 The Cavalcade of America, presented by Dupont. This evening, the Dupont Cavalcade brings you the story of the Pine Tree Shilling, the first coin to be minted in America. Since their arrival in the New World, the settlers had depended on the odd assortment of foreign coins that found their way into the colonnades. This first coinage was one of the things that gave the colonists a sense of freedom that finally led to the creation of an independent nation. Today, the efforts of our research chemists in the development of our rich national resources make a vital contribution to our national independence. The ideals of these men are aptly summed up in the Dupont pledge, better things for better living, through chemistry. As an overture, Don Voriz and his Dupont Cavalcade Orchestra play one alone from Sigmund Romberg's operetta, The Desert Song. Dupont Cavalcade moves forward, present day. In an old colonial type home in Boston, an elderly gentleman is seated comfortably talking with a small boy who is stretched out on the rug at his feet. Well, Bobby, you seem to know a great deal about those coins in your collection. You know, Grandpa, I used to hate history. I like it now when I can see it lying right there on the rug in front of me. See the Spanish doubloons? I bet it came to Boston in a pirate ship. Well, your guess is as good as mine. But where did you get the doubloons? Jimmy Jackson found it in their attic in an old trunk. I gave him four rides on my bicycle for it. Well, here's something I found tucked away in my desk today. How'd you like to add this to your collection? Grandpa, it's a pine tree shelling. I recognize it from my coin book. Gosh, it's really old, isn't it? 1652. Do you mean I can have it? Of course. Now, that's a remarkable piece of money, Bobby. It's more interesting to me than all the rest of your collection put together. It's our first American coinage. There was a time when the colonists couldn't even buy things from each other. They didn't have any money of their own, just coins from here and there. They made everything they needed. You see, every man had a craft or business in those days. But they had difficult times swapping things around so that everyone had what he wanted. Just as you and Jimmy do with your stamp and coin collection. I see. For instance, around 1650, there was Christopher Stanley the tailor, and William Church the baker, Jonathan Green the carpenter. Now, we'll suppose Jonathan Green is sawing a board in the workshop behind his house. His apprentice Samuel is holding a board for him. Hey, hold the plank steady, Samuel. I can't saw it right in square. I'm sitting on as hard as I can, Master. Hey, you need more weight, lad. You must eat more. Yes, Master. And another two years and you'll be mastering your own right within the princes of your own. Ah, I look forward to that day, Master Green. Oh, satisfied with the way you're treated, eh? Oh, no, Master Green. You've been as good a master as any apprentice lad could want, but a lad does have his dreams. I know what you mean. Ah, here. Here's sixpence for you, lad. Un-English sixpence. For me, a sixpence? Catch? Area? Oh, thank you, Master Green. Drop it in the plate at church on Sunday. Ah, that I will, sir. Up to this time, a dozen eggs from the geese is all I could offer as reverence. Wait till Miss Betsy Hull turns her head your way, then flip the sixpence into the plate with a good, cheery clink, eh? That'll make her sit up and take notice. Master, how did you know? It's all right, my lad. I was young once myself and I know all the tricks. Yes. Right grateful I am, sir. Quick. Get to work, lad. You work for me. Yes, sir. Just Master Christopher Stanley, the tailor, coming up the road. Eh, we must be busy. Yes, Master. At first, don't notice him. There's room where he wants a new shop field. I must get the best price I can for my work. I see. What has the Lord just passed in the magistrate's court? A carpenter to earn no more than two shillings for each day's work. Eh, Master Stanley will not wish to pay me in the hard money I like. Only Captain John Hull has paid me in metal. I'll wager the double loan to your English six months. Master Stanley will offer me instead a number of suits, half the value of the work. Eh, keep this in mind. Here he is, now. Good day, Master Green. Good day, lad. Master. Eh? What do you mean? Oh! Yes, Master Stanley. Eh, good day, dear neighbor. Good day. I was so busy, didn't see you. I'll tell you what I'm here for if you're not busy to listen. Oh, I can spare a moment, and it'll be worth your time. I need a new building for my work. I have two new apprentices, and the house is much too small to work in. Each day my wife threatens to sweep us out with the cinders from the house. And I want a new building, twenty feet square with a roof sloping to the east, a large window with a glass in it at the north, and one at the west. When could you do the work, and what would the cost be? Eh, you say your business prospers these days? That is not what I said. I ask you the cost. Eh, you'll pay in good English silver? You know I can do no such thing. My business is good, it's true. But my customers are mostly men of the soil and artisans like yourself. Master Thomas Beale made me a great oaken barrel, and I made him some woolen breeches. Farmer Pollard filled the barrel with apples, and I made him another pair of breeches with a double seat. Now to