The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 1, January 7, 2007, Article 26

NUMIS-WORTHY EXCERPT: USURER'S DISHONESTY PUNISHED

Author Eric Leighton has agreed to share with E-Sylum readers some
excerpts from his new book "NUmiS WORTHY: Old Numismatic News 1752
to 1800', a compilation of contemporary newspaper reports published
in Nova Scotia.

This piece from the Nova-Scotia Gazette & Weekly Chronicle, Aug. 22,
1786 is likely an anecdote from a London paper, since it appeared on
the same page as other London news.  In it a greedy money lender (or
usurer) gets his comeuppance.

"AN usurer, having lost an hundred pounds in a bag, promised a reward
of ten pounds to the person that should restore it. A man having brought
it to him demanded the reward. The usurer, loath to give the reward,
now that he had got the bag, alledged after the bag was opened, "That
there were an hundred and ten pounds in it when he lost it." The usurer
being called before the judge unwarily acknowledged, that the seal was
broken open in his presence and that there were no more at that time,
but an hundred pounds in the bag.

"You say, says the judge, that the bag you lost had an hundred and ten
pounds in it." "Yes my lord." "Then replied the judge, this cannot be
your bag, as it contained but a hundred pounds; therefore the plaintiff
must keep it till the true owner appears, and you must look for your
bag where you can find it."

 BOOK REVIEW: NUMIS WORTHY - OLD NUMISMATIC NEWS 1752 TO 1800
 esylum_v09n53a03.html

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum