[macfarlaxk] metallic CURRENCY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 47 



drawing it from circulation. Tlie duty thus neglected is carefully per- 

 formed both by the United Kingdom and Australia, but in Canada there 

 are frequently to be seen in circulation coins on which the figures of the 

 year and value are illegible. A ten cent piece of this description was 

 found to weigh only 2.013 grammes. The standard weight of this 

 denomination is 2.334 grammes, so that the piece referred to had lost 

 13.38 per cent of its weight by abrasion. 25 cent pieces may frequently 

 he found in our currency with the year and value figures worn oiï. One 

 of these I found to weigh 5.394 grammes instead of 5.809, which is equal 

 to a loss in the standard silver of 7.14 per cent. The " Mint remedy " 

 or allowance for variation from the standard on such silver coins in the 

 Kingdom is only 0.85 per cent; in India it is 2 per cent, and therefore 

 the tendering of such worn silver coins as are now in circulation in 

 Canada must be entirely illegal. 



With regard to the ratio between the value of silver and gold, when 

 used for coinage, which has been adopted for Canada, it is the same as 

 for England and the self-governing colonies, but it may be here pointed 

 out that two such ratios are in actual existence within British Territory, 

 one for India and another for the rest of the Empire. It is tolerably well 

 known that the India rupee, and the English florin contain very nearly 

 the same weight of fine silver, although the former is only worth one 

 shilling and four pence, while the latter has a face value of two shillings 

 sterling. To be precise, the rupee contains 165 grains of pure silver or 

 weighs, with the added baser metal, 180 g:rains, the fineness being 916.66 

 per 1000. The florin weighs 174.55 grains of standard silver of the 

 fineness of 925 to the 1000 and consequently contains 161.46 grains of 

 pure silver, or 3.54 grains less than the rupee. Evidently, the value of 

 the silver in the rupee to that 'Of gold must be at least 50 per cent more 

 than in the case of the florin. English silver is coined at the rate of 

 66 shillings to the old pound-weight Troy or 66 pence par ounce of 

 standard silver, while the market value of the latter at the present time 

 is only about two sliillings and sixpence. Since standard gold is worth 

 £3.17.10^ or 934.5 pence per ounce- it follows that the value ratio of 

 silver to gold in English coins is as 14.16 is to 1. This has been the 

 ratio in use for over 90 years, no change having taken place, in spite 

 of the tremendous fall in price of silver during the last thirty-five years. 



Fifteen Indian rupees have a legal value of one sovereign, and 

 consequently the latter is equal to (180 grains X 15) 2700 grains of 

 standard silver, and that price is equal to a ratio of gold to silver of 1 to 

 21.9. This ratio was legally established in India in 1893 and differs 

 greatly from that in use elsewhere in the British Empire. 



