THE WEALTH Of NATIONS.

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rials, which had, however, in their outward appearance, beenmade to resemble those metals. To prevent such abuses, tofacilitate exchanges, and thereby to encourage all sorts ofindustry and commerce, it has been found necessary, in allcountries that have made any considerable advances towardsimprovement, to affix a public stamp upon certain quantitiesof such particular metals as were in those countries com-monly made use of to purchase goods. Hence the origin ofcoined money, and of those public offices called mints; in-stitutions exactly of the same nature with those of the aulna-gers and stamp-masters of woollen and linen cloth. All ofthem are equally meant to ascertain, by means of a publicstamp, the quantity and uniform goodness of those differentcommodities when brought to market.

The first public stamps of this kind that were affixed to thecurrent metals seem in many cases to have been intended toascertain, what it was both difficult and most important toascertain, the goodness or fineness of the metal, and to haveresembled the sterling mark which is at present affixed to plateand bars of silver, or the Spanish mark which is sometimesaffixed to ingots of gold, and which being struck only uponone side of the piece, and not covering the whole surface, as-certains the fineness but not the weight of the metal. Abraham ,weighs to Ephron the four hundred shekels of silver whichhe had agreed to pay for the field of Machpelah . They aresaid, however, to be the current money of the merchant, andyet are received by weight and not by tale, in the same man-ner as ingots of gold and bars of silver are at present. Therevenues of the ancient Saxon kings of England are said tohave been paid, not in money but in kind, that is, in victualsand provisions of all sorts. William the Conqueror introducedthe custom of paying them in money. This money, however,was, for a long time, received at the exchequer, by weightand not by tale.

The inconveniency and difficulty of weighing those metalswith exactness gave occasion to the institution of coins, ofwhich the stamp, covering entirely both sides of the pieceand sometimes the edges too, was supposed to ascertain notonly the fineness, but the weight of the metal. Such coins,therefore, were received by tale as at present, without thetrouble of weighing.

The denomination of those coins seem originally to haveexpressed the weight or quantity of metal contained in them.