you, I offer a fair number of woolen suits, of the best cloth, the best cut, and sewed with the greatest care. Eh, toss me the sixman, Samuel. Aye, sir. Thank you, lad. It is hard money like this I take from my work, Master Stanley. I want none of your shoots, be they the best or the worst. Am I to understand you're not needing new clothes? No offense, neighbor. But as a plain fact, spoken by a plain man, you're as shabby a sight as I've seen in many a days. And in my opinion... No offense, neighbor, but will you keep your opinions to yourself? As you wish. But I should think you'd like the value of professional counsel. Your Honor, sir. It is Mr. Green calling, Master. Eh, think I'm deaf, lad, I can hear, eh? Ask your wife what she thinks about your need of clothes. Your Honor, sir. Your Honor, sir. I'm here, wife. What is it you want? Not the church is here. I owe him for the wheat bread. Shall I pay him with the doubloons or with the king's shilling? Oh, get rid of the Spanish guilty, you never can tell when a shipload will be dumped upon us and take from the value of the stuff we have on hand. And yet you want me to pay you in coin. Mr. Green, tell me if I'm wrong. I want your husband to build me a new house and I've offered to pay him with the equivalent in clothes. Eh, how many suits do you think I want? I'll take one suit and the rest in silver. Take two suits, John. Eh? Well, all right, two. But not a button, all more. What do you take me for? A London stage player who needs a different wiscuit. Every time he prances in view of the rubble. Two suits it is and the rest in silver. I can't do it, Mr. Green. I haven't the money. I told you, my customers pay me in kind. Jonathan, why don't you build a shop for Master Stanley and let him supply you with clothes and suits for the next ten years or all up to the value of your labor? Eh, and me not knowing if he'll die of the plague before the week is over? Well, and furthermore, how could we pay Master Church the baker if the next four weeks of my labor goes for clothes, eh? Well, I never thought of that. And Pady must be, for here he comes, wondering what's become of me. Eh, you're pardoned, Mr. Green, but I have my rounds to make. Ah, Master Green. Ah, good day to you, Master Church. And Master Stanley. Good day to you, sir. Just a man I've been meaning to see. I think you'll agree, I'm much in need of new clothes, almost in rags for a fact. Now, if I could strike a portrait with you, Master Stanley, and return for clothes, eh, bread, let us say, for a year. My wife makes all the bread my family consumes, but I'll make a bargain with you. If you'll supply Master Green here with bread for the year to come, I'll furnish your need in a parallel up to two suits, a cloak and an extra pair of breeches. It is none of my affair, but since when did you take to paying for your neighbor's bread? Don't worry about that. It will be a fair exchange all round. I get the shop, Green gets his bread, and you both get your clothes. Eh, eh, here you are, Samuel. Here's your sixpence back. What good is hard money in this barbarous place? They've forgotten the very use of money here. And that's the way they used to bargain, Bobby. That had caused a lot of trouble today, wouldn't it? With all the debate, and it took them to settle things, is to wonder everyone in New England didn't become lawyers. What they needed was their own system of coining. But the king didn't want them to be so well able to take care of themselves that they could be independent of the mother country. And there was one thing that they were not supposed to do, coin money. But the colonists were an independent lot. They knew what was needed. And one day, right in Boston, in 1652, they called a meeting. Quiet, please, quiet. Quiet, please. Master Beale would like to present a motion. Mr. Chairman, I propose that we let Captain Hall go on with his plan. Do you make this as a motion, Mr. Beale? Yes, sir. I move you that Captain John Hall strike us a silver coin for use here in the colony. Let King George have his sixpence and his shillings and his guineas. Let us establish a currency of our own. You have all heard Master Beale's motion. I second it. I made and seconded that we have a mint and money system of our own. Will those in favor of such action sing out with a lusty eye? Eye. Contrary, no. The motion is carried. We shall have our own money in the colony and through the bottom of the sea with your spanish soul. Captain Hall, you are authorized to put up your shop, construct your mint. Let all folk bring what silver they have and you turn it into coin for them. And have you any suggestion as to your recompense? Mr. Chairman, may I propose that for every 20 shillings I stamp, I take one for myself? Quiet, please. Quiet. I think that is fair and just. Captain Hall, you know, offers his service to the colony in the face of strict orders from the king that we may have no money of our own. It is his skin he puts in jeopardy and so it is well he must be paid. If there are no objections, I will put the motion. All those in favor, say, eye. Eye. So Captain John Hall the goldsmith was appointed to start the first mint in the colonies and many old family pieces of silver were brought in to be melted. You mean knives and spoons? Yes, and silver, tankards and goblets and all manner of things. The people were allowed to see their deposits melted and assayed. Now, suppose we imagine