Money

that which passes freely from hand to hand in settlement of debts or purchase of commodities. Money, to be money, must be acceptable to everyone in exchange for any article he may desire to sell. The money of a civilized people may not be understood or it may not be usable by savage people. It may have no purchasing value, and hence it may cease to be money.

The more primitive a people the more primitive its money is. Furs, grain, and shells have all served their turn as money. Opium passes in some parts of China. Bricks of tea are acceptable in Mongolia. Cowrie shells are still current in Siam. Beads still pass in parts of Oceanica and Africa. The early colonists of Virginia paid their preachers in tobacco. The traders of the North reckoned values in beaver skins. Among coinage nations, the less advanced the civilization the smaller the value of the coins demanded by the necessities of the people. An American quarter changed into the copper cash of the Chinese would fill one's pocket with an uncomfortable weight. We may also say that the lower the standard of wages, the smaller the coin required in commercial transactions. The current coin of western Europe, the mark, franc, or shilling, worth from eighteen to twenty-four cents, replaces the American dollar. The coin in which car fares are paid and small change is made is correspondingly small. In the western part of the United States, where money flows more freely and expenses are on a larger scale, trade disdains the cent piece of the Eastern States. Prices of the smallest articles are made in even nickels.

The amount of money in the world at the birth of Christ is estimated at $1,800,000,000. By 500 A. D. the amount had fallen one-third of that sum. In the day of Charlemagne commerce and industry had become so paralyzed that the amount of money is put at $200,000,000, or one-ninth of the sum first named. The discovery of America stimulated activity in all lines of industry. The New World supplied a vast quantity of the precious metals, most of which was coined. The world's supply of money rose rapidly from century to century. It is now about $11,781,200,000, or not far from $8.90 per capita.

The principal coins in use with their value, as announced by the secretary of the United States Treasury, are given in the following:

See Mint; Greenback; Banking; Gold; Silver; Copper; Coin; Counterfeiting; Bank Of England