MONEY, a substance, commonly me tal, and generally of a determined shape and weight, to which public authority has affixed a certain value to serve as a medium in commerce. We may refer our readers to the article Com for much interesting matter on this subject. See also Mawr. Money is usually divided into real or effective, and imaginary, or money of account. See Excaases. Real money includes all coins or species of gold, silver, copper, &c. which exist and have currency, such are guineas, louis d'ors, pistols, ducats, &c. Imaginary mo ney, or money of account, is that which has never existed, or at least which does not exist in real specie, but is a denomi nation invented or retained, to facilitate the stating of accounts by keeping them still on a fixed footing, not to be changed like current coins, which the authority of the sovereign raises or lowers according to the exigencies of the state.
Of this kind are pounds in England and its dependencies, for which there never was a coin to answer. In France livres were of that kind ; but for the • franc of modern France, which answers in value to the livre, there is a corres ponding coin. Among the ancients, the
Greeks reckoned their monies of account by the drachma, mine, and talents. The drachma was equal to about 74d. sterling ; of these 100 made a mine, equal to 31.4s. 7d. and 60 mine made a talent, equal to 1931. 15s.; hence 100 talents amounted to 19,375/. The same denominations were used in other Asiatic nations, but the va lues were different. Roman monies of account were, the seatertius and the ses tertium the former was worth some thing lees than 2d. and 1000 of these, equal the sestertium, was worth 81.1.. 54d. sterling. For the theory of coins, and of money in general, and for a great variety of interesting and important information on these and other topics of political eco nomy connected with them, we refer to a treatise on the coins of the realm by the Earl of Liverpool, and to Mr. Wheatley's Essay on the Theory of Money and the Principles of Commerce.