lutely
introduced among themselves the Spanish ten and five centimo pieces,
corresponding to our 1_d._ and 1/2_d._, which are now in free local
use, but are not accepted up-country.

What passes as Moorish money to-day has been coined in France for many
years, more recently also in Germany; the former is especially neat,
but the latter lacks style. The denominations coincide with those of
Spain, whose fluctuations in value they closely follow at a respectful
distance. This autumn the "Hasani" coin--that of Mulai el Hasan, the
late Sultan--has fallen to fifty per cent. discount on Spanish. With
the usual perversity also, the common standard "peseta," in which
small bargains are struck on the coast, was omitted, the nearest coin,
the quarter-dollar, being nominally worth ptas. 1.25. It was only
after a decade, too, that the Government put in circulation the
dollars struck in France, which had hitherto been laid up in the
treasury as a reserve. And side by side with the German issue came
abundant counterfeit coins, against which Government warnings were
published, to the serious disadvantage of the legal issue. Even the
Spanish copper has its rival, and a Frenchman was once detected trying
to bring in a nominal four hundred dollars' worth of an imitation,
which he promptly threw overboard when the port guards raised
objections to its quality.

The increasing need of silver currency inland, owing to its free use
in the manufacture of trinkets, necessitates a constant importation,
and till recently all sorts of coins, discarded elsewhere, were in
circulation. This was the case especially with French, Swiss, Belgian,
Italian, Greek, Roumanian, and other pieces of the value of twenty
centimos, known here by the Turkish name "gursh," which were accepted
freely in Central Morocco, but not in the north. Twenty years ago
Spanish Carolus, Isabella and Philippine shillings and kindred coins
were in use all over the country, and when they were withdrawn from
circulation in Spain they were freely shipped here, till the country
was flooded with them. When the merchants and customs at last refused
them, their astute importers took them back at a discount, putting
them into circulation later at what they could, only to repeat the
transaction. In Morocco everything a man can be induced to take is
legal tender, and for bribes and religious offerings all things pass,
this practice being an easier matter than at first sight appears; so
in