Coin." On the other side is the name of the place in which the metal was made. It is stated that the issue of these coins has continued, without intermission, since the year 1120 A. D., with no change other than that of calling them in and re-melting at intervals. During the whole of this long period they have been the only legal coinage, and have been introduced into general circulation in the neighboring countries of Thibet, Corea, and Assam; and are current in some parts of Japan, or were so until quite recently. The Tchien is principally used in small trading, or in making up balances of large amounts, as "coppers are with us. Large payments are made in gold and silver, in ingots, which are weighed; every person engaged in trade carrying a small pair of balances with him for that purpose. The same practice obtained in England during the middle ages, for the purpose of weighing gold coins of the different European States, many of which circulated at that period there; and in the boxes containing the scales were weights bearing the same devices as the coins whose weight they were, thus enabling the user, although unable to read, to identify the respective weights required. The usual weight of the ingots in use among the Chinese is ten taels-one tael being worth about a dollar and a half. The tael is an imaginary coin of account, as is the English guinea. Properly speaking, 1,000 tchiens are equal to a tael, but owing to the worn condition of many of the tchiens in circulation, as many as 1,500 tchiens are sometimes offered for a tael, 1,400 tchiens being the usual number given in exchange. For a new Mexican dollar the exchange is 1,050 to 1,100 tchiens.

The silver standard of China is regulated by the government, and is one part copper alloy to twenty-eight of pure silver. Gold is offered in all sizes, from a few ounces to ingots of 14 lbs. In the British colony of Hong Kong, silver dollars, as well as halves and quarters, have been coined since 1866, and gradually the Chinese will doubtless establish a regular issue of gold and silver coins. Notes, or paper money (denominated Fei Shien, or Flying Money) have been issued by the government for about 1,000 years past, and notes of the value of ten tchien are, or were very recently, in circulation in Pekin. All banks issue notes, which are printed on paper prepared from the bark of the mulberry tree, and usually bear, printed in various colors, sentences which, translated, read curiously enough according to Western ideas. What should we think of a bank issuing notes bearing such titles as — “The rain-drops of spring; "The original superb;"—and similar high-flown words? The notes are generally payable ten days after date, but bills and notes of hand are also very general among the Chinese, and were used for centuries previous to their issue among western nations. For reckoning purposes the Chinese use a Suapan, or reckoning board, which is also common in various parts of Russia, &c. Representations of this board are frequently found on the old Nuremberg counters, or jetons, of the 14th century, with a man seated in the act of counting a large collection of Chinese cash or tchien. One of these lately came into the hands of the writer; it was found by a merchant in Shanghai.

"

In size the cash ranged from in. to 1 in. in diameter. Some, which were evidently of a very early period, being very much worn and of rude make, had plain reverses; others, probably more recent, had semicircular and triangular marks, though both classes bore evidence of great age, the more

modern having the usual characters on each side. The metal of which they are formed also greatly varied in its composition, some being almost pure copper, others having a very large admixture of other metals, tin probably preponderating. There are also silver cash of similar fabric to those of copper; the silver specimens are very rarely seen in this country, and, not being mentioned by many writers on Chinese customs, are probably of very limited circulation.-From the Coin Collectors' News, England.

STANDISH BARRY AND HIS THREE-PENCE.

STANDISH BARRY was a native of Baltimore, born in 1763. His early life was during that course of British aggression commencing with the levying of a tax on tea, glass, paper, &c., in 1769, which led to the American Revolution. He was a boy of ten at the date of the destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor in 1773, and patriotic in boyhood, as he continued through life, we find him, three years after the Declaration of Independence, enrolled as a soldier, though only sixteen years of age. We have no records at hand detailing his connection with the army, but it was probably an active one, for in the succeeding war we find him at Bladensburg, August 24, 1814, and thirty-three days later at Baltimore, a participant in both battles. Col. Barry was identified with the military for more than fifty-four years, resigning the position of Colonel when past the age of seventy years, and as early as 1798 he held the rank of Lieutenant in the Baltimore Independent Blues, a company organized at that time, in expectation of a war with France.

