SELECTIONS.

Having referred many times to this case, it may be as well to append the entire list of its contents, as they, almost without exception, are rare, spanning the world from remotest antiquity to the present day, beginning with the gold Daric of Darius, and ending with the twenty-mark piece of Kaiser William.

Greece.

1. Four drachma, Athens, B. C. 500; 2. Oboloi of Athens; 3. One-half obolos, 1⅓ of a cent; 4. Daric, Darius, of Persia, B. C. 520, value, five dollars and fifty cents; 5. Silver Daric; 6. Brass Ob. Berenice, B. C. 284; 7. Ptolemy and Berenice, copy; 8. Maneh of Ptolemy Philadelphus, B. C. 284, value, $17.70; 9. Drachma, Cyrene, B. C. 322; 10. Coin of Syracuse, copy, about B. C. 300; 11. Silver coin, Bactria, B. C. 126; 12. Brass of Bactria, B. C. 180; 13. Cleopatra, B. C. 30; 13a. Denarius of Cleopatra and Mark Antony; 14. Alexander the Great, B. C. 36; 15. Philip, B. C. 323; 16. Stater of Seleucus; 17. Alexander Balas, B. C. 150; 18. Antiochus VI; 19. Philip, King of Syria, B. C. 93.

Rome.

20. Roman aes, B. C. 500; 21. Denarius of Augustus, B. C. 31; 22. Tiberius, A. D. 14; 23. Simon, Bar Cochab, false Christ, A. D. 133; 24. Vespasian, A. D. 49; 25. Gold bezants, A. D. 610; 26. Justinian, A. D. 527; 26a. Kingdom of Cyprus and Jerusalem, Peter 1, 1361 to 1372, testoon, Kingdom of Jerusalem; 26b. Amaury II., 1194 to 1205.

English.

27. Gold of Britain; 28. Carausius, Roman Emperor of Britain, A. D. 287; 29. Penny of Ethelbert, King of Kent, 858 A. D.; 30. Harold the Dane, A. D. 1036; 31. William the Conqueror, 1066, A. D.; 32. Edward the Confessor, A. D. 1041; 33. Robert the Bruce, A. D. 1306; 34. Elizabeth, Double Ryal, A. D. 1558; 35. James I, 1603, Ryal (30 shillings) and sovereign; 36. Charles I, sovereign; 37. Siege pound of Charles I, 1642; 37a. Gold sovereign of Oliver Cromwell; 38. Crown, and half crown and shilling, Oliver Cromwell, 1658; 38a. Farthing, Queen Anne; 39. George IV; 40. Coins of Australia.

France.

41. Deniers of Charlemagne, 806; 42. Medalet, Marie Antoinette; 43. Five francs, Napoleon I; 44. Gold, Napoleon I, 1851; 45. Five francs, Paris Commune.

Germany.

46. Bracteats; 47. German Crown, Ob. St. Stephen; 48. Ducat, Ob. Luther and Melanchthon, 1730; 49. Crown, Maximilian, A. D. 1615; 50. Ducat, Nuremburg; 51. Ducat Hamburg; 52. Monument, Bavaria; 53. King’s family, Bavaria; 54. Coins of Prussia; 55. Silver piece, Frederick William and Augusta.

Spain.

56. Ferdinand and Isabella; 57. Charles II., Spain; 58. Alphonso, Spain.

Italy.

59. Silver of Venice under the Doges, twelfth century; 60. Ducat of Venice; 61. Copper of San Marino; 62. Silver piece of Lombardy; 63. Gold twenty lira piece; 64. Swiss crown, ob. St. Vincent; 65. African shell money; 66. African ring money.

Oriental.

67. Siamese coins; 68. Chinese tael; 69. Widow’s mite; 70. Jewish shekel; 70a. Herod the Great, 37 B C.; 70b. Herod Archelaus, 4 B. C.; 71. Glass coin, Egypt; 72. Gold of Alnaser, A. D. 1222; 73. Dirhem of Mahomet V., A. D. 854; 74. Dirhem of Walid, Caliph of Damascus, A. D. 713; 75. Haroun Alraschid, Koran text, 806; 76. Fire Worshippers, A. D. 300; 77. Gold of Japan, 1634; 78. Gravel stone of Burmah; 79. Late coin of Turkey; 80. Mexican dollar used in China; 81. Coin of Cochin China.

The most notable coin in this case, and perhaps the most celebrated coin in the world, is the “Widow’s Mite.” Its name bespeaks its commercial insignificance. Yet visitors every day, upon entering the Cabinet of the Mint, ask first to see the “Widow’s Mite.”

The following letter from Wm. E. Du Bois, will be found of interest to the reader.

THE WIDOW’S MITE.

