ANCIENT CURRENCY
& curious world it must have been before money came V in i° use ' In the clays a man would sell his dwellingplace for so many head of cattle and buy his food with furs and hides. dhe first metal money was very cumbersome, for it consisted of rough lumps of metal and clumsy iron bars, while in England the early Britons used iron rings for money. It is said that the first coins were invented about 900 8.C., and they were stamped with the head of some heathen god. In 300 B.C. Alexander the Great began the fashion for the portrait oh a ruler £n coins. The first actual coins to be used in England were the silver pennies of the Saxon kings. In Biblical times the coins were really weights, usually in the form of rings, and gold and silver was valued according to its weight. A man weighed out so many shekels in payment for an article, or half-shekels according to its worth. The study of coinage is called “numismatics,” and some rare and interesting collections are in existence. REDFEATHER.
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Bibliographic details
Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 901, 19 February 1930, Page 14
Word Count
184ANCIENT CURRENCY Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 901, 19 February 1930, Page 14
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