Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1899 — Money in Abyssinia. [ARTICLE]

Money in Abyssinia.

The few travelers who have taken the time and trouble to look into Menelek’s queer kingdom of Abyssinia tell strange tales of it. Besides the Maria Theresa 1780 dollars, the people of Abyssinia, for small change, used a bar of hard, crystallized salt, about ten Inches long and two inches and a half broad and thick, slightly tapering toward the end, five of which go to the dollar at the capital. People are very particular about the standard fineness of the currency. If it does not ring like metal, or if It is at all chipped, nothing will induce them to take it. Then, it Is a token of affection among the natives, when friends meet, to give each other a lick of their respective amolis, and in this way the material value of the bar is also decreased. For still smaller change cartridges are used, erf which three go to one salt. It does not matter what sort they are. Some sharpers use their cartridges in the ordinary way, and then put in some dustandadumipy bullet to make up the difference, or else they take out the powder an(f put the bullet in again, so that possibly in the next action the unhappy seller will find that he has only miss-fires In his belt; hut this is such a common fraud that no one takes any notice of it, and a bad cartridge seems to serve as readily as a good one.