17-4

WEAR OF COIN.

CHAP. XXIII.

obvious that the coins issued, with all the im-provements which have been so judiciously and solaboriously introduced, can exhibit no fair scale ofthe loss of gold by abrasion that can be applicableto all ages and to all countries. It would notform an accurate scale for the loss on the coins ofEngland that were issued in the earlier part ofthe reign of George the third. It would be lessappropriate to determine the loss on all the coinsissued from the continental mints, either in theold or the new world. It would least of all befitted to measure the loss on the coins in the timeof high antiquity in Egypt , Babylon, and Per-sepolis, or in the ages which followed, when theGrecian and Roman coins were fabricated, to saynothing of what was transacted in the dark ages.

It is well known by the analysis of ancientcoins, as well as by the writings of Pliny 1 , that, inthe times of antiquity, alloys in the gold coinwere used of various kinds. Silver was too valua-ble to be applied to that purpose, and copperwas of much higher value than in modern times.Iron and tin were therefore employed to mix withthe gold, as thereby the colour of the metal wasscarcely perceptibly changed, and with the im-

1 As early as the times of Livius Driisus the silver moneyof Rome was mixed with one eighth part of alloy of brass andtin, as stated by Pliny in the 33d book, chap, iii., and in theOth chapter of the same book he says that Anthony, whenhe was one of the Triumviri, mixed iron with the silverdenier.