So far no one has found what I would call credible evidence for a coin from the time of the Nephites. I don’t know if they even had coins or just a monetary system of weights and balances. I share this information as a way for you to compare the various information inside and outside the Church to help you understand the term “Nephite Coins”
“Not Nephite”
The actual text of the 1830 Book of Mormon does not mention coins. The word “coins” was added in the 1920 edition to the chapter heading for Alma 11. In the 1948 edition of the Book of Mormon, we see the following chapter heading: Judges and their compensation—Nephite coins and measures—Zeezrom confounded by Amulek
This is the chapter heading in the 1981 LDS Edition of Alma 11, “The Nephite monetary system is set forth—Amulek contends with Zeezrom”
“The Nephite Gold and silver monetary system was based on “a measure of every kind of grain;” no coins are mentioned” Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon by Hocking and Meldrum page 221
“Not Nephite”
The chapter headings in the Book of Mormon are not necessarily part of the sacred text. Elder Bruce R. McConkie, who composed the chapter headings for the 1981 edition of the LDS scriptures, said: “[As for the] Joseph Smith Translation items, the chapter headings, Topical Guide, Bible Dictionary, footnotes, the Gazetteer, and the maps. None of these are perfect; they do not of themselves determine doctrine; there have been and undoubtedly now are mistakes in them. Cross-references, for instance, do not establish and never were intended to prove that parallel passages so much as pertain to the same subject. They are aids and helps only.” Mark McConkie (editor), Doctrines of the Restoration: Sermons and Writings of Bruce R. McConkie (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1989),289–290. ISBN 978-0884946441
In understanding that coins are not mentioned in the text of the Book of Mormon, it is interesting to note there are several historical references to members of the church finding what they called “Nephite Coins”, or money.
Here is an article found in the Deseret News December 12, 1860 speaking of “An Old Nephite Coin”
Hon. George Peacock, of Manti, has exhibited in our office an old copper coin, recently found by some explorer or hunter on the Colorado River, on both sides of which are hieroglyphics or characters and Hebrew coin letters. Not being one of the “learned”, we submitted it to Professor Phelps, who has given us the following as a literal translation of the characters. On one side, it reads according to the rendition:
“The King, Hagagadonihah, over the kingdom near the sea west, sends to all greeting: one sinine”
On the other side—“In the 95th year of the Kingdom of Christ, 9th year of my reign: Peace and life. Weapon to weapon: Life for life.”
The coin is 1765 years old: and is evidently a Nephite Senine or farthing, as mentioned in the fifth chapter of second Nephi, in the Book of Mormon–English edition, page 517. It is about the size of an English farthing. The numerals are plain Arabic figures.
I wonder what ever became of that coin? I don’t know if anyone in the Peacock clan still holds it or if it was turned over to the Church. The coin supposedly dated 5 A.D. I know that the Church has “things” that the common member doesn’t know about. When my father was a member of the quorum of 70 he was shown several items of which the only particular one he told us about was some pages from the original manuscripts of the Book of Mormon. He mentioned other “items” but would not elaborate.
Lorenzo Snow, September 23, 1899
You can read the completer letter in the gallery of 5 pictures that are under the “Source of Nephite Coin Information” below!
— September 23, 1899
…The next morning (Sept. 23, 1899) Brother Carleton came out of his room with a coin in his hand and told me that he had plowed it up in his field on the banks of the St. Mary’s River [Florida]. He also told me that he had felt impressed during the night to give the coin to me although he had refused the Elder who had baptized him. “I looked at the coin as he handed it to me and I thought that I knew what it was, as I had seen a picture of Nephite coins on the fly leaf of the old edition of the Book of Mormon. The coin bore a striking resemblance to those coins.”…I told him I had made up my mind to take it to the First Presidency of the Church…On the way home between Pueblo, Colorado and Salt Lake City, the first morning out, there was on the train an historian and writer from England by the name of Willis…He then said to me, “…I will place seven thousand dollars ($7000) in the bank to your credit…I thanked him for his interest but repeated that the coin was not for sale…In the office of the First Presidency there were President Lorenzo Snow, President Joseph F. Smith, President Francis M. Lyman and _________. After reporting my mission, I took the coin out and showed it to them. President Lyman went and got the old edition (probably the first edition) of the Book of Mormon in which pictures of nephite coins were printed, and found the same coin immediately.
