Note 31 — Chapter VI

With the exception of gold, which was in the hands of a few, the coin circulating in Egypt was made of base metal, watered over with silver; and was of little or no intrinsic value. There were large pieces of this kind, some of them larger than a crown, which were of different values: but a small coin, called a para, about the breadth of a farthing, and no thicker than the scale of a fish, was the most common; of which 120, and in some places 160, were given for a Spanish dollar. The money expended by the army was gold and Spanish dollars.