is also said to have heen circulated in Russia as late as the reign of Peter the Great, whilst English tradesmen's token-money was probably made of stamped leathtr at one period. [Since writing these chapters, I have received the following interesting account of a modern leather medal from a young co-operator, in his description of how the Queen's Jubilee was kept at Barnsley, in Yorkshire : — " The cordwainers exhibited a novelty often heard of but seldom seen — a leather medal. I had the pleasure of seeing one of them the day before they were worn. On one side were these words : — 1 Barnsley Cordwainers' Society, established 1747. In commemoration of Her Majesty's Jubilee, June2lst, 1887.' The medal was circular, the words being stamped round a gilded crown."

The following newspaper cutting has also been contributed by another young co-operator : —

Curious Money. — The battle of Poictiers took place on the 19th of September, 1356, in which King John of France was made prisoner, and many of the French nobility 1< st their lives. The ciptive monarch, though respectfully treated, was brought to England to grace the triumph of the conqueror. The peace, in 1360, put an end to his captivity, but to obtain his liberty he made over many of the most valuable provinces of his kingdom to the King of England, and agreed to pay a ransom of three millions of gold crowns, which reduced him to the necessity of paying for the necessaries of his household in leather money, in the middle of which there was a little nail of silver.

WHAT r^ IT

Corn.

Other

vegetable

productions their silver money, form it into bracelets or bangles, and wear these upon their wrists or ankles, thus becoming a kind of walking savings bank. But, as their money gains no interest when treated thus, I do not advise any of you to adopt either of these plans.

Suppose English women took to trimming their bonnets and caps with silver money, and used these ornamental coins whenever they required to buy anything : how untidy they would soon be ! They would be returning from their shopping expeditions with a coin or two missing from their bonnets, or perhaps with only one earring on. I do not think we should like that style of thing at all in old England !

Corn has been used as a medium of exchange for many centuries past, and is still so employed in some parts of Europe. In Norway it is even deposited in banks, and lent and borrowed. A good many other vegetable productions have been used from time to time for exchange purposes, such as maize, olive oil, cacao nuts and beans, and tobacco. In the beginning of the 17th century tobacco was ordered to be received in the Virginia Tobacco plantations instead of money, at the rate of 3s. per lb. What do you think was the use made of this permission by the settlers in Virginia ! They actually bought wives for themselves at the rate of from 100 lbs. to 150 lbs. of tobacco per wife ! I only hope that you all think your mothers are worth more than £15 or £22. 10s. apiece !

And now let us turn our attention to the origin of metal money, though I must not let my pen run on too long about the earlier coinage of our own and other nations, for it would be quite impossible to give you a complete history of coins in these short chapters. But I strongly advise those of you who are within reach of a museum containing a collection of coins, to go and have a good look at them, not once, but many times, and to read about them as well. Some holiday time you might do this, and, I think, you would be rewarded for your pains.

Metal money is of very ancient origin. You must not imagine that at the time when furs, or cattle, or corn, or ornaments were being used as mediums of exchange, there were no coins in circulation. They were certainly in use then, but until the metallic mines had been worked for many centuries it would have been impossible to provide whole nations with an unlimited

The origin Of metal money.

£n vented about 900 M c.

Ancient coins stamped with

seals.

Different kinds of metal used.

Primitive forms of metal money.

Rou^h lumps.

Gold dust.

Bars or

spikes.

supply of metal for coinage ; besides which, every fresh invention takes a long time making its way in the world. Had Mrs. Brown been living in the days when coins were scarce in England, she would have thankfully exchanged away her fire irons, her spare bed, her best tea things — yes, and even her party frock ! — if by so doing she could have kept the few precious little coins she had managed to get hold of. But now-a-days if Mrs. Brown wishes to be thought respectable amongst her neighbours, she will spend her last shilling before she will part with, so much as a pair of sugar tongs in order to supply the family needs. Mrs. Brown is quite right, mind you, and the people who lived generations before her were quite right too. They all showed themselves willing to give up their old habits of exchange and barter when a new and better medium of exchange was provided for them. This is what is called 'moving with the times, and it is only unselfish people who are willing to resign cherished customs and manners of living for the sake of bettering those who will come after them.

It has been pretty certainly proved that metal coins were invented about 900 B.C., and that silver money was in use a century later. The earliest specimens of silver coins are found stamped on one side only, the reason for which is supposed to be as follows : Seals were used at a very early date by persons in authority, and it is thought that some ruler of the land made the impression of his seal upon each coin to certify that it was of true weight.

All these metals — gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, and iron, were used as money in every age of which we have any historical account ; but they were not manufactured into coins and stamped from the very first, though the art of hammering metals into various shapes was early invented.

Most of the metals were first circulated in rough lumps, whilst the primitive form of gold money seems to have been gold dust. All of them were bought and sold by weight against other commodities ; so many grains of gold dust, for instance, for a skin, a cow, or a measure of corn.