Description of the Nephite Coin
The Egyptian characters were identically the same as those on one of the pictures in the Book of Mormon. The coin had not tarnished and the characters looked as if they had been stamped. The coin was about the size of a five-dollar gold piece, eight cornered and about as thick again as common tin, it was stamped on both sides, the characters running around the outside. The characters were small, somewhat like script or cursive writing, more like the hieratic than the hieroglyphic form. As I have said before, they were identical with the characters pictured on the Nephite coin in the old edition of the Book of Mormon.
I was asked what I intended doing with the coin and I turned to President Snow and told him that I was making him a present of the coin; that President Rich had told me that that was the proper thing to do and that I was following his instructions.
President Snow put his arm around my shoulder and said, “brother Robinson, you have been faithful and have kept the pledge.”
He then went and got the money purse or leather bag that President Brigham Young had brought to the Rocky Mountains with him, also the Seer Stone and said, “This is the Seer Stone that *the Prophet Joseph Smith used. There are very few worthy to view this, but you are.” HE handed the Seer Stone to me and I couldn’t express the joy that came to me as I took that stone in my hands. Words are not equal to the task of expressing such a sublime joy.” He then told me to hand the seers stone to my wife and I handed it to her. He then blessed us with the greatest blessing I have ever heard fall from the mouth of man.”
*(Editor’s Note: Notice how President Snow said, “this is the seer stone Joseph used.” He didn’t say this is the seer stone that Joseph Smith used to translate the gold plates. I believe Joseph probably had several seer stones but they were used for purposes other than to translate the gold plates. I believe the Jaredite breastplate and the two stones in a silver bow were prepared by the Lord for Joseph to use for translation of the plates. As it says in Ether 3:28, “he should seal up the two stones”, meaning that the Lord actually touched 18 total stones. Sixteen for the Jaredite barges and two additional ones to be sealed up, (Two stones in the bow in the Hill Cumorah) “until the Lord should show them”, to the Prophet Joseph Smith to aid in translating the gold plates).
Description of the Seer Stone
“The Seer Stone was the shape of an egg though not quite so large, of a gray cast something like granite but with white stripes running around it. It was transparent but had no holes, neither in the end or in the sides. I looked into the stone, but could see nothing, as I had not the gift and power of God that must accompany such a manifestation.” (1)
— Sep 23, 1899; Saturday
The First Presidency were at the office. At 11 A.M. they met with the presidents of the five canal companies owning the waters of the Jordan river in this county, and it was decided to take such steps as would prevent the man Lambson from acquiring rights in the waters of that stream and of Utah lake.
Bishop [William B.] Preston called in the afternoon and met Presidents [Lorenzo] Snow and [George Q.] Cannon. His business was in relation to a note given to him, in trust for the Church, by Thomas Taylor, which note was past due and would outlaw in about sixty days. It was secured by a mortgage on the iron properties at Cedar City [Utah], and the question was whether Bishop Preston should foreclose the mortgage, or dispose of the note for $6,000, which sum had been offered for it. It was decided to foreclose the mortgage.
President Snow and family moved into the Beehive house today. (2)
Endnotes:
1 – Richard M. Robinson, “The History of a Nephite Coin,” 4-5, signed by Robinson and his wife Maria, 30 Dec. 1934, LDS Archives, MS 5147
2 – First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes
LDS History Chronology: Lorenzo Snow
Mormon History Timeline: the life of Lorenzo Snow
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Source of Nephite Coin Information
The pages below are from the following website: https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/search
When you do a search for Nephite Coins it takes you to this website: https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets?id=8b11984f-244a-4795-986e-fca0f5649e3b&crate=0&index=0
Nephite Coin? Photographs
Reference Krause Catalog of World Coins. Page 990-706 E. Value 50 cent to 3.50 depends on condition. Aug 24th 82. by H. F. Campbell. 1982 Edition. Nicholas G. Morgan, Donor.
Posted in: Treasure Myths
Below is a “Pice” from India which looks very similar to the one above from the Church marked as a Nephite Coin.
“Alma 11:22. “Six Onties of Silver”
• An onti was the greatest monetary value in Nephite society. One possible purpose for the inclusion of the Nephite coinage in Alma 11 is t demonstrate the extent of the bribe Zeezrom offered if Amulek would “deny the existence of a Supreme Being” (Alma 11:22). It appears that six onties of silver was the equivalent of 42 days wages for a judge in the society of the people of Ammonihah (see Alma 11:3, 11–13).” 1979 Book of Mormon Student Manual – Religion 121-122 page 186
King Mosiah’s Monetary System
Section 8: Money in the Book of Mormon
Explanation:
King Mosiah’s system of weights and measures established equivalencies between amounts of silver, gold, and grains. This chart compares the precious metals with their grain equivalents, as described in Alma 11. These measurements for the most part increase exponentially, much like the ancient Egyptian system of measurement (see chart 113). In King Mosiah’s system, the limnah or onti, worth “the value of . . . all” measurements (Alma 11:10), was worth the sum of the gold senine, seon, and shum or the silver senum, amnor, and ezrom.
