TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 185 



gram equivalent in value to the tenth of a threepenny piece = a cent = 1-2 farthing ; 

 so that live of the new cents would be of the same value as six of the present farthings 

 = three halfpence. The money of account of all denominations would be gold. 

 Accounts of money and weights of gold would be represented by the same figures. 



100 of the gi-and gold coins would weigh a kilogram ; and as' 1000 kilograms are 

 a metric ton, 100,000 new coins would be a metric ton of standard gold. 



If the Mint assay and stamp kilogi-ams of standard bar gold so as to guarantee the 

 fineness, these kilograms of gold will be convenient forms of bidlion, available for 

 exportation, or for deposits in banks. A thousand kilogi-am bars weigh a metric ton, 

 worth 100,000 of the great gold coins. A. million of these coins ( = V- 1,000,000) 

 would weigh ten tons of standard gold, and be worth a million and quarter poimds 

 of the present sterling. 



The multiplication of pounds sterling by -8 converts them into the ten-gram 

 gold coin. The specific gravity of a new sovereign is 17-58, water being one, and 

 this enables us under the metric system to pass from value to weight, fro^ weight 

 to volume. 



Accounts are now kept in England in four imits, (1) pounds, (2) shillings, 

 (3) pence, (4) farthings. Under the ten-gram gold coinage accounts may be exhi- 

 bited in two columns. 



To illustrate the new ten-gram gold coinage, the author gave the revenues of 

 some of the principal States of the world in their present coins, and in the proposed 

 international coins. 



The annual State expenditure of 432 million people was 456 million of these ten- 

 gram Victorias (o-crown pieces), that is a little more than a Victoria a head, or 

 more exactly 1 Victoria and 55 cents a head = l Victoria, 5 threepennies, and 

 5 cents = 1 Victoria, 5| Anglo-Saxon pennies. 



2. Clianges in the English Coinage U7ider the Ten-gram gold unit. 

 The ten-gram unit of gold -915 fine, instead of -916 fine, would contain exactly 

 the same quantity of fine gold as 1^ sovereign, worth five-and-twenty shillings in 

 the present currency ; and if the Mint and Bank cost of making and sustaining the 

 gold comage is fixed at 15, 10, or 5 centigrams of fine gold for eveiy decaoram, the 

 fineness wiU be -900, or -905, or -910 ; while the amount of fine gold taken as 

 seigniorage wall be worth from od. to M. or to l|rf. in the present currency, which 

 will be as much a part of the cost of production as the expenditure at'the gold 

 diggings. The cost of producing 9 grains of fine gold is expressed in our currency 

 by 24s. 7d., so that if the Mint and Bank cost of converting ten grams of standard 

 gold (-900 fine) into a coin, replacing its wear, is expressed by 5d., the value of 

 the ten-gram com current is '25s., of which it will be the equivalent so long as the 

 customer of the Mint has to send 916 grams of fine gold, or its equivalent in money, 

 for every 10 coins he ^ets, each containing 9 grams of fine gold. 

 _ At the International Conference suggested bv the Royal Commission this ques- 

 tion of a universal standard of fineness and of" seigniorage could be settled ; and 

 whatever the decision may be, the change will cause but slight and temporary in- 

 convenience in this country. 



3. Gold Coin. 



England can at once coin the sovereign of 8 grams of standard gold with the 

 slightest possible inconvenience, and without changing its contents of fine gold. 

 The half-sovereign will weigh 4 grams. A gold crown of 2 grams might also be 

 coined. 



The only new coin necessarily required is a fine five-crown gold piece of 10 grams, 

 which would probably in time get into circulation as a sort of new guinea, even if 

 it were not at once stamped as the international coin. Large coins are o-enerally 

 more popular than small coins. " 



Once accepted as the international unit, the 10-gram piece might with advantage 

 become the basis of a decimal money of account for England : the o-ram of o-old 

 the decigram and the centigram being the subordinate units, to be represented 

 with some of their multiples in gold, silver, and copper coins. The Eno-lish 