As soon as metals began to be moulded, iron, copper, and brass appear to have been made into bars or spikes. The size of these bars can be guessed at pretty nearly, for we are told that six of them were as many as a man could grasp in one hand. They were made as nearly of one weight as possible, and parted with by the tale or piece.

Is it not lucky that we have no such clumsy pieces of money at the present day ? Even one bar of iron stowed away in one's pocket would be very uncomfortable, besides which, I don't believe the ancients had any pockets. Perhaps they strapped a bundle of these bars on to their backs when they went to visit a neighbour for the purpose of buying anything of him.

Then, there was ring-money : in some countries men took to Ring-money melting their gold-dust or silver ore, and working it into thick wire ; this they twisted into spiral rings, and probably wore until they were obliged to exchange them away for other things. You see, different nations adopted different fashions even in those early ages : in some countries it was the fashion to wear shell-money, in others silver coins, and we have certain proof that gold and silver ring-money was worn in many countries of the world at different periods of history. For my part, I should not like to wear rings one day, and to have to part with them the next, and I do not suppose that you would approve of this plan of buying food and clothing, either.

I have already told you that iron bars were circulated as Iron, money in ancient times ; Julius Csesar also mentioned in his writings that he found the ancient Britons using iron rings of a certain weight for money. But, although we have it on good authority that these iron bars and rings were in circulation formerly, not a single specimen of either has ever been discovered. Can you guess the reason for this ? It is because iron rusts very rapidly, which makes it a most unsuitable material for coinage. Every bar or ring of iron belonging to tho.se early times must have been eaten away with rust many centuries ago, so that it would be useless for antiquarians to dig and delve in the hope of finding any. I believe specimens of every other kind of metal money have been found and preserved. Iron is so exceedingly cheap, also, that a penny would be properly represented by a pound weight of it !

Lead has oftened been coined, but it is so soft that any Lead. impression stamped upon it would very soon get worn away. At one time leaden bullets were circulated in America as small change, at the rate of a farthing a bullet; and in Burmah lead is accepted by weight for small payments.

How odd you would think it, if, when you laid down a penny and asked for a halfpenny worth of sweets, a couple of bullets were handed back to you for your change ! Or, worse again, to give half-a-crown in payment for two shillings' worth of tea and then to have the store manager weighing you out sixpennyworth of lead, and expecting you to carry it away instead of a sixpenny bit !

Tin . Tin was, no doubt, the first metal used for British coinage,

for there were tin mines in Cornwall at a very early date. Tin is both lighter in weight and higher in price than iron, lead, or copper ; but it is so soft that it is liable both to bend and to break.

Picture the following scene : Tom Channing has had a present of a tin shilling. How bright and large it is ! He is in school now, but at twelve o'clock he means to go off and spend his treasure. What will it get ? A real blood alley for one thing, and perhaps a pocket knife with one blade ; anything left can be spent at the tuck shop. Whilst Tom is thinking of all this, he is supposed to be learning a lesson. His eyes are upon the book in front of him, but his thoughts are far away from it, and his left hand is in his left trousers pocket, turning the money about, and squeezing one-half towards the other with bis hot and sticky fingers. How easily it bends ! Tom shows the doubledup coin to his neighbour, holding it under the desk. " What are you doing, Channing ?" thunders the master; "you shall bring me that pretty thing the very next time I catch you looking at it ! " and Tom feels that he has only just escaped losing his shilling. By the time school is over, the coin has been bent and unbent a good many times, so Tom then proceeds to straighten it out before going off to spend it. Snap goes the tin shilling in two ! Poor Tom need not trouble himself as to what it will buy, for no shopman will accept his broken bits of tin.

Copper Copper takes a good impression, and keeps its colour well ;

but it has one great drawback, namely, its excessive cheapness. If a penny contained a real pennyworth of copper, it would weigh nearly If oz. troy, that is, about six times the weight of our present bronze penny. This would be almost as bad as the leaden and iron money. Duricg the last century copper money was very much used in Sweden, and we are told that merchants used to take wheelbarrows with them when they went to receive payment for their merchandise !

A good deal of nickel is now made use of in the manufacture Nickel. of foreign coins, but I believe it is always mixed with some other metal. In Belgium, the United States, and Germany many of the coins are made from a mixture of one part nickel to three parts copper.

Brass — a mixture of copper and carbonate of zinc — was used Brass and for coinage by the Romans ; and pewter has often been coined. pew er* The finest pewter is, I believe, a compound of tin, antimony, and copper, the last two being used in very small proportions; but common pewter is merely a mixture of tin and le id.

When first platinum mines were discovered in the Ural Platinum, mountains, an attempt was made by the Russian Government to adopt this metal for coinage ; but platinum is very much harder than gold, and the expense of working it is therefore much greater, besides which, it is only found in a few localities. In less than 20 years the few coins that had been circulated were called in, and the idea of using platinum for coinage was given up. Owing, however, to its hardness and durability, platinum is most invaluable in the manufacture of chemical apparatus.