The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

536 THE FREEMAN Septemberand economic benefits of the goldpiece. Modern paper money, withouta connection with the preciousmetals, sinlply cannot fulfill thetraditional capacity of gold coinageto function both as a mediumof exchange and a store of value.Not only does gold coinage goback to the early days of theAmerican Republic, but it coverssome twenty-seven centuries ofWestern Civilization. It was, inturn, antedated by an even earlier,specifically monetary use of gold,a use that can be r'eadily documented.Thus, a nlural paintingfrom Thebes, Egypt, assigned tothe reign of Thutmosis III, 1501­1447 B.C., shows the weighing ofgold rings and holed disks. 6 Detailsof this painting reveal thestatus that gold had attained as amonetary medium. The weightson the balance pan are in theform of bovine heads and sheep!This illustrates the fact that atransition had been made from aneconomy in which cattle were usedas exchange to one in which theprecious metals had taken theirplace, but the tradition of the cattleexchange is preserved in the6 For a reproduction of this painting,see Heinrich Quiring, Geschichte desGoldes / Die Goldenen Zeitalter in ihrerkulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Bedeutung.Ferdinand Enke Verlag, Stuttgart,1948, page 48. This book, by the way, isan excellent source of information on thehistory of the mining, refining and useof gold.very shape of the weights. Tomention a later parallel, the earlierLatin word for money, pecunia,developed from pecus, meaning"cattle." In the case of theTeutonic languages, the Germanword for cattle, Vieh, is a cognateof English fee.American Indian civilizationsnever developed a gold coinage asdid the Europeans, but gold wasused as a medium of exchange inthe form of quills filled with golddust. Undoubtedly, too, the manypre-Columbian gold ornaments,often of considerable artisticmerit, played some sort of monetaryrole.Coinage in Ancient GreeceThe very beginnings of Greekgold (or more specifically, electrum)coinage are nebulous. Onetype with two confronted lions'heads is actually inscribed "Alyas,"a variant form of the name ofKing Alyattes, fourth of theMermnad kings of Lydia, whoreigned 610-561 B.C. Far moreabundantly preserved, however,are the electrum pieces of·variousweights (1/12, 1/6 and 1/3 staters)bearing the head of a lionwith a radiate knob on the forehead.The ~·eights of these piecesare astonishingly consistent. Sixspecimens of the 1/3 stater preservedin the Boston Museum ofFine Arts have the narrow range