186 REPORT— 1869. 



standard gold coins luider this system are the coin to be called Victoria, or some 

 other name (10 grams), the sovereitrn (8 grams), the half-sovereign (4 grams), the 

 crown (2 grams) ; and lower than this it is useless to go, as the coins in gold.become 

 too small for use. The sovereig-n and the half-sovereign in England might ulti- 

 mately be replaced by the gold Victoria and its half. In France the Napoleon of 

 20 francs, still circulating, if brought into this system would weigh 6-400 grams ; 

 it would in due time be superseded. , 



4. Silver Coin. 



Silver coins are said, under the single gold standard, to be counters ; there is no 

 restraint on their weight or iineness, and they need not be at first international. 



In England the silver coins will represent the same proportions of the gold unit 

 as those now in circidation ; but a slight change in weight is required. The silver 

 crown -weighs 28-2759 grams -925 fine, and contains 26-15.5 grams of fine silver. 

 Now the Mint pxu-chases standard silver at rates ranging from 5s. to 5a-. 2d. (say 

 5s. Id.) an ounce of 31-1035 gi-ams ; so that if it coined silver without charge, the 

 crovm should weigh 30-594, the half-crown 15-297 gi-ams. The half-crown now 

 coined actually weighs 14-138 grams; the difterence is the Mint chai-ge (1-159 

 gram). The fine silver in the half-crown weighs 13-078 grams. By making the 

 half-crown exactly 15 grams and of the same fineness as the five-franc piece, namely, 

 •900, it will contain 13-500 gi-ams of fine silver ; that is, it will weigh more by 

 exactly 0-862 gram than the present half-crown, and it will be better, as half the 

 addition (-422 gram) -wall be in fine silver. The Mint will still retain under this 

 arrangement 4--59 per cent, of fine silver (one shilling in 21) as the cost of coinage. 

 Then the silver cro-«Ti will vreigh exactly 30 grams, the half-crown 16 grams, 

 the florin 12 grams, the. shilling 6 grams, the sixpence 3 grams, the threepenny 1^ 

 gram ; and there the silver coinage will stop. Five crowns will contain the same 

 amount of fine silver (1-50 X -9 = 1.35 grams) as six five-franc pieces. A tiorin will 

 contain nearly the same weight of fine silver (10-80 grams) as the rupee (10-69 

 grams). 



This is only one of the -ways in -which the object may be obtained of making our 

 silver coins simple midtiples' of gi-ams of standard silver by var^nng the fineness. 

 The French have the standard of -900 fine for their five-franc piece, and the lower 

 standard (-835) for the franc itself and the other silver coins. By making the half- 

 cro-wn of 15 grams -872 tine, it will contain the same amount of fine silver as it 

 contains at present (13-078 grams), and the Mint will get its present profit. If the 

 silver coin were of the same fineness as the gold, the one gram of gold would, at the 

 averao-e market value, purchase 15-5 grams of silver ; but as the expense of coining 

 silver'^is necessarily greater than the expense of coining gold of the same ^■alue, 

 the weight of fine "metals in the gold and silver coinage should be in a lower ratio 

 (sav 1 to 15), to compensate for the difterence in the cost of production. 



5. JBronze Coin. 

 The silver threepenny piece represents a decigram of gold, and is the equivalent 

 of 12 farthings of the present currency. The centigram of gold is the lowest imit 

 of value recognized in the new system of account, and it may for the sake of 

 brevity be called a cent. The United States' cent is their lowest unit ; it is worth 

 nearly two English farthings, and is too large to express the graduated prices of 

 articles of small value. The French centime, on the other hand, is too small a unit 

 for general use in Europe ; it is the fifth part of the lowest American unit, and only 

 2.:^ -4 of our present farthing. Now the value of the centigram of gold is the mean 

 between the value of the American cent (2 farthings) and the French centime 



(0-4 farthing) = — -i— = — = 1-2 farthing = 1 centigram of gold. This cent is a 



2 ji 



convenient low unit, and is admirably suited to use all over the civilized world. 



The smaU centigrams of gold will be represeiit('d by bronze coin. The value of 

 the copper coin was formerly expressed in the weight of metal, but this is no longer 

 the case ; the bronze in the English penny is worth about a farthing. The three 

 coins in use ai-e convenient counters ; and the farthing and halfpenny are usually 