a typical scene in Captain Hall's shop. He and his partner, Robert Sanderson, are busily engaged in their work. See who it is, Robert. Hi, Captain Hall. Well, I dropped this... whatever you call it into the melding pot. What is it, do you think, sir? Well, it's beyond me, Robert. More strange objects come into the shop of late than I've seen in my lifetime. Well, in it goes. That is good to watch the molten silver. Oh, I forgot someone is at the door. Hi, Mr. Green. Good morrow. How may we serve you? Good day, Captain. Good day, Mr. Green. I trust you're a good husband. You're a good husband, too, as well. Quite well, thank you, Captain Hall. And how is your wife and Mr. Betsy, your daughter? Very well, thank you. I have heard that young Sam Sewell, who used to be my husband's apprentice, is quite a caller here these days. Likely young man. Well, Mr. Green, surely you didn't come to speak of Betsy and Samuel? Well, no, Captain. I brought this silver tankard. Do you think it might be melted into? Let's look at it. It's a Viking vessel in the Green family, these many generations, so I've been told. For myself, I'm glad to be rid of it. Will you transform it by your magic into bright new shilling with the pretty picture of the tree? Well, let's see it. By careful cutting, how many shillings do you think you can make of it? Isn't that just like a woman? By careful cutting. It's not a bit of timber like your husband uses that we deal with here. Wave the tankard, Robert. Aye, sir. I'll put it on the scale. Take coins to an ounce of the metal, Mr. Green. Oh. Oh, is that the way you do it? Also, we have to test the purity of the silver, but that's a simple matter. It's a heavy tankard, Captain Holm. Well, we figure 100 shillings for every 15 ounces of silver. This should make you a neat pile of shillings, Mr. Green. Perhaps you'd like to watch the way we work? I would, indeed. Well, watch, Sanderson. First, he takes the exact volume of the object. He drops it in this tub of water. You notice the tub's full up to the spout where it can run out. Water that runs out is caught in this measuring vessel. What says it, Robert? Ten cubits, sir. And the weight of the tankard? I've written it down. Here it is, sir. That's heavy for ten cubits in volume. That means, Mr. Green, that it's nearly pure. Not much other metal in it. That's why it's so battered. Pure silver's soft, you know. The coins themselves are not as pure as this tankard. They contain much copper. You mean I'll get more coins than the tankard? I mean, if I drop the shillings in the tub, more water'd run out than when you drop the tankard in. That's right. Well, is that all the magic there is to it? Oh, there's more to baking a cake than this. Well, I'll not believe it. Sanderson, how many shillings do you figure out? Well, as I reckon it, sir, 60 shillings. I get 60 shillings. Minus three. One out of each 20 is ours. Oh, I know the rulings. And what's next? Drop the tankard into the stew, Sanderson. Aye, sir. Do I get no receipt for the tankard? Well, you want the shillings now, don't you? Oh, yes, but don't I have to wait until... Nay, nay. Mr. Sanderson is already taking them from yonder barrel and counting them out. A barrel of shillings? Well, I thought I got the same shillings. I mean, those made for my tankard, I didn't understand. The shillings he's counting out for you have had all shapes and forms. Old sword hilt, buckles, broken spoons, and silver buttons. Aye, and raw bullion, taken from Spanish galleons by buccaneers, I'll warrant. These pirates put into port here, you know, and give the step and return for ship's provisions. The tradesmen who serve them bring it in here to be coined. 57, 58, 59, 60. Minus these three for our commission. Here you are, Mr. Green. 57 shillings. Thank you, sirs, and good day to you. May you prosper in your business. To serve as you're doing the country, I bring in an old tankard into the shop and go away with a purse full of bright shillings. Oh, it's a fine country we're living in. Good day to you. Good day to you. Good day. And it's a fine fortune you're making, Captain, with one of every 20 shillings for yourself. Aye, but it is a fair bargain I'm taking. A fair bargain. And that's how Captain Howell made the pine tree shillings. Did he get rich, Grandfather? Oh, so they say. There's a story told about how he gave a great many of his shillings away. Hawthorne told it in his twice-told tales. But many people say it's a legend rather than true history. However, it's come down through the years, and it's amusing anyway. What was it, Grandfather? It was the occasion of his daughter Betsy's wedding to young Samuel Sewell. You remember how Jonathan Green, the carpenter, gave young Sam Sewell his apprentice the sixpence for the collection play, together with some advice on how to win the favor of Captain Howell's daughter Betsy? Well, Captain Howell is receiving the congratulations of his guests after the ceremony. Well, well, well, did I ever think to see the day when young John Howell would be marrying off a full-grown daughter? Just look at Mrs. Howell. There, across the room. Radiant, isn't she? She's so happy about her daughter. It looks to me as if she's weeping. Of course she's weeping. She's happy. What? It's a fine young man Betsy's marrying. Young Sewell's not been known to Miss Church in a prayer meeting since the day he was old enough to puddle. And he's