Bonnie harebells, bonnie harebells,
Ring, oh, ring!
All the world with silence over
Waits listening.
MYTH IN AMERICAN COINAGE.
BY ISAAC BASSETT CHOATE.
The worship of "the almighty dollar" is of no recent origin, provided it be the case that the dollar is represented in gold. This worship forms no special cultus in the religions of the world. It is a survival from prehistoric times, and is intimately connected with the earliest forms of nature-worship. The estimate in which gold has been held has always been out of all proportion to its utility, its scarcity, or the difficulty of mining it. There have been times when civilized man had a comparatively far more abundant supply of gold than he has at present, but this circumstance did not avail to depreciate the metal. There were long ages of an incipient civilization, during which gold flooded the markets of the world as compared with iron, but this did not affect the relations between the nobler and the baser article of merchandise. Gold was all the time held at a valuation far above what it would have received from its importance to mankind in the useful arts. It was prized as amber was prized, and the two substances were devoted to quite similar uses. They were employed for the decoration of temples and shrines, and were worn for personal ornament. But the wearing of such ornament had its origin in sentiments which may be regarded as strictly religious. Beads and rings were originally amulets to protect the wearer against invisible inimical powers, as they were talismans to confer upon their possessor supernatural gifts. We can get no distinct view back of this custom in time, but we may feel well assured that when gold had acquired such use, nature-worship had advanced far into the stage of symbolism. It was not the metal itself that was the object of worship. That object gold typified and figured to the devout mind.
To discover what property it was that gave this metal its early preference, it will be necessary to trace the survival of similar views and feelings farther than we have ourselves consciously prolonged them. It is to be observed that among the Turks and other Oriental people, amber and yellow gems like the topaz, still enjoy a pre-eminence in popular favor. These substances are still supposed to possess magical power always beneficent. Among the Chinese, yellow is both sacred and it is associated with the dignity of imperial rank. Yellow is the color of the royal standard, and a yellow sash distinguishes a member of the royal family. Robes of state are of the same color. And this appropriation of yellow to certain sacred or governmental uses is not confined to China. It is common through the East. The farther back we trace the idea of special sacredness in color, the more exclusively do we see this confined to yellow. This was long saved from vulgar uses and associations. It had a significance to the ancients, such as it does not have to us. There was a fitness in their decorating the temples and the statues of the gods with gold, and silver, and ivory, and amber, and gems. These offerings symbolized light, and light stood for the happier destinies of man,—for the milder and gentler influences which lead to good; while darkness typified malignant powers of evil. There was the same distinction conceived of between life and death. White victims were offered to the gods of Olympus, while for sacrifice to the gods of the under-world black victims were selected.
Gold shines with the brightest and the warmest glow of any of the metals, and its brilliancy and lustre are not tarnished by corrosion. To the Oriental fancy it typified the genial light of day. To the fire-worshipper it was a fit emblem of his faith. Fire was originally sacred, perhaps, only as the representative of the sun; and this luminary was later spiritualized in the idea of Apollo. Gold was sacred as far as this worship was spread, from India to the North of Europe, and the great demand for it for sacred uses gave the metal much of its preciousness in the markets of the world. It was worn by the living and was buried with the dead; so that if humanity had not refined its conception of the divine, it would have come to be the case at length that every particle of gold in the soil would have had mortal ashes sleeping beside it.
Gold and silver were rendered sacred and precious in early times by being devoted to purposes of worship. The temples were the safe places of deposit, and in these were hoarded the treasures of the world. Partly from this circumstance it became the case that when gold and silver were first coined, the temples were the mints, and the earliest mint-masters were the priests. Naturally, the devices stamped upon the coins issued under such auspices would be sacred emblems. We find them such from whatever source they came. There was sound policy in this course, as well as good reason for it. If coins were to circulate among people who had previously been accustomed to paying out and receiving the precious metals by actual weight, it was necessary to have the value of these pieces certified to in the most solemn manner. To this end the effigies of the gods, together with the tokens of their attributes and sacred offices, were stamped upon the coin. If we could trace coinage to its earliest use, perhaps to its origin, among the people who lived about the Ægean Sea, it would not be unreasonable to expect to find that at first gold coin was issued under the patronage of Apollo, that silver bore the stamp of Zeus, and that copper coins were dedicated to Aphrodite, as the nearest representative among Greek divinities of that Phoenician goddess who presided over trade in the ports and markets of the East. But among the coins that remain—and some of these are shown to be of early date, they are so rude in execution—we do not find this distinction kept. It is certain that at an early period the emblems of the several divinities were mixed, apparently with a view to giving a more weighty sanction to the stamp impressed upon the coin.
The earlier Greek coins were struck by hand. A single die was employed in the process, so that an impression of device or of legend appeared only on one side. The other side bore an indent which is known as the punch-mark. This mark is commonly a square figure divided into four smaller squares by lines resembling somewhat a right cross. It is the indent of the spike in the anvil on which the ball of metal was laid when being struck. Later, the coins were made thinner, and were struck with double dies. From that time both sides of the coin received an impression. The upper side continued to show the greatest care. As this side always bore the head of the god under whose auspices the coin was to be issued, it was called the obverse or face of the piece. The opposite side was the reverse. So long as coins continued to be struck by hand, there was no fixed relative position for the two impressions. Coins were always printed as though they were turned horizontally from left to right. They still continue to be so printed, and we go on in the practice of speaking of the reverse of coins, even when we are discussing those of our own coinage; but the fact is that ever since American coins were stamped in the mint the impressions on the two sides bear a certain fixed relation. In passing from the obverse of our coins to the examination of the opposite side, we do this by inverting the piece. That side would then properly be called the inverse of the coin, and it would, with equal propriety be printed directly beneath its obverse.