Sir: The curators of the mint cabinet do not consent to the intimation in a statement recently made that their widow’s mite is not the real coin.

The expression of a doubt as to any received fact is thought to be a sign of superior insight. Hence we have so much “destructive criticism,” a good deal of it being fatal to the critic himself.

The widow’s mite in our showcase of specialties, always attracting much attention, is precisely what the Scriptures speak of—a lepton, the smallest of Greek and Syriac coins. The name comes from leptos, very small. The word “mite” is English, and was formerly a weight representing the twentieth part of a grain, but has long fallen into disuse. It was employed in the translation of the New Testament to represent the word lepton, simply because it was so very small.

It is pretty certain that there was no Jewish or Hebrew coin so small as the lepton; that people depended very much upon outside coins for their circulation. Even their money terms had changed to those of the Syrian-Greek Empire and of Rome, as we see from all the instances in the New Testament. What few copper or bronze pieces they had, struck by local princes for a limited time, and now very rare, were large enough to bear a show of devices and inscriptions, for which the lepton was too minute. The one in our cabinet has a diameter of only three-tenths of an inch, and weighs but ten grains. On one side nothing is discernible, on the other a mint monogram, such as were common in that era, occupies the space. It is much like the letter x, with a line crossing it near the top. Whether it is Samaritan, or Syriac, or Greek, we cannot be sure; nor is it of any consequence. It is enough to show that it is a coin, and belongs to the age shortly before and after the advent of Christ, and its size proves it to be a lepton.

It is an interesting and confirmatory fact, that this piece was found among the rubbish of the Temple grounds, by Dr. Barclay, long resident in Jerusalem, and author of “The City of the Great King.” By him it was presented to the mint cabinet. The objector may soberly doubt whether this was one of the identical mites offered by the widow; for the rest of his doubts they are of no value.

We are often asked how much this famous offering amounted to? There is some obscurity and confusion about their coin-tables, and, therefore, some variety in the estimation. We may say, however, that the current value of the lepton, or mite, was about one-fifth of a cent in our money; being eighty to the drachma or denarius, which was 16 or 15 cents.

But as the purchasing or paying power of a drachma was probably as great in that day and country as a dollar is in ours, we may say that the value of a lepton, judged by our ideas, was about one cent. As the treasurer would not take a less gift than two lepta, it follows that the poor but very liberal woman contributed fully two cents, which is more than some persons—neither poor nor in widowhood—throw into the church basket.

It is worth while to add that a visitor at the mint saw a similar piece in Jerusalem, and tried to obtain one, but on account of its rarity did not succeed.

W. E. D.

DONATIONS OF OLD COINS.

Extract from the American Journal of Numismatics, April, 1884.

Under the head of donations, we have from Quartermaster General Meigs, a half-dollar and pistareen of Carolus and Johana of Spain. These pieces were presented to General Meigs at Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1870. The special interest attached to them, is their having been found on the beach of Padre Island, off the southerly coast of Texas. The supposition is that they were washed up from a sunken treasure ship wrecked on the coast, while carrying funds to the Army of Cortez, who entered the City of Mexico in 1519. Their good condition may warrant our accepting this briny romance Cum grano salis. Antiquarian stories must expect to stand the test of the chemist, as well as of the historian. This reminds me, however, of some specimens of the Mint Cabinet, from the wreck of the San Pedro, some account of which may not be uninteresting here.[17] “Early in 1815, a naval armament was fitted out in Spain, by Ferdinand VII., for the purpose of reducing the Rebellious Colonies in South America. The military force of this expedition amounted to ten thousand men, of whom two thousand were on board the flag ship “San Pedro.” The vessel was also freighted to a large amount with gunpowder, cannon balls and specie.”

The account then goes on to state that the fleet touched at the Island of Marguerita near the coast of Venezuela. After leaving the island, the vessel took fire, burnt four hours until the magazine caught and exploded, and the wreck went down with four hundred men. The right of working the wreck, was granted about thirty years after, to a Baltimore Company, known as the “San Pedro Company.” Divers were set to work, and the wreck found in sixty feet of water on a hard bed of coral. Over this there was a deposit of mud, and again over this a layer of coral, which had to be pierced to arrive at the treasure.

The Spanish dollars recovered were sent to Philadelphia, and (up to September, 1848) about seventy-five thousand dollars had been recovered and re-coined. The dollars were much corroded and encrusted, the coating having first to be removed, to bring the pieces into fit condition for minting; the loss from corrosion was considerable; one dollar with the impression still visible, being reduced to thirty-four cents in value. In the light of these and other facts, it is difficult to conceive how the pieces found in Texas, could have come so clean from their reputed berth, of over three hundred years, but they are worth keeping for all that, and General Meigs has the thanks of the Republic for them.