Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 164, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 July 1919 — Philadelphia U. S. Mint Has Complete Series of Nearly All Coins Issued in World. [ARTICLE]

Philadelphia U. S. Mint Has Complete Series of Nearly All Coins Issued in World.

In the collection at the Philadelphia mint (one of the finest in existence) there are fairly complete series of nearly all the coins ever issued in the world. Coined pioney was In circulation in Asia and Europe as early as 700 B. C. But the ancients did not put dates on their coins, and so it was not always easy to fix the exact periods of theli issue. They were, of course, not struck with dies, ‘ but merely cast in molds, so that they had not the smooth symmetry of modern coins. Nevertheless some of them possessed a very high artistic merit. Even nowadays people bury money In ancient times, when a man’s pos sessions were far less safe, the pfac tice was much more common. Largelj owing to it is the fact that such great numbers of early coins (mostly discovered by accident) exist today in collections. There is, Indeed, hardly an ancient coinage of which specimens are not extant. Many of them have been de rived from the hidden hoards of sacerdotal establishments. The earliest known bronze coins oi the Romans date back to 335 B. C. They issued silver coins less than a century later. But doubtless- the gold and silver money of other countries was largely used by the ancient Romans, introduced among them through the aggressive commerce of Greek and Asiatic states. - There was no lack of the precious metals In those days. Dr. T. L. Comparette, numismatist of the Philadelphia mint (from whom tjie above statements are quoted), says that in ancient times the supply of gold and silver was as great in proportion tc the population using money coined of those metals as it is today.