DEE GREEN

Now we come to the summary. To make this summary, to project into the future, I am going to ask Dr. Welby Ricks to introduce the members of the panel and moderate. Dr. Welby Ricks.

DR. WELBY W. RICKS

Brothers and sisters and friends. We cannot, because of time, review too much of that which has gone on, so we will attempt to give our ideas on things we think may be some of the new horizons in the Book of Mormon. The panel members are Dr. Francis W. Kirkham, Dr. James R. Cark, Dr. B. West Belnap. Because of the limits of time, again, each of us will have an opportunity to express himself very briefly and explain his views on the new horizons

Much has been said in a specific and non-specific manner relative to the discovery of things in th past or future which may be specific verification of the Book of Mormon. I would like to take some degree of exception on some matters that have been expressed. I would like to suggest in the new horizons that we may see that there will be specific things brought to light. I would like to deal with one of these today.

I have here the Nephite money system, as indicated on page 222 of the Book of Mormon. The senine value was probably equal to their one unit, or we will say one dollar. The seon--these, of course, on the right are gold; those on the left are silver--was equal to twice the senine, the shum twice the son, and the limnah equal to all three of the former. In other words, they had a system of one, two, four, and seven, as far as their units were concerned. It seems rather strange to me that Joseph Smith in the rather small time he had to write the Book of Mormon could have devised such a system as this and made it consistent, and made sense out of it, in the way that it was put down. It looks like it was the type of thing that would have to be studied very carefully and would have to be put down very carefully it if were made up. In my thinking, since this was the Nephite money system as established by Mosiah, approximately 93 B. C., it will be possible in some future time that some of these may be found, since these were their pieces of gold and silver. I am trying to keep away from the word "coin," because the word coin is not used in the Book of Mormon. It does say that these were their pieces of gold and silver and these were their measurements. A senine was equal to one measure of meal or of barley or any other types of grain. It is likely, that since this was their money system, that they had something stamped on them or written on them. If there were something written on them, it is likely they would have used some of their ancient writing system, hence, possibly, some Hebrew or Egyptian.

Now I would like to have it thoroughly understood here that we are not being scientific in this, in these last few minutes. Some of the things we will say, you can criticize. But let us think about what the future may hold in this type of thing.

It is possible, archaeologically, to find some of these, since they had such a system. It seems reasonable to me that some day they will be found.

Brother Clark, have you any information on this matter?

DR. JAMES R. CLARK

Yes, I think I have but we must realize that for some of these things we must rely on testimony alone. I did have the opportunity of taking the testimony of two persons from my home town, a man and his wife, Brother and Sister Robinson, who brought what was reported to be a Nephite coin to the offices of the First Presidency around the turn of the century. He had served in the Southern States as a missionary. He came back from the Southern States with what he believe to be a Nephite coin. His mission president, Ben E. Rich, had to identified it. I do not know the means by which the mission president made the identification. But Brother Robinson was told that it was a Nephite coin. He was told also by his mission president to take it to the First Presidency when he returned home. He did so. I took the testimony from him and from his wife, had it recorded and then read it to them and had them sign it. They testify that such a coin was delivered to the Church. I was also told in that interview that they were shown a bag of coins of similar nature, by members of the First Presidency. This, as I say, happened around the turn of the century, around 1890.

DR. WELBY W. RICKS

Of what value was that coin?

DR. JAMES R. CLARK

I do not recall offhand at the present time that the value of the coin had been determined.

DR. WELBY W. RICKS

I happen to have a copy of that statement and the value that was indicated by the First Presidency. (And they checked it by a record which they had, which apparently had been drawn up by Joseph Smith because it was in front page of a copy of the Book of Mormon.) The value they said, after checking it, was one senine.