Coin From Little Bear’s Video
According to Little Bear a Cheyenne Medicine man, this coin below shows King Benjamin on one side from the Book of Mormon. It is in possession of Shawn Little Bear and his family. His grand mother in Oklahoma had this coin wrapped and tied in many knots in a blue bandanna to secure and keep it safe. Little Bear was able to see it from his grandmother’s hand in 1982. She was 101 years old when Little Bear met with her in Oklahoma. See the Video Here The part about the coin is about 47 Minutes into the video. I have not verified any of this information.
Below you will find much more detail about coinage in the Book of Mormon if you are interested. Compare Alma 11
History and Analysis of:
THE SCHOOLMASTER’S ASSISTANT by THOMAS DILWORTH
The following document reproduces a single entry comprising pages 479-86 in: Rick Grunder, Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source (Lafayette, New York: Rick Grunder – Books, 2014), a PDF file of 2,307 pages published digitally only, (ISBN 978-0-9814708-1-8) described at www.mormonparallels.com
OVERVIEW: A dizzying display of the confused weights, measures and reckonings which haunted the British and Americans of the period. Dilworth’s hopelessly complicated story problems and conversion guides may shock the modern reader. More to the point of Mormon parallels, his book supplies perspective for the Nephite system described in Alma 11.
Search apologetic literature and Internet sites, and you will find varying interpretations of an apparently complex and distinctive Nephite monetary or exchange system as given awkwardly in Alma 11:3-19. Perhaps the most serious analysis of this system appears in John W. Welch’s “Weighing & Measuring in the Worlds of the Book of Mormon” (Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8:2 [1999], pp. 36-46). As in his studies of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon, however (see MP 193, Hunt), Dr. Welch discovers much here which may not be as readily perceived by all readers. I would argue that while he has identified some very interesting parallels among mixed ancient cultures, he has over-complicated the matter by searching far into the past for monetary intrigue and elegance which were just as available in early nineteenth-century America.
The most frustrating aspect of the described Nephite system occurs in the summaries of denominations (senine, seon, shum, shiblon, “shiblum,” etc.), wherein the relative worth of the largest gold piece is identified merely as “the value of them all,” and the largest of the silver pieces, “. . . as great as them all.” (Alma 11:10, 13). Dr. Welch interprets these phrases in a manner calculated to suggest “numerical elegance,” yet he allows that their meaning is not absolutely clear (Welch 1999, text accompanying his tables 4 and 5). Other Book of Mormon defenders see even less clarity there (in their various articles on the topic), but all join to search for deep meaning, complexity, and ancient parallels in the vague Book of Mormon structure of relative precious metal and grain values. I have prepared the following summary of the system from the Book of Mormon itself
“In summary, Joseph Smith dictated three series of monetary denominations (above, with corresponding grain values, Alma 11:3, 5-19). In two of these series (gold and silver standards), the smallest basic whole unit – a gold SENINE piece, or its equivalent silver SENUM piece – is doubled in value by the next unit up, which in turn is doubled by the next higher unit after that. A fourth and largest unit is described in all-encompassing terms, instead of relative numerical terms.
A third series of monetary denominations works its way down from the basic senum or senine, in fractional pieces of silver, halving with each descending unit, so that in this “lesser” series, the highest unit is simply the lowest of the values in the first two series. That basic whole unit in either standard (the “senine” of gold or the equivalent “senum” of silver) is the monetary price of “a measure of barley, and . . . every kind of grain.” (Alma 11:7). This “measure” is designated as one day’s wages for a Nephite judge
Finally, the names in two of the series, when heard in the order they were considered in Joseph Smith’s dictation (ascending in value for whole gold denominations, descending for the fractional silver denominations), involve a nearly poetic pattern: three rather similar-sounding denominations, each beginning with s and ending with n or m, followed by the final term beginning with l and ending with ah:
Senine- seon- shum, limnah; Senum- shiblon-[ shilum], leah.
