A Select Collection of Scarce and Valuable Tracts on Money
Metals, the fittest materials of money.
19th Century John Ramsay McCulloch (ed.) English- For the purpose of universal commerce, metals seem the fittest materials for a standard measure, or money; as copper, silver, or gold; they having all the properties above required: They are moreover divisible into minute parts, which parts retain nevertheless an intrinsic value, in proportion to their quantity or weight; because those parts may, without injuring the metal, be again united together in a greater mass. These metals are durable, and also susceptible of any form, mark, or impression; and are convertible from money or coins, into utensils of various kinds; and from these, into money again. These properties are what give money, which is generally made of one or other of the above metals, a real and intrinsic value. There is scarce room to imagine, that money, made of a material good for no other purpose, would long continue in esteem, as such; the usefulness and scarcity of the materials, are both considered in the common estimation of money.