Nearly all of Col. Barry's life was passed in the town and city of his birth, and he witnessed its growth from a little settlement containing not quite fifty houses till it became the third city in extent, population, and commerce in the United States. In 1838 he left his city home and went to Newport, N. Y., to reside with his son Standish Barry, Jr. In the words of one who bore to him a tender relation, "He died in 1844, a most beautiful example of a Christian and gentleman; I mean in its true sense."

THREE
PENCE

The little coin with which his name is identified was the work of his own hands, bearing on the obverse his portrait, and the legend BALTIMORE TOWN JULY 4TH 90 Reverse, THREE PENCE between two lines in the field of the coin. Legend, STANDISH BARRY: probably intended to be read, Standish Barry Three Pence. The edge of the piece is reeded or milled, and the reverse has some ornamental work. This rare and pretty little coin, so far as we remember, was, as we may say, introduced to the numismatic public by Mr. Strobridge in his catalogue of the Lilliendahl Collection, sold in New York, May 28, 1862. It was of course known to some prior to that time, but we are not aware that it had before appeared in a public sale; it brought then $22, and the statement was made that "not above five of these pieces are known to be in existence." Since that date it has appeared from time to time, but rarely, perhaps a dozen times in all these years, and it is within the writer's knowledge that the same piece has in some instances been several times sold, so that it is quite probable that even now not above a dozen examples are known—a mark on the piece shows that one of the dies

broke-it may be that its rarity is thus accounted for. This little coin, identified with the early days of Baltimore, the work of one of her eminent citizens, having a patriotic significance as shown by its legend, and interesting to all American numismatists as one of the best executed of our early coins, is not appreciated as it should be.

Col. Barry was very fond in his old age of speaking of this almost the work of his boyhood; he also frequently mentioned a head of Washington which he engraved, and which he said was considered the best as a work of art and as good a likeness as any that had been made up to that time: but at what date the work was performed, or what particular piece it was, we are unable to state. Might it have been one of that group of Washington pieces issued from 1783 to 1792, comprising the "Unity States," "Liberty and Independence," bearing date 1792? An interesting subject of investigation is here presented, though we fear it is too late to pursue the inquiry with the hope of a satisfactory result.*

W. E. W.

AFGHAN MONEY.-HOW IT IS MADE.

A CABUL letter to the London Times says:-Let me describe the process through which the English rupees at present pass to bring them out from the Cabul Mint in the shape of Cabul rupees. In one of the rude sheds running round the court-yard are two rows of small, round clay hearths, elevated an inch or two above the floor, and depressed, like a plate, in the middle. A pile of rupees - generally three hundred-having been counted and weighed, is placed upon one of these hearths in a carefully prepared bed of bone ashes, and covered over with charcoal and wood. The charcoal is then lighted, and when well aglow four pounds of lead for every three hundred rupees is added to the furnace. The lead, in combination with the bone ashes, separates, as is well known, the alloy. This first process converts the rupees into a dull, unsightly mass of silver, free, or nearly so, from alloy. The pure silver thus extracted is then carried to another shed, carefully weighed, and an amount of English rupees equal to its weight added to it. Rupees and silver are then melted together in a clay crucible, and the melted mixture is ladled by hand into moulds, which give it the shape of flattened bars about twelve inches long. These bars are then taken to a third shed, to be annealed by hammering, and given the form of slender, round rods.

The next process is that of drawing these rods through a plate of iron, perforated with round holes, to give them a uniform circumference. This is done by means of a rude hand-wheel, after which the rods are cut by hammer and chisel into the lengths requisite to form the future rupee, each of which lengths is carefully weighed in a pair of scales. Any that are too heavy are handed to a workman whose business it is to slice off a fragment with his chisel; any that, on the contrary, are too light, are handed to another workman, who notches the little cylinder by a blow on his chisel, and inserts the required fragment into the notch. The cylinders are next carried to a fifth shed, and after gently heating, are hammered into small, round disks, which have a yellowish white color. To remove this color and give them brightness they are next plunged into a caldron of boiling water, in which they are boiled for some time along with apricot fruit and salt. This imparts brightness to the dull disks of silver, and they are then ready for the last process they have to go through, that of stamping, which is, perhaps, the most interesting part of the operation.

