CURRENCY. The money which passes, at a fixed¹ value, from hand to hand; money which is authorized² by law.

2. By art. 1, s. 8, the Constitution of the United States authorizes³ congress "to coin money, and to regulate the value thereof." Changes in the currency ought not to be made but for the most urgent reason, as they unsettle commerce, both at home and abroad. Suppose Peter contracts to pay Paul one thousand dollars in six months - the dollar of a certain fineness of silver, weighing one hundred and twelve and a half grains - and afterwards, before the money becomes due, the value of the dollar is changed, and it weighs now but fifty-six and a quarter grains; will one thousand of the new dollars pay the old debt? Different opinion may be entertained, but it seems that such payment would be complete; because, 1. The creditor⁴ is bound to receive the public currency; and, 2. He is bound to receive it at its legal value. 6 Duverg. n. 174.

CURRENT, merc. law. A term used to express present time; the current month; i.e. the present month. Price current, is the ordinary price at the time spoken of. A printed paper, containing such prices, is also called a price current.

2. Current, in another sense, signifies that which is readily received; as, current money.

CURSITOR BARON⁵, Eng. law. An officer of the court of the exchequer⁶, who is appointed by patent under the great seal, to be one of the barons⁷ of the exchequer.

CURTESY, or COURTESY, Scotch⁸ law. A life-rent given by law to the surviving hushand, of all his wife's heritage of which she died infeft, if there was a child of the marriage born alive. The child born of the marriage must be the mother's heir. If she had a child by a former marriage, who is to succeed to her estate, the hushand has no right to the curtesy while such child is alive; so that the curtesy is due to the hushand rather as father to the heir, than as hushand to an heiress, conformable to the Roman law, which gives to the father the usufruct of what the child succeeds to by the mother. Ersk. Pr. L. Scot. B. 2, t. 9, s. 30. Vide Estate by the curtesy.

CURTILAGE, estates. The open space situated⁹ within a common enclosure belonging to a dwelling-house. Vide 2 Roll, Ab. 1, l. 30; Com. dig. Grant, E 7, E 9; Russ. & Ry. 360; Id. 334, 357; Ry & Mood. 13; 2 Leach¹⁰, 913; 2 Bos. & Pull. 508; 2 East, P. C. 494; Russ. & Ry. 170, 289, 322; 22 Eng. Com. Law R. 330; 1 Ch. Pr. 175; Shep. Touchs. 94.