handsome, too. Yes, yes, and he's going to be the best master carpenter in the colony. I taught him. Well, good evening, Mrs. Green. Well, I hoped he, body. I didn't see you. Isn't it a lovely wedding? Well, it's lovely enough. And what a beautiful bride. Yes, pretty, but she's rather large. Large? Well, Bucksum, I suppose you'd call it. Of course the young man has a strange taste today. I, uh, I understand that she set her cap for him. No one but Betsy ever had a chance to win, Sam. It's a real love match. Why, Betsy told me herself that he never so much as mentioned a dollar. Oh, isn't that romantic? Now, of course, if Betsy would only curb her taste, but sweet me. Well, I'm sure that Sam will love her just as she is. Yes, Hope. And if ever you should marry, I entrust you make as good a wife as Betsy will. We'll be honest. Hey, play it. Play it. The bridegroom is going to speak. All right. All right. All I can say is that I'm the luckiest man in the world. And again, let me thank you for all your kindness. Oh, bravo, bravo. John, look what the servants are bringing. Good. Hey, it looks like a huge pair of heels. Well, that's what it is. Well, odd things at a wedding, eh? Hey, large, aren't they? For weighing green or fish? One moment, my friend. Play it now. Play it, play it. Betsy, get into the scales. What? Yes, Father. What is this going to do? Is he going to make Samuel pay for this? I don't know. Where's that box over here? Here's the key. Well, look. They're shoveling the shillings into the other side of the scales. Now, we raise the girl down. Put in the shillings, and you're way right off the floor. We're shillings to do that. What do you know about that? Not even now, Captain. Lucky for me that young people in love eat so sparingly. Pretty pile of shillings that have cost me a tax. Here's Samuel Taker. And the shillings as well. Use the girl kindly, my son, and count yourself lucky. It isn't every wife that's worth her weight in silver. So Captain Hall gave his daughter, as her dowry, her weight in silver shillings. You know, Bobby, these shillings really did a lot for this country. They made trade easier in the colonies. And the more that industry developed, the better able the colonists were to take care of themselves. The more independent they felt. And you know what that feeling of independence finally led to. Oh, sure. The Declaration of Independence that we celebrate on the Fourth of July. Right, son. So you take good care of that pine tree shilling. You'll never find a piece of money anywhere that played a bigger part in the history of your country. DuPont salutes the colonists who started America's first independent system of coinage with a pine tree shilling as gallant leaders in the cavalcade of America. Here is a story of how DuPont chemists and engineers in striving to make one product by a new method opened the door to the development of 80 other products to serve America's needs. Up to 1925, the United States had to import most of its nitrogen-bearing compounds from foreign countries that happened to have natural deposits of the necessary ore. These compounds are needed by farmers in the form of fertilizers for raising crops and by industry for making products as far apart as ice and dynamite. So 12 years ago, DuPont started to build at Bell, West Virginia, a gleaming new plant. Residents of the quiet little river town were sure that someone had gone crazy when they heard that this new plant was designed to use air as a raw material in making chemicals. But it is now history that after many trials and tribulations, the DuPont chemists and engineers accomplished what they set out to do and a great deal more. By taking nitrogen from the surrounding atmosphere and hydrogen from the river water and combining them with the aid of heat and terrific pressures, DuPont chemists were able to produce ammonia, a complicated chemical process indeed. But the resulting ammonia may be used as a refrigerant for ice making and also can be further processed to yield fertilizer ingredients and nitric acid for commercial explosives and many other useful purposes. This DuPont plant not only has given America a domestic source of nitrogen compounds but also has made possible a variety of entirely new and useful developments. One of the 80 new products is methanol, used today to make everything from electrical fixtures to fuel for outboard motors. Ten years ago, about 500,000 gallons of synthetic methanol were produced. Last year, the production was more than 25 million gallons. And the original price, a dollar and ten cents per gallon has been brought down until it is now only 33 cents a gallon. Some of the other products, when first made at the Bell Plant, were known as chemical curiosities, handled in vials and priced in dollars per ounce. Now however, they are commercial commodities handled in tank cars and priced in cents per gallon. But chemist and engineers are never satisfied. They're working in DuPont plants and laboratories all over the country to achieve new developments, constant improvements, greater production and lower prices. Thus making good to DuPont pledge better things for better living through chemistry. Luther Burbank, the story of the plant wizard and his contributions to horticulture, will be the subject of the broadcast when next week, at the same time, DuPont again presents the Cavalcade of America. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.