Two operators sit facing one another, half naked, on the ground, with a little iron anvil between them. Into the face of the anvil is inserted a steel stamp, destined to give the impression which the under side of the rupees will bear. One places the little

* For many of the facts relating to Standish Barry we are indebted to Col. T. J. Scarf, of Baltimore.

silver disks with great quickness and accuracy on the stamp, and the other, with a heavy hammer in his right hand, and a steel stamp bearing the inscription destined for the upper side of the rupee in his left, with one heavy, well-delivered blow, impresses the device on the soft lump of silver. Each rupee thus stamped is again weighed, and deficiencies made up by the same rude process as noted at another stage of the work, the amended rupee passing once more under the hand of the stampers.

Such is the simple process by which money is coined at Cabul. It certainly makes one stare by its very simplicity, and the absence of all secrecy, fuss, or show; and yet it is perfectly effective, and the money turned out, though rough and unfinished, is excellent in quality, if inartistic in shape and appearance. It needs hardly be said that these rupees contain only half the quantity of alloy which the English rupee does. The establishment, as now constituted, can turn out twenty-five thousand rupees per day, and is capable of any extension.

UNDERGROUND FINDINGS.

A NOTABLE find was lately brought to the Mint Cabinet for examination. It was, to all appearance, a silver denarius of the Roman family CAESIA, and in particular of Lucius Caesius, of whom, says Patin, there is no mention in history. We found the picture of this very coin, however, in Patin's venerable folio. The wonderful part of the affair is, that this piece was discovered in digging up new ground never dug before, for an ice-house in Green County, Wisconsin, where it lay about ten feet below the surface. How in the world did a Roman coin, near 2000 years old, get buried deep in Wisconsin? It is a case for those who are constantly startling us with all sorts of wonders from underground. There is yet a more wonderful phase of the story. The piece was in fine order, and yet there was something about it that led to closer examination, and by suitable tests it turned out to be a counterfeit. Now here was a pretty case to pass upon. We had no right to doubt the exterior evidence, the story of those who found it, and we knew that there were false moneyers in ancient times. Something or other has to be believed, and the reader can believe as he pleases. Only, be careful in buying Roman coins.

D.

TRANSACTIONS OF SOCIETIES.

BOSTON NUMISMATIC SOCIETY.

October 1. A monthly meeting was held this day. The Secretary read the reports of the last two meetings, which were accepted. Several donations were announced, viz: from Mrs. Lea Ahlborn, of Stockholm, Sweden, her beautiful bronze medal in honor of J. Hallenberg, a Swedish antiquary; from Yale College Library, the Catalogue of ancient coins belonging thereto; and from Mr. Edward Frossard, the medal of "Stonewall" Jackson. For each of these the thanks of the Society were voted. Mr. Woodward showed a number of interesting coins, including four varieties of the silver Pound pieces of Charles I. of England, four of the ten-shilling pieces, (one with view of Oxford,) one five-shilling or crown piece, and four different specimens of double-eagles struck in California in early days. Mr. Davenport exhibited a volume recently printed in Japan, with beautiful plates of Japanese coins. The Society adjourned at 5 P. M.

November 5. A monthly meeting was held this day. The Secretary read the report of the last meeting, which was accepted. Mr. Woodward showed a number of pieces, including probably the largest size of Siamese bullet-money, the largest two sizes of old Japanese gold, and a variety of Chinese coins. Mr. Marvin offered a resolution on the subject of mules and muling, which was discussed by some members, but was finally allowed to lie over for action at a future meeting. The Society adjourned at 5.15 P. M. W. S. APPLETON, Secretary.

