in Gold and Silver;" and in contracts of nearly every description payment is frequently stipulated in the same coin. In the retail trade of the country the Spanish, afterward the Mexican, Real (Pl. X, 5) and Half Real (Pl. X, 6) were in common use until the middle of the nineteenth century. Shilling or Mexican Shilling was the term generally applied to the Real, which was one-eighth of the Peso and approximately 122 cents. But in certain of the Middle States, especially Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in much of the South the Real was known as the Levy and the Half Real as the Fippenny or Fippenny Bit, terms which are corruptions of eleven and five penny and presumably point to a local valuation placed upon the coins. The act of Congress which stopped the circulation of foreign coins in the country stipulated that the Half Real should be received by the Government agencies at a valuation of five cents, the bullion value of it. In the western part of the country the Real was popularly known as a Bit-a term which yet survives as a popular money of account, the terms Two Bits, Four Bits, and Six Bits being employed to express the values, twenty-five, fifty, and seventy-five cents. The influence of the Mexican Real Bit, which had a value of approximately 122 cents, is probably seen in the application, in parts of the West, of the term Short Bit to the slightly smaller Dime.

By the law of 1857 all previous acts authorizing the currency of foreign coins in the United States were repealed.

THE NATIONAL COINAGE.

The Mint of the United States was established at Philadelphia by resolution of Congress dated April 2, 1792, and the first coins were struck at the new mint in March of the following year. Subsequently several mints were established in different parts of the country, as will be seen from the list of them at the close of this sketch.

In the act establishing the mint the devices and legends for the new coins were prescribed as follows: "Upon one side of each of the said coins there shall be an impression emblematic of liberty with an inscription of the word Liberty and the year of the coinage; and upon the reverse of each of the gold and silver coins there shall be the figure or representation of an eagle, with the inscription, 'United States of America,' and upon the reverse of the copper coins there shall be an inscription which shall express the denomination of the piece, namely, Cent or Half-cent, as the case may require."

The device chosen as suitably emblematic of liberty for the first coins issued was a bust of the Goddess of Liberty, though the law permitted the greatest freedom in the composition of a design to express the idea. The bust of Liberty which appeared on the Cent and Half-cent in 1793 (Pl. V, 1), the only denominations struck that first year of the operation of the mint, is almost certainly a conscious imitation, if not indeed an unskilled medallist's copy, of the bust on the medal made by the celebrated French artist, Dupré, to commemorate the victories of Saratoga and Yorktown. At first the liberty pole of the medal was omitted from the coin, but before the end of the year that detail too was added (Pl. V, 3).

Between the busts on the silver coins that first appeared in 1794 (Pl. III, 1) and that on the gold that followed in 1795 (Pl. II, 2), the former having the hair hanging down upon the neck, and the latter wearing a Phrygian cap, there are marked differences for each of the metals. This original practice, which was evidently based upon a sound principle of affording a sharp distinction between the types of the three metals, was lost sight of in later years, as will be noted below.

On the obverse of the gold and silver of 1795 there are fifteen stars, and later we find as many as sixteen stars, the number in each case corresponding to the number of States to which the Union had grown. The same practice of adding a star for each State was also begun on the reverse, after the Great Seal type was placed thereon, but it was soon found to be inconvenient because of the large number of stars that would soon be required, so they were limited to thirteen, the number of the original States.

The eagle which the law required for the reverse was at first a naturalistic bird with expanded wings, standing upon a palm branch on the gold coins and holding aloft in his bill a laurel wreath (Pl. II, 2). It is noticeable that on none of the earliest coins does one find associated with the national emblem any symbol relating to war or to peace or to dominion, such as are so often found on coins and which soon became important features of the reverse types of all United States gold and silver. In the first year of the coinage of gold, 1795, a second reverse type was prepared, and one which presented, with omission of slight details, the device of the Great Seal of the United States (Pl. II, 7). An interesting variation from the true form of the seal is the disposition of the very emblems just alluded to, the arrows and branch of olive, the former on the coins being in the right claw and the latter in the left, or just contrary to their positions on the seal. Now in the case of the Great Seal the position of the emblem of peace in the dexter claw and that of war in the sinister is understood to express a preference for peace. The interchange of their positions on the coins can hardly be interpreted as expressive of a bellicose sentiment in the administration of President Washington; it is more likely a case of confusing the heraldic use of "right" and "left" with the manner of employing those terms in coin descriptions, "left" in the latter case being the spectator's left. If, therefore, the engraver meant to adopt the latter use of the terms, then he placed the arrows in the "left" claw and the olive in the "right," thereby correcting a blunder in the seal, as he may have supposed. The eagle which appeared on the Half-dollar in 1807 holds the olive in the right claw and the arrows in the left, and that was afterward recognized as the correct position, and so they were placed with one exception until 1907, when radical changes respecting these emblems were introduced. That one exception was the Trade-dollar, a coin specially intended to serve an international commerce, and thus the coin which above all should have been free from reference to anything but peace and commerce. The eagle on that piece holds three arrows in the right claw. With the Half-eagle and Half-dollar of 1807 Mr. Reich began a tendency toward similarity of types for the different metals. The bust of Liberty on his Half-dollar is in general very similar to the one on his Halfeagle. On the reverse of the Half-dollar the eagle's wings are inverted,

