Gardner's discussion of the money system described in the BoM does not make much sense. He suggests that gold and silver were so abundant in Mesoamerica that they did not have much value, and that is why Mesoamericans did not use them as money. Then why is the BoM money system based on them? Gardner makes much of the point that the BoM does not use the word "coin," but that does not solve the problem. Calling a "piece of gold" of a certain weight simply a "piece" does not mean it is not a "coin." Gardner provides no explanation of why the basis of the Nephite money system was "barley," which did not exist among the Maya. (Richard Packham, Review of Brant Gardner, Traditions of the Fathers: The Book of Mormon as History)
As with many of his arguments against the Book of Mormon and his attempted interactions with Latter-day Saint apologetics and scholarship, Packham fails on many counts.
The use of “pieces” in Alma 11:4
Calling a "piece of gold" of a certain weight simply a "piece" does not mean it is not a "coin."
There are a couple of problems with this argument. Firstly, if one looks up the first definition in Webster's 1828 dictionary, one will find a definition fitting an ancient weight, “A fragment or part of anything separated from the whole, in any manner, by cutting, splitting, breaking or tearing; as, to cut in pieces, break in pieces, tear in pieces, pull in pieces, etc.; a piece of a rock; a piece of paper.” One would also add as an extra example, “a piece of gold” or "a piece of silver.” Such a definition is part-and-parcel of ancient usage of metal weights as currency.
Furthermore, the KJV, in pre-exilic texts (or texts that are set in the pre-exilic era), couples “piece” with terms such as “gold,” showing that “piece” was understood to denote, not just a coin, but a weight, consistent with Alma 11 in the Book of Mormon and modern Book of Mormon exegesis and scholarship. Consider the following (emphasis added):
And be bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money. (Gen 33:19)
And the king of Aram said, "Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment." (2 Kgs 5:5)
Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and everyone an earring of gold." (Job 42:11)
Alma 11 and the Antiquity of the Book of Mormon
This is a topic that has been discussed in detail by Latter-day Saint scholars. One recent example would be pp. 3-14 of Robert F. Smith, "The Preposterous Book of Mormon A Singular Advantage," (cf. John W. Welch, "Weighing and Measuring in the Worlds of the Book of Mormon" [Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8/2, pp. 37-47]). wherein the author shows (1) the Old World evidence for the Nephite system and (2) the authentically Semitic names of the various weights and measurements thereof.
Alma 11 and Mesoamerica
On the issue of Mesoamerica and Alma 11, I would suggest the paper, "A Mesoamerican System of Weights and Measures? Did the ancient peoples of Mesoamerica use a system of weights and scales in measuring goods and their values?" (Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8/1 [1999], 47, 86-87).
Further, as John L. Sorenson wrote:
In the Aztec marketplace, Cortez and his soldiers noted that goods were sold by volume.[53] In highland Guatemala until around World War I, when scales and weights came into use, market sales were also by volume.[54] Among the historical Quiché, "particular substances were counted by the containers in which they are typically carried."[55] Popenoe de Hatch reported that archaeological excavation at Kaminaljuyu has revealed sets of ceramic vessels "manufactured to a standard pattern and of graduated sizes that possibly represented established measures for good/grains."[56]
The Nephites utilized a system of measurement in which volume, not weight, was counted (no scales or weights are ever mentioned). The phrasing of Alma 11;4, 7, and 15 is coordinate with this system in referring to values of "money" in terms of "a measure" of grain ("for a measure of barley, and also for a measure of every kind of grain," v. 7).
Notes for the Above
[53] Francis Augustue MacNutt, trans. And ed., Fernando Cortés: His Five Letters of Relation to the Emperor Charles V (Glorieta, NM: Rio Grande, 1977), 1;259
[54] Felix Webster McBryde, Cultural and Historical Geography of Southwest Guatemala, Institute of Social Anthropology Publication 4 (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1945), 84, 150.
[55] Edmonson, Ancient Future of the Itza, 107.
[56] Marion Popenoe de Hatch, Kaminaljuyú/San Jorge, evidencia arqueológica de la actividad económia in el alle de Guatemala, 300 a.C. a 3000 d.C. (Guatemala: Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, 1997), 100.
Source: John L. Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex: An Ancient American Book [Provo/Salt Lake City: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship and Deseret Book, 2013], 442-43.
On Alma 11 and the Book of Mormon, Packham (as with many other critics) fails in his objections.
