356 PROPORTION OF COIN CHAP. XXVIII. 



The plate and jewellery are very lightly dis- 

 tributed, both in quantity and value, and we are 

 disposed to estimate it not higher, as mere bullion, 

 than the value of the coined gold and silver. In 

 the United States of America, in the British con- 

 tinental colonies of that division of the world, 

 and in the West India islands, we should suppose 

 the proportion between the precious metals in 

 money and that in ornaments and furniture to be 

 nearly the same as in England ; and considering 

 the quantity of paper money which has inundated 

 some of the new states of Spanish and Portuguese 

 South America, the relative quantities of metallic 

 money may be nearly the same as in England and 

 North America. 



Taking this extensive view, it can scarcely be 

 calculated that at the present time the actual 

 value of the precious metals in personal orna- 

 ments and in domestic utensils in Europe and 

 America, supposing them to be brought to 

 the crucible, exceeds by more than one-fourth 

 that of the coined metals, or amounts to more 

 than four hundred millions. 



These portions of uncoined metals may become 

 a resource in time of need to supply the deficiency 

 in the coin, occasioned by the defalcation in the 

 mining countries. In England, a tax of thirty 

 per cent, on the fabrication, which practically 

 applies to silver extensively, and to gold in a 

 minute degree, operates to prevent the uncoined 