which makes a marked difference, but otherwise the two representations are very similar. And from that date on, the original principle of differentiating the types of the coins of the various metals was lost sight of and similarity became virtually the rule. For example, there is too strong a likeness between the bust on the Cent of 1808 (Pl. V, 4) and the one on the Half-eagle of 1834 (Pl. II, 5); and likewise when the coinage of the Eagle was resumed in 1838, after an interruption lasting from 1804, the bust placed upon it was merely a refinement (Pl. II, 3) of the one on the Cent and Half-cent (Pl. V, 12). Other close resemblances among the types on coins of different metals, where reason and general practice would suggest that there should be sharp differences, might be pointed out, but examples enough have been given to illustrate the unfortunate tendency. In 1840 the silver Dollar, which had not been coined since 1803, or perhaps 1804, was restored, and Christian Gobrecht produced for it the figure of Liberty seated to right (Pl. III, 3), which was on all the silver coins until 1878. This moderately graceful figure was a refreshing innovation and somewhat of an improvement on what had gone before. But conservativeness prevented the adoption of the powerful flying eagle which Mr. Gobrecht engraved for the reverse of his dollar and which is seen in the pattern that was made in 1836 (Pl. VII, 1). On the pattern just referred to Mr. Gobrecht represents the bird in flight amid a cluster of twenty-six stars of varying magnitude, the number being equal to the number of States of the Union.

But though it was not accepted as a suitable device for the reverse of the silver Dollar, such a representation of the eagle was regarded favorably by many. Patterns for a new design of the large copper Cent were prepared in 1855 with an eagle in flight for the obverse. In 1856 another pattern of a Cent with a flying eagle, the piece being of smaller size, only twelvesixteenths of an inch in diameter or five-sixteenths smaller than the old coppers; and in the following year, 1857, this "Flying Eagle" cent was regularly issued. The new piece weighed only 72 grains, while the Cent authorized in 1792 weighed 264 grains, which was reduced to 168 grains in 1795. The law which authorized the Cent of reduced size also prescribed that it should consist of 88 per cent copper and 12 per cent nickel, a composition that was so light in color that the pieces are often called popularly the "White Cent." This design of the flying eagle, the choice of which was made by the Director of the Mint with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, as prescribed by the law, was retained only for the years 1857 and 1858, when it was replaced with the Indian-head Cent, the familiar type in use until 1909.

In 1849 Congress authorized the coinage of a Double-eagle and a gold Dollar. The preparation of dies for the new coins fell to the lot of Mr. James B. Longacre, at the time engraver at the mint. The bust of Liberty which Mr. Longacre modeled for the new coins is one of the best of the entire series. Its largeness of style, strength, and beauty contrast strongly with the weak and insipid work which until recently was found on the gold coins of the country. The same head was employed on both of the coins authorized that year, and with a different headdress, a feather bonnet, on the Three-dollar piece which was added to the gold series in 1854

(Pl. II, 8); it was likewise used for the nickel Three-cent piece, and finally with a different arrangement of feathers from that on the Three-dollar gold piece, the same head became the "Indian head" of the One-cent piece of 1859, which is still in common circulation.

The silver Dollar of 1878 by Mr. George T. Morgan, and the Half-dollar, Quarter, and Dime by Mr. C. E. Barber in 1892, were the last revision of of the types of the silver coins. The return to a simple bust instead of the full seated figure by Mr. Gobrecht was a happy improvement, or return to the early practice. For the types of the subsidiary coins Mr. Barber restored the device of the Great Seal, with the omission, however, of certain details, as the clouds above the eagle's head. The coins of both these engravers were an advance in artistic quality over their predecessors in the series.

