Viewing page 25 of 101

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

These indians speak the o'-to-mi'-ti language

Old Coins

mass of kneeling women & a sprinkling of men.

On my visit to the indian village of San Juanito by the lake an old man showed me a couple of coins that had been plowed up by the lake. One of copper & the other of silver. Both are without dates and belong to the first coins struck by the Spanish conquerors in America. By a royal decree of [[strikethrough]] 15 [[/strikethrough]] 1535 (May 111) by the Queen, the coining  being begun in about 1537.

When the Spaniards first occupied Mex. they had no coined money & gold or silver was used being valued by the weight peso and afterwards the use of this word became fixed to the unit of value known as the [[strikethrough]] dollar [[/strikethrough]] peso (or dollar). The coining of gold was forbidden by the decree. As these two pieces represent the first coins struck in American by Europeans of which we have knowledge I give the following description of their inscriptions.

The silver piece is of 2 Reales - and bears the following stamp.