Category:Money

Mon"ey, n.; pl. Moneys. Etym: [OE. moneie, OF. moneie, F. monnaie, fr. L. moneta. See Mint place where coin is made, Mind, and cf. Moidore, Monetary.]

1. A piece of metal, as gold, silver, copper, etc., coined, or stamped, and issued by the sovereign authority as a medium of exchange in financial transactions between citizens and with government; also, any number of such pieces; coin. To prevent such abuses, ... it has been found necessary ... to affix a public stamp upon certain quantities of such particular metals, as were in those countries commonly made use of to purchase goods. Hence the origin of coined money, and of those public offices called mints. A. Smith.

2. Any written or stamped promise, certificate, or order, as a government note, a bank note, a certificate of deposit, etc., which is payable in standard coined money and is lawfully current in lieu of it; in a comprehensive sense, any currency usually and lawfully employed in buying and selling.

Note: Whatever, among barbarous nations, is used as a medium of effecting exchanges of property, and in the terms of which values are reckoned, as sheep, wampum, copper rings, quills of salt or of gold dust, shovel blades, etc., is, in common language, called their money.

3. In general, wealth; property; as, he has much money in land, or in stocks; to make, or lose, money. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. 1 Timothy 6:10 (Rev. Ver. ). Money bill (Legislation), a bill for raising revenue. -- Money broker, a broker who deals in different kinds of money; one who buys and sells bills of exchange; -- called also money changer. -- Money cowrie (Zoöl.), any one of several species of Cypræa (esp. C. moneta) formerly much used as money by savage tribes. See Cowrie. -- Money of account, a denomination of value used in keeping accounts, for which there may, or may not, be an equivalent coin; e.g., the mill is a money of account in the United States, but not a coin. -- Money order, an order for the payment of money; specifically, a government order for the payment of money, issued at one post office as payable at another; -- called also postal money order. -- Money scrivener, a person who produces the loan of money to others. [Eng.] -- Money spider, Money spinner (Zoöl.), a small spider; -- so called as being popularly supposed to indicate that the person upon whom it crawls will be fortunate in money matters. -- Money's worth, a fair or full equivalent for the money which is paid. -- A piece of money, a single coin. -- Ready money, money held ready for payment, or actually paid, at the time of a transaction; cash. -- To make money, to gain or acquire money or property; to make a profit in dealings.

money Mon"ey, v. t.

Defn: To supply with money. [Obs.]

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---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Money - Of uncoined money the first notice we have is in the history of Abraham (Genesis 13:2; Genesis 20:16; Genesis 24:35). Next, this word is used in connection with the purchase of the cave of Machpelah (Genesis 23:16), and again in connection with Jacob's purchase of a field at Shalem (Genesis 33:18, Genesis 33:19) for "an hundred pieces of money" = an hundred Hebrew kesitahs (q.v.), i.e., probably pieces of money, as is supposed, bearing the figure of a lamb. The history of Joseph affords evidence of the constant use of money, silver of a fixed weight. This appears also in all the subsequent history of the Jewish people, in all their internal as well as foreign transactions. There were in common use in trade silver pieces of a definite weight, shekels, half-shekels, and quarter-shekels. But these were not properly coins, which are pieces of metal authoritatively issued, and bearing a stamp. Of the use of coined money we have no early notice among the Hebrews. The first mentioned is of Persian coinage, the daric (Ezra 2:69; Nehemiah 7:70) and the 'adarkon (Ezra 8:27). The daric (q.v.) was a gold piece current in Palestine in the time of Cyrus. As long as the Jews, after the Exile, lived under Persian rule, they used Persian coins. These gave place to Greek coins when Palestine came under the dominion of the Greeks (331 B.C.), the coins consisting of gold, silver, and copper pieces. The usual gold pieces were staters (q.v.), and the silver coins tetradrachms and drachmas. In the year 140 B.C., Antiochus VII. gave permission to Simon the Maccabee to coin Jewish money. Shekels (q.v.) were then coined bearing the figure of the almond rod and the pot of manna.