CASUAL PERUSAL of the desperately complex Schoolmaster’s Assistant here at hand will alert us to the wide variety of systems known in Joseph Smith’s world. It will also remind us of the cumbersome measuring structures which we have owned from our youth, in which simple metric arrangements still struggle to supplant older systems prevalent in England, America – and the Book of Mormon. King Mosiah, writes Dr. Welch elsewhere, . . . “did not reckon after the manner of the Jews who were at Jerusalem” (Alma 11:4). Evidently he drew on some other system of weights and measures. Perhaps Mosiah obtained the legal form of his economic decree from the Mulekites, who had contact with the Jaredites, who had left from Mesopotamia not long before the time of Eshnunna. [Welch 2002, 350; referring earlier to “the laws of Eshnunna, promulgated in Babylonia probably during the early eighteenth century B.C. but not discovered until the mid-twentieth century A.D. . . . ,” Welch 2002, 348]
– or obtained it even more readily, I might insinuate, from the most elementary systems known to Joseph Smith in his youth. “Moreover,” continues Welch, Mosiah’s system is distinctively binary: each unit of measure is half the size of the next larger unit. Perhaps Mosiah found this binary manner of reckoning somewhere on the plates of brass, which, after all, were written in a type of Egyptian text. Indeed, as became known in the early twentieth century, the units in the ancient Egyptian grain measure were also binary in ratio.
Of course, we cannot be sure how to explain the similarities between the laws of Mosiah and Eshnunna or between the Nephite and Egyptian grain measures, but this much can be said: Such similarities between the laws of Mosiah and Eshnunna and the Egyptian mathematical papyri (which were unknown in Joseph Smith’s day) show yet another way in which the Book of Mormon presents specific details whose roots run unexpectedly deep in ancient societies. [Welch 2002, 350, continuing without break from the paragraph quoted above)] Dr. Welch thus proposes a culture in which the simple decree of government could overcome popular usage, contrary to modern America where we cling jealously to our yards and inches, our ounces and pounds. And it is here in modern America, rather than the ancient world, where the most ready basis for the Nephite system still lurks. If a binary system existed both in ancient Egypt and in recent America, then where ought we most logically suppose Joseph Smith learned it? I remember, when I was a boy, buying a bent bamboo cane from an old Carny man at the Western Idaho State Fair in the 1950s.
“How much?” I asked, timidly. “Six bits,” came the casual reply. “How much is a bit?”
“Two bits to the quarter.”
So a dollar must be eight bits, I reasoned, and handed over the seventy-five cents. That was my first exposure to the archaic term. I took this exciting knowledge home to my elders who chuckled that I hadn’t known the value of a “bit” – a strange 12½ cents, but a real unit in people’s minds, the eighth part of a dollar. And sure enough, on Dilworth’s page 87 we find listed first among the “foreign coins” which were used in the British colonies: “Pieces of Eight.”
Even though the American monetary system is metric (dollars and cents rather than pounds, shillings, and assorted units), we still think of half and quarter- dollars two centuries after Joseph Smith. And if we rarely think of a half-quarter today, plain-speakers still disparage the inexpensive (if self-employed) lady of the street as a “two-bit wh—.” Anyone, too, who has long followed the stock market knows that prices on Wall Street remained in dollars and eighths until January 2000.
In earlier times, United States money usage was more difficult than today, requiring guides for children like our Schoolmaster’s Assistant. The old Spanish real (that eighth bit of a dollar) became the American shilling, for example, with regional differences to frustrate both spender and recipient. Yet let its precise value be ever so complicated, the shilling was a common unit of exchange in the United States. “The complexity of working out financial values between the different states,” explains Andro Linklater, during the formation of the new American government in the 1780s, hobbled every commercial transaction. Although the legal tender remained officially the British pound, divided into twenty shillings, each in turn subdivided into twelve pennies, its value in America differed from one state to the next. The commonest single coin, the Spanish dollar, . . . contained eight bits in Pennsylvania [where the book of Alma was dictated] but was divided into ten bits in Virginia. . . . Familiarity taught most people to juggle the sums, and just as the teenage Washington casually reckoned up his pay in pistoles and doubloons, so Jefferson, scribbling a quick note of a sale of land, recorded that the price had been “200 {pounds} of which 20 half-Joes are paid.” [Linklater, 65-66]
“Every one remembers,” Jefferson warned Congress, while debating the future American system in 1784 that when learning money arithmetic, he used to be puzzled with adding the pence, taking out the twelves and carrying them on; adding the shillings, taking out the twenties and carrying them on. . . . The bulk of mankind are school boys thro’ life. These little perplexities are always great to them [quoted in Linklater, 66]
Obviously, American children were exposed to complex systems of measures and denominations. The Nephite system would be cleaner. But it must not sound modern. It could be based – I postulate – on the most elementary, old- fashioned binary money and grain units of Joseph Smith’s practical experience. Those would be easy to imagine and to dictate, if ultimately confused by curious names . . .
