Many critics of the Book of Mormon Bring up the fact that The Book of Mormon in Alma tells of a complicated money system with denomination names where no coins have been found in the ruins. The Old Testament in the Days of Joseph some 1800 years B.C. tells of putting money in sacks of grain. This was long before coinage was utilized. Most Authorities agree that money at that time was a measure of gold or silver kept in small cloth bags that was weighed out with a balance scales. Later small pieces of gold were molded according to weight.

Dr. Joseph Allen in his book Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon (1989) writes concerning the Nephite money system.

MONEY

"The native Mesoamericans traded with cocoa beans, quetzal feathers, and copper figures, and they used a weight-and-measure system that is still utilized today.

On one of our trips in 1989, we were traveling along the Guatemala border toward Guatemala City. Dean Williams, an attorney and a member of the tour group, was reading about the conversion of the lawyer Zeezrom in the Book of Mormon. He was reading in Alma 11 and asked, 'Joe, have they ever found any coins in Mesoamerica? '

I answered, 'Not really. They've found a few copper items, but not coins with which we are familiar.'

Dean said, 'Listen to this,' as he read about the money system during Alma's time: Now these are the names of the different pieces of their gold, and of their silver, according to their value. And the names are given by the Nephites, for they did not reckon after the manner of the Jews who were at Jerusalem; neither did they measure after the manner of the Jews; but they altered their reckoning and their measure, according to the minds and the circumstances of the people, in every generation, until the reign of the judges, they having been established by king Mosiah. (Alma 11:4)

T'hen he said, 'That's not talking about coins; it's talking about weights and measures.'

I said, 'You're right. I know now what that's talking about. When we get to Lake Atitlan in a few days, we'll buy a couple of things they use for weighing purposes.'

When we arrived at Lake Atitlan, some of the group bought sets of the weights that the natives still use today to weigh their produce on a balance scale. These weights consist of four small cups and a small, solid weight, each weighing various amounts, The cups nestle inside one another much like the measuring cups we use in our American kitchens. The small, solid cap fits inside the smallest cup.

The following discussion represents an interesting analysis, as the 'weights and measures' that are still used today are compared to the description of the 'weights and measures' in the Book of Mormon.

Concerning the Nephites' system of money, the Book of Mormon outlines the following- This discussion is not presented as conclusive evidence but rather as an exercise to compare the two systems.

(A) Now the reckoning is thus-a senine of gold, a seon of gold, a strum of gold, and a limnah of gold. (Alma 11:5)

The measurements of the 'weights and measures' follow he same pattern as described in the Book of Mormon:

(B) Now the amount of a seon of gold was twice the value of a senine. (Alma 11:8)

(C') And a strum of gold was twice the value of a seon. (Alma I 1:9) (D) And a limnah of gold was the value of them all. (Alma 11: 10) The above is just a preliminary statement on the type of monetary system used by the Nephites. Nevertheless, Mesoamerica does have a system of weights and measures that appears to predate the Spanish Conquest and that is still used today. And the calibrations are the same. The natives do not today, however, use the "weights and measures" to measure. They use them only to weigh their produce.

We can observe with great interest the manner in which the Book of Mormon describes the monetary system among the Nephites and then observe the manner in which the same calibrations are used by the natives of Guatemala and El Salvador today. "

Dr John L. Sorensen in his book An Ancient American Setting For The Book Of Mormon has additional views. He reports thus:

"The 'money' of Alma 11 is another story, however. It would be nice to say that the problem has been solved, but that is not true. Hugh Nibley has given a sensible introduction to the difficult topic of "What is money?" from a Near Eastern perspective. But the question remains, was money used in Mesoamerica, the land of the Book of Mormon? No reliable data show that minted coins were used anywhere in the pre-Columbian New World, despite rare, puzzling finds of Old World coins. But money need not take the form of coins. It can be any agreed-upon medium in standard units that serves as a public measure of value. Several kinds of money in this sense were known in Mesoamerica. The commonest was the cacao bean, which continued in use at least up to fifty years ago. (People could literary drink up their money then, in the form of cocoa!) The system reported in the Book of Alma followed Israelite practice before the Babylonian Exile in that the money units employed (such as the shekel) were weight units of metal rather than standardized coins. Minted coins apparently came into use in Palestine only after Lehi left there. Certainly the "money" units given in Alma 11 were proportionate weights. The inappropriate term "coinage" in the chapter heading is an error due to nineteenth century editing, not a part of the ancient text. Research has also shown recently that relating measures of grain to values of precious metal, in the manner of Alma 11:4-19, was an Egyptian practice. Whether there was Mesoamerican weighed money we cannot say. No serious study of money usage there has ever been done. As I explain at length in chapter 7, the entire subject of metals in Mesoamerica in Book of Mormon times needs far more research to fill major gaps in our knowledge. South American metallurgy is much better understood than that in Mexico and Guatemala, yet startling finds are turning up even in that "well-known" area. Most recently a burial containing 12,000 pieces of metal "money" (though not coins as such) was found in Ecuador, for the first time confirming that some ancient South Americans had the idea of accumulating a fortune in more or less standard units of metal wealth. Such a startling find in Mesoamerica could change our present limited ideas."

Two Moundbuilder Gold Pieces Found in Burrows Cave (Illinois)

From The Mystery Cave of Many Faces By Russell Burrows and

Fred Rydholm

Stone Token Money of Moundbuilders Found in Kentucky and Tennessee

From Saga America By Barry Fell (1979)