instrument or record made or kept in the pearance of parties at a time when furnishlegislative or executive departments of gov-ing security for the prosecution of a suit by ernment, and evidence of public business therein. Private document. An instrument affecting the concerns of one or more individuals. Public document. An instrument or record concerning the business of the people at large, preserved in or emanating from any department of government; also, a publication printed or issued by order of one or both houses of Congress or of a State legislature. Public documents include state papers, maps, charts, and like formal instruments, made under public auspices. A copy of such document, issued by public authority, is as valid as the original; as, an officially published statute. The term also embraces official records required to be kept by statute. 1 A public statute proves its own recitals; not so, a private statute. Journals of legislatures and executive documents are prima facie evidence of the facts they recite. 2 Official registers, kept as required by law, are evidence of the facts they record. They must be identified, be complete, indicate accuracy, and not be secondary. Parish records of births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths are receivable as evidence when made by the persons whose duty it was to note such facts.* Family records prove family events. A relative instrument is inadmissible without its correlative. Admission of a part involves the whole document. All the usual incidents accompany the document.5 A document is to be proved by him who offers it; otherwise, when produced in pursuance of notice, or by an adverse party who relies on the writing as part of his title. A document sued upon must be proved when its execution has been denied." In matters of execution the law of the place where the instrument is to have effect governs. A writing void as a contract may be valid as an admission. The identity of a signer is to be proved. An agent's power to execute must first be shown.' See ALTERATION, 2; BOOK; COPY; EVIDENCE; HANDWRITING; INSPECTION, 2; INSTRUMENT, 2, 3; LOST, 2; NEWSPAPER; RECORD; SEAL, 1; STAMP; WRITING. DOE; ROE. "John Doe" and "Richard Roe" were fictitious persons used as standing pledges (common bail, q. v.) for the ap1 See McCall v. United States, 1 Dak. 321-28 (1876), cases; 1 Sup. R. S. pp. 154, 288. 21 Whart. Ev. §§ 635-38; Whiton v. Albany, &c. Ins. Co., 109 Mass. 30 (1871), cases. 31 Whart. Ev. §§ 639-48; 1 Greenl. Ev. §§ 493, 484, 496. 41 Whart. Ev. §§ 649-59; 1 Greenl. Ev. § 493. 1 Whart. Ev. §§ 618-20, 642. 1 Whart. Ev. §§ 689-91, 736. 1 Whart. Ev. §§ 700-2, 739 a. the plaintiff, and for attendance by the defendant, had become matters of form.1 The names may have been first used for the fictitious plaintiff and defendant in the old action of ejectment. See STRAW. Where defendants, whose real names were not known to the plaintiff, were described as "John Doe and Richard Roe, owners" of a particular vessel, and the true owners voluntarily appeared and filed answers, it was held that the plaintiff need not prove the ownership of the vessel.3 The unit of our currency; money, or its equivalent.6 A silver coin weighing four hundred and twelve and one-half grains, or a gold coin weighing twenty-five and four-fifths grains, of nine-tenths pure to one-tenth alloy of each metal.7 The coined dollar of the United States; a certain quantity and fineness of gold or sil. ver, authenticated as such by the stamp of the government. See further COIN. A contract to pay in "dollars" means in lawful money of the United States, and cannot be explained by parol; otherwise, of a contract made in another country, or in the late Confederate States, in which last case the reference may be to "Confederate dollars." "Dollars" will be supplied where the context shows that word omitted.10 13 Bl. Com. 274, 287, 295. 23 Steph. Com. 618. 3 Baxter v. Doe, 142 Mass. 562 (1886); Pub. St. c. 161, § 20. State v. City of Topeka, 36 Kan. 84 (1886), cases. See generally 20 Alb. Law J. 6-10 (1879), cases. State v. Yates, C. P. of Fayette Co., Ohio: 37 Alb. Law J. 232 (1888); ib. 348-50, cases. • United States v. Auken, 96 U. S. 368 (1878). 7 Borie v. Trott, 5 Phila. 366, 404 (1864), Hare, J. 8 Bank of New York v. Supervisors, 7 Wall. 30 (1868), Chase, C. J. • Thornington v. Smith, 8 Wall. 12 (1868), Chase, C. J.; Cook v. Lillo, 103 U. S. 792 (1880); 35 III. 396, 440; 39 N. Y. 98; 1 W. N. C. 223; 33 Tex. 351. 10 Hines v. Chambers, 29 Minn. 11 (1884); Hunt v. Smith, 9 Kan. 153 (1872).