The latest creations for the devices of the gold coins are by two eminent American sculptors, the late Mr. Saint-Gaudens and Mr. Bela L. Pratt, of Boston. They depart in many ways from the established traditions of the coins, a fact that explains much of the sharp criticism that has been urged against them; for of their power and artistic beauty there can be no question. The majestic standing figure of Liberty on the Double-eagle is a work of greatest beauty, while the Indian head on the Eagle, if found on a Greek coin, would suggest to archæologists a Scopasian influence.

It is worth noting, perhaps, that this Indian head was originally intended for the One-cent piece. It was of course the intention at that time to continue on the Cent the traditional Indian head. This change of plan, due to I know not what cause, has resulted in placing an Indian head on three of the gold coins, a rather far-reaching result, for of course the Indian chief's head on the Half-eagle and Quarter-eagle was but a sequence of the change of plan in regard to the design for the One-cent piece.

In one respect the reverse type of the Double-eagle is of special interest. Mention has already been made of the treatment of the symbols of war and peace on the earlier coins. In the case of the new coins, on all but the Double-eagle an olive branch lies upon a bundle of arrows and the eagle is standing upon both, a composition which is without definite significance. In the case of the Double-eagle, however, these symbols have been removed from the reverse, and on the obverse Liberty holds out in her left hand a branch of olive, and in her right, in place of the customary arrows or any other symbol of war, she holds firmly aloft the Torch of Progress.

The One-cent of 1909, with the splendid bust of Abraham Lincoln, presents a new feature for the coins of the United States, namely, a portrait coin in the regular series. A pattern of a Two-cent piece with the portrait of Washington was produced in 1863, and a pattern of a Five-cent piece with a bust of Lincoln was submitted in 1866, but neither suggestion was favorably received-in fact, there has always been a prejudice against the use of portraits on the coins of the country, but the sentiment aroused during the hundredth anniversary of Lincoln's birth proved stronger than the long-standing prejudice and the coin in question was the result.

Commemorative coins.-The commemorative coin, which in many other countries has had an extensive history, has never been much employed in

the United States. Of the small list of such coins all belong to recent years, and all are related to important anniversaries of the nation's history. The first of these were the Columbian Half-dollar and Quarterdollar, issued in 1892 and 1893, the former with the bust of Columbus and the latter with the crowned bust of Isabella of Spain. The Lafayette Dollar, in silver, issued in 1900 to commemorate the unveiling in Paris of the equestrian statue erected by the youth of America to General Lafayette, has on the obverse the conjoined busts of Washington and Lafayette, and on the reverse a representation of the statue by Bartlett (Pl. III, 5). The special gold coinage of 1903, the dollar with the busts of Presidents McKinley and Jefferson, is commemorative of the hundredth anniversary of the Purchase of the Louisiana Territory; and the similar coinage of gold dollars in 1904 and 1905, with the busts of Mr. Clark and of Mr. Lewis, was in connection with the celebration at Portland, Oreg., of the hundredth anniversary of the exploration of the Northwest' by Lewis and Clark.

Superfluous denominations.-New denominations have from time to time been added to the series of United States coins with the view of rendering them more serviceable for the retail trade of the country. These experiments began in 1849 with the addition of the Double-eagle and Dollar to the gold series, and was followed by the addition of a Three-cent silver piece in 1851, and a Three-dollar gold piece in 1854; in 1864 a bronze Twocent piece was added and in the following year a nickel Three-cents, then the still-retained nickel Five-cent piece in 1866, and so on until the addition of the Trade-dollar in 1873 brought the number of denominations actually issued in that year up to seventeen. That many of these denominations were soon found to be useless and some of them very inconvenient is only what could be expected. Some of them, as the gold Dollar, the Half-dime, and Three-cent piece, were too small; the three-unit pieces belong to a duodecimal system and did not fit readily into a decimal system, while the large number of the series made it almost impossible to avoid having two denominations of nearly the same size, which was the case with the silver Dime and the nickel Three-cent piece, where the similarity of color of the two metals aided their frequent confusion. The process of elimination soon began, and in 1889 the series was reduced to the present practical proportions.

DISCONTINUED COINS AND THE DATES OF THEIR COINAGE.