With two additional dry-measure denominations not mentioned by Dilworth above, p. 18, but very real terms (the double gallon and double peck), grain measures of Joseph Smith’s day were perfectly binary up through the familiar bushel.
IF ONE WERE DICTATING from one’s head during the early period of the United States, and one were thinking of silver, gold, and grain, I think the most obvious units would be the dollar and the bushel. Both were made up of repeatedly doubled units, in common folk-binary divisions. I believe one would think of a bit (in the form of the standard “York shilling” of Joseph Smith’s own state – which everyone knew was worth 12½ ¢), and its double (the quarter), its double (the half-dollar), and finally the largest unit, expressed awkwardly as “the value of them all,” the dollar itself, the national standard upon which all are named or based.
Grain measures, as we have seen above, were also binary, just like drinking units (if one were inclined toward cider, a little rum, or other liquid refreshment typically taken in gills, pints – or for the stout at heart, even larger binary units).
SHILUM/SHILLIN‘
THE AMERICAN SHILLING, finally, appears even more intriguing in this context than I have suggested. It persisted well into the nineteenth century, and may not be entirely invisible in the Book of Mormon. The name of the small piece of silver in Alma 11:16-17, the “shiblum,” was an apparent typesetter’s error, its letter “b” evidently continued from the adjacent “shiblon” of the preceding verse. What the printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon actually says – and what Joseph Smith appears to have spelled out for Oliver Cowdery in the original manuscript – is “shilum.”75
“. . . And all I deserve is a shillin’ a day,” mused Kipling’s tired O’Kelly, home from the service in India – reminding us how that word “shilling” must have sounded in young Joseph Smith’s colloquial environment as well . . .
(Chorus) Shillin’ a day
Bloomin’ good pay—
Lucky to touch it, a shillin’ a day!76
In the New York system described by Judge Thomas G. Waterman in 1825, the 12½ cent fee (one York shilling) was a prominent figure assigned to several lesser judicial and law enforcement duties that could be performed in a fraction of a day. Remember, by comparison, that the smallest non-fractional Nephite silver or gold piece (senine or senum) was the value of a measure of grain equal to a full day’s wages f or a judge — wages which had just been mentioned in Alma 11:1-2, a passage clearly descriptive of the New York State judicial system at the level at which Joseph Smith had suffered it first-hand, upriver from Harmony, Pennsylvania in 1826; see MP 457 (Waterman).
It would be difficult for any narrator to keep the exact names and values of all these denominations consistent and logical. Yet when reduced to my explana- tions above, those everyday details of Alma 11 make ready sense. Even the Antion fits nicely, because multiples of three smaller units would be handy in transactions of Joseph Smith’s experience. A common price for various goods and services at that time was 37½ cents, or three York Shillings (12½ X 3 = 37½). That was exactly what a copy of Mary Jemison’s stories of the Indians cost in 75 Documented by Royal Skousen in considerable detail, concluding that “. . . the correct name for the monetary unit shilum (in place of the shiblum of all the printed editions . . .” should be restored in Alma 11:16-17 (Skousen, 1810-11, portion quoted here from p. 1811). For the original version of “shilum” instead of “shiblum,” see Book of Mormon. The Original Manuscript, 214, lines 8-9, in conjunction with Book of Mormon. The Printer’s Manuscript, 442, lines 5-6.
76 Rudyard Kipling, “Shillin’ a Day,” in Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses (London: Methuen and Co., 1892). In Joseph Smith’s day, many a newly-arrived Brit on our shores rued the day he accepted a job at (New) York shilling wages – a decent-sounding unit of money back in England then, but worth only half the value in the American version nearby Canandaigua, New York in 1824 (MP 371, Seaver, section on publisher James D. Bemis). That was also the amount which Judge Waterman said it cost to summon a jury (MP 457, illustration). If the American/Book of Mormon correlations which I have presented are not perfect, they are simplicity itself when viewed against the labored arguments offered by modern Book of Mormon defenders. I cannot say that Joseph Smith thought consciously like I propose, but I will insist that his task was easier than many people have imagined.
