Archaeology is starting to reveal evidence of the history of state currencies now in the eastern parts of ancient western civilization. Story here at Fox or here at Catholic Online. From the account at Fox:
More than 200 coins, mainly bronze [Ed: copper alloy], were found along with "various items of gold, silver and bronze jewelry and glass vessels" inside an ancient fortress within the Artezian settlement in the Crimea (in Ukraine), the researchers wrote in the most recent edition of the journal Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia.Slide show of the find and site here.
Artezian, which covered an area of at least 3.2 acres and also had a necropolis (a cemetery), was part of the Bosporus Kingdom. At the time, the kingdom's fate was torn between two brothers —Mithridates VIII, who sought independence from Rome, and his younger brother, Cotys I, who was in favor of keeping the kingdom a client state of the growing empire.
More varying coin sizes evident in the picture above, when piled on top of the numerous other similar archaeological discoveries, providing further prima facie evidence that western civilization did indeed once possess the view recorded by Aristotle that state currency systems were not based on nature but rather on the law.
This view was subsequently lost at some point in western history.
Today, we have somehow again reached a point where our written laws and institutional arrangements reflect this view, but astonishingly many, I dare say virtually all, of those currently occupying relevant positions of authority within our civil government remain blind to this view; conducting policy blindly and stupidly, seeking to subject themselves (and the rest of us in the process) to either the availability of certain "noble" metals or institutions external to government.
It is indeed hard to understand the thought processes of these people.
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