UNTIL 1785 no national coinage was established, and none was issued until 1793. English, French, Spanish and German coins, of various and uncertain value, passed from hand to hand. Beside the nine-pences and four-pence-ha'-pennies, there were bits and half-bits, pistareens, picayunes and fips. Of gold pieces there were johannes, or joe, the doubloon, the moidore, and pistole, with English and French guineas, carolins, ducats, and chequins. Of coppers there were English pence and half-pence and French sous; and pennies were issued at local mints in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The English shilling had everwhere degenerated in value, but differently in different localities; and among silver pieces the Spanish dollar, from Louisiana and Cuba, had begun to supersede it as a measure of value. In New England the shilling had sunk from nearly one-fourth to one-sixth of a dollar; in New York to one-eighth; in North Carolina to one-tenth. It was partly for this reason that, in devising a national coinage, the more uniform dollar was adopted as the unit. At the same time the decimal system of division was adopted instead of the cumbersome English system, and the result was our present admirably simple currency, which we owe to Gouverneur Morris, aided as to some points by Thomas Jefferson. During the period of Confederation, the chaotic state of the currency was a serious obstacle to trade, and it afforded endless opportunities for fraud and extortion. Clipping and counterfeiting were carried to such lengths that every moderately cautious person, in taking payment in hard cash, felt it necessary to keep a small pair of scales beside him, and carefully weigh each coin, after narrowly scrutinizing its stamp and deciphering its legend.—John Fiske.