46 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



world of this metal and to bring the crude product into the pure state 

 necessary for coinage would require additional industrial establishments. 

 Among the advantages of pure niclvcl for coinage may be mentioned its 

 greater resistance to wear, so that the imprint lasts much longer than 

 with silver and copper alloy coins. Besides, they are attracted by a 

 magnet, so that it is impossible to counterfeit them successfully with any 

 cliea^) white alloy. Pure nickel coins also maintain their bright attrac- 

 tive colour and appearance, and show none of the objectionable tarnish- 

 ing which is observable on alloy coins containing much copper. Lastly, 

 more powerful presses are required to make nickel coins than for thosn 

 of nickel allo3^ which makes secrecy in counterfeiting the former prac- 

 tically impossible. 



Another application of nickel in coinage is as a substitute for the 

 small quantity of copper, with which the more precious metals are al- 

 loyed, in the coins of high value. Pure gold and silver are too soft to 

 stand the tear and wear of circulation and for that reason are usually 

 combined with a small proportion of a harder and less valuable metal. 

 Copper is the baser metal thus employed, but it is excelled in hardness 

 by nickel and no doubt the latter, if alloyed with the gold and silver 

 would be much more effective in preventing their loss by abrasion. 



The consideration that the use of pure nickel as a coinage metal 

 would encourage the mining for and production of that metal in Canada 

 has its application also in the case of silver. If more of it were used for 

 coinage its present absurdly low price would improve. Indeed, silvei 

 has been very ungenerously treated in the past. Its abolition as 

 a standard, side by side with gold, was no doubt perfectly reasonable, but 

 its treatment in other respects is not easily justified. It has been com- 

 pelled to pay not only for its own coinage but for that of gold as well. 

 Moreover the disproportion between the nominal and the real value of 

 silver coin has been allowed to increase to such an extent as to offer a 

 great temptation to the counterfeiter. The profit made in using it for 

 metallic currency has been so great that some of the self-governing 

 colonies have made efforts to obtain a share of the advantage. Canada 

 has succeeded in so doing, but the profit on the Australian coinage still 

 accrues to Gr^at Britain. All the silver coins of Canada are manufac- 

 tured at the Royal Mint in London, but the agents of the Dominion 

 purchase the metal for these in the open market at the prevailing low 

 price, and transmit it to the Mint whose authorities only charge three 

 per cent on the face value of the resulting coins for manufacturing them. 

 At the same time it has to be confessed that although a profit of more 

 than one hundred per cent is made in these operations, Canada makes 

 no provision for purchasing abraded coin at its nominal value and with' 



