A Seon of Gold, A Shum of Gold

The young men of my ward began a little program back on February 1st. We call it...YUBABOMDOG!!! It's a phrase everyone in my ward is familiar with.

Yuba = Yuba Lake, of course!
BoM = Book of Mormon
DoG = Duty (to) God

If the young men of my ward can read the entire Book of Mormon within 6 months time (Feb. 1 thru July 31st), then they qualify for a water skiing trip to Yuba Lake on August 1st and 2nd. This was mainly an effort to pass off a few Duty to God requirements, but will also help us prepare our young men to serve honorable, full-time missions.

Anyhoo...back to the beginning. As I was reading Alma 11 this morning at my desk, I came across the all-too-familiar Nephite monetary reckoning system. It is very strange that Mormon inserted that little tidbit into the BoM where he did. It is also very strange that he gave us no frame of reference as to what the purchase power of a Limnah of gold was, or how large a "measure" of barley was. It was likely that his own monetary system had changed over the hundreds of years, and he didn't know himself.

So, for years, I have read over that little bit and thought, "Some day I'll put that whole thing on paper and make some sort of sense to it." And here's what I came up with:

Today........=....Gold...........=...Silver.......=...Barley/Grain
.625 cents.=....No equal....=...Leah.........=...1/8 Measure?
$1.25.........=....No equal....=...Shiblum....=...1/4 Measure?
$2.50.........=....No equal....=...Shiblon....=...1/2 Measure?
$5.00.........=....Senine.......=...Senum......=...1 Measure
$10.00.......=....Seon..........=...Amnor......=...2 Measures
$20.00.......=....Shum........=...Ezrom......=...4 Measures
$35.00.......=....Limnah.....=...Onti..........=...7 Measures
$7.50..........=....Antion......=...3 Shiblons.=...1.5 Measures?

How's that? Really, you could take a Leah of silver (which is the smallest amount) and assign any value to it. For all we know, a Leah was worth a buck? Then it would look something like this:
Today......=....Gold........=...Silver.....=...Barley/Grain
$1.00.....=....No equal....=...Leah.......=...1/8 Measure?
$2.00.....=....No equal....=...Shiblum....=...1/4 Measure?
$4.00.....=....No equal....=...Shiblon....=...1/2 Measure?
$8.00.....=....Senine......=...Senum......=...1 Measure
$16.00....=....Seon........=...Amnor......=...2 Measures
$32.00....=....Shum........=...Ezrom......=...4 Measures
$56.00....=....Limnah......=...Onti.......=...7 Measures
$12.00....=....Antion......=...3 Shiblons.=...1.5 Measures?


Kind of interesting, but I sure would like to know what the heck a measure of barley was!!!