AMERICAN NUMISMATIC AND ARCHÆOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK.

The regular May meeting of the Society was held on the evening of the 18th, President Anthon presiding. After the reading of the minutes of the Annual Meeting, the Executive Committee reported, recommending the election as Resident Members of the following gentlemen: - Russell Sturgis, proposed by Prof. Anthon; Lyman H. Low, proposed by Mr. C. H. Wright, and Clement Ferguson, proposed by Mr. R. H. Lawrence. Acceptances of their election have been received from Resident Members George Merryweather and Charles F. Frothingham, and from Corresponding Member Barnett Phillips. A letter was read from Mr. I. F. Wood, resigning Chairmanship of the Committee on the Assay Medal. On motion, his resignation was accepted, and the Committee discharged from further consideration of the subject. The Secretary read a paper contributed by Mr. Feuardent, on the artistic value of the engraving of dies from which the coins of the United States are struck, for which the Secretary was directed to send a special vote of thanks.

Prof. Anthon read a paper entitled "Medical Medals," which had been received from Corresponding Member William Lee, M. D., after which the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:—

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be tendered to William Lee of Washington, D. C., for his very instructive paper entitled "Medical Medals," read before us this evening, to which the members have listened with profit and pleasure.

Resolved, That it would give the Society much pleasure to print an abstract of this paper, were it not for its great bulk and the number of its illustrations, the engraving of which alone would require a greater outlay than the Society can reasonably indulge in, and it is therefore ordered,

That the paper on "Medical Medals," be gratefully returned to Dr. Lee, with an expression of the hope that he may favor us with a copy, or condensed copy thereof, to be placed in our archives, and that he may continue his researches in the interesting branch of numismatics to which he has directed his attention.

Prof. Anthon presented, on behalf of Honorary Member Edward Cogan, an impression of the seal of the Confederate States, and a descriptive paper accompanying it, for which thanks were voted. The following exhibitions were then made:-By Pres. Anthon, Medal of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, grand-daughter of James I., mother of George I., and through whom the house of Hanover derives its hereditary right to the throne of Great Britain. Silver; weight 4 oz. Bust of the Electress Sophia; around it, in Latin, the legend, "Sophia, of the Electoral Palatine line, grand-daughter of James I., king of Great Britain, widow of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick and Luneberg, Princess of England, appointed to the Succession, 1701." Reverse, in Latin, around a bust, "Matilda, daughter of Henry II., king of England, wife of Henry the Lion, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, mother of the emperor Otto IV., previously Duke of Aquitaine; of Henry, Palatine of the Rhine, duke of Saxony; and of William, founder of the house of Brunswick." Fac-similes in lead of the dies of this medal. Silver Mortuary Medal or Crown of this princess. Around her bust, "Sophia, by the grace of God, of the Electoral Palatine line, widow of the Elector of Brunswick and Luneberg, heiress of Great Britain," in Latin. Rev. Inscription, in Latin, "Born Oct. 13, 1630; married September, 1658; appointed to the succession in Great Britain, 1701; on the evening of the 18th of June, 1714, while walking in the gardens of Herrenhausen, with a step still vigorous and firm, carried away by a sudden and quiet death." Mr. Poillon exhibited a number of very fine Masonic pieces, among which was a rare Spanish Medal, bearing on the obverse a bust of Napoleon to the right, and date 5811. Rev. Masonic emblems; this is in bronze and is a member's medal of the Lodge of Napoleon the Great. (Marvin CCCXXXIV.) Size 26. A silver impression: obv. Frederick the Great, in uniform and chapeau, founder of Free Masonry at Berlin, and first Grand Master of the Lodge of the Three Globes; this was struck to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Lodge, Sept. 13, 1840. Size 33. (Marvin CCCLXV.) A silver medal: obv. Harpocrates; believed to have been struck in 1745. Size 26. (Marvin CCCLXXIV.) A beautiful bronze proof of the semi-centennial anniversary of the St. John's Lodge,