LOOSE CHANGE: APRIL 21, 2024

Adam Smith tried to tell us that money was not invented by governments. Money, and economic life entire, come from a certain propensity in human nature, he says, the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another. Smith gives a detailed account of how such barter might arise in a group of shepherds or hunters. He does not pretend that this is an actual group of which he has actual knowledge. But what genre of story is this then?

Although many economists have told the money comes from barter story as nonfiction, contemporary economics textbooks tell it neither as fact nor fiction, but as a hypothetical. To see the benefits of money, one textbook advises, imagine a barter economy. In a complex society with many goods, says another, money replaces barter, since barter exchanges involve an intolerable amount of effort. More poetically, one textbook asks us to imagine that we have roosters, but…want roses.

The trouble is, as anthropologist Caroline Humphrey points out, No example of a barter economy, pure and simple, has ever been described, let alone the emergence from it of money; all available ethnography suggests that there never has been such a thing. Never?

Barter societies, where they exist at any scale, are what happens (initially, briefly) to societies that once used money after their central government collapses. So, while economists would have you believe that barter initially arises from a certain propensity in human nature, but that, given barter's intolerable complexity, barter gives rise naturally to money, and that the use of money leads to credit and debt, David Graber argues that, basically, the opposite is true.

To read the complete article, see:
Dream Of Money (https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2024/04/dream-of-money.html)

 

In the captivating chapters of American numismatic history, few names shine as brilliantly as James Barton Longacre's. A virtuoso engraver and the esteemed chief engraver of the United States Mint during the mid-19th century, Longacre contributed artistic work for our nation's coinage at measure that is nothing short of legendary. Numismatic researchers and collectors alike are well-acquainted with the fact that William Barber, just a year after Longacre's passing in 1869, brought the Longacre Indian Princess design patterns to life.

The U.S. Mint embarked on a remarkable journey to craft a series of pattern coins as a tribute to the great James Longacre. These coins were destined for select collectors, esteemed government officials, and even foreign dignitaries. Among these, the inaugural pieces were the dollars, featuring various renditions of Longacre's iconic Indian Princess design. This departure from the conventional Greco-Roman portrayal of Lady Liberty, instead depicting her as a Native American woman, was a truly revolutionary and pioneering choice. This choice was influenced by the mid-19th-century fascination with Native American culture and the desire to forge a uniquely American identity. This spectacular dollar series comprises 12 distinctive issues, each bearing its own Judd number, ranging from J-1008 to J-1019.

The first of these distinctive designs graces the obverse with an Indian Princess seated beside a globe, adorned with a headdress inspired from Native American culture. The word LIBERTY gracefully arcs across the center of the globe, and in her hand, Liberty holds a pole crowned with a Phrygian cap. The reverse proudly displays the word STANDARD at the top, with 1 DOLLAR encircled by a wreath of cotton and corn.

To read the complete article, see:
Unveiling the Timeless Legacy of James Longacre's Indian Princess Dollars (https://www.pcgs.com/news/james-longacres-indian-princess-dollars)

Hong Kong customs officials have seized 146 kilograms of suspected gold, worth more than $10 million, on board a freight plane headed for Japan.

The discovery is the largest gold-smuggling case on record in Hong Kong in terms of seizure value, according to the Customs Department.

Air compressors have various industrial and mining uses and are commonly used to fill gas cylinders used in diving. They are typically made of cast iron or aluminum.

But during an x-ray of the air compressors, officials discovered that gold had been carefully molded and "concealed in the integral parts" of the machinery.

The gold parts had been painted silver to match the machine parts, officials told local news outlet, the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

To read the complete article, see:
Suspected smugglers were caught trying to hide $10 million of gold by painting it silver and disguising it as machinery on a cargo plane (https://www.businessinsider.com/10-million-gold-disguised-as-machinery-smuggled-plane-hong-kong-2024-4)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web