shells, which served also as ornaments, and gold
dust. In ancient Mexico, Africa, and elsewhere,
gold was put into transparent quills, which were
used as a common means of payment. It circulated
in small cubes in China as early as 1100 B.C. Many
hundreds of years before the beginning of the
Christian Era, gold media of exchange were used
in Asia Minor and a large part of Europe. These
early media were usually made of almost pure gold,
the art of hardening the metal by means of alloy
apparently not having been introduced until after
the beginning of the Christian Era.

The earliest references I have been able to find
in recorded history to the use of one of the precious
metals as a medium of exchange--in these cases,
passing by weight--are in the Code of Hammurabi, ¹
King of Babylon. They refer to silver in about the
year 1870 B.C. ²

The peoples of classical times had very little
knowledge of the money of their early ancestors.
They had no books on money, and the few written
records available to them were chiefly on stone and
papyri in the form of laws, decrees, and scattered
miscellaneous notes. By far the most important

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