TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 187 



in accounts wi-itten as 5 or |- of a penny. The ten-cent piece, now in use as a 

 threepenny silver coin, will be conA'eniently supplemented by bronze coins of 1, 2, 

 3, 4, and 5 cents ; the 5 cents being the half of the silver 10-cent piece would cor- 

 respond to three halfpence of the present currency. The cent will supply a better 

 graduated scale to express prices than the farthing, halfpenny, and penny, and 

 popular demand will soon determine how many of each coin should be struck. 

 Bronze coins of three sizes are now unnecessary, as no attempt is made to express 

 value by weight. One type of coin, inscribed with one cent, two cents, three 

 cents, four cents, and five cents, may suffice. They wall form part of the decima- 

 lized currency. I annex a scheme of the coins. 



6. Coins and their Sir/ns. 



The money of account it will be borne in mind is, on the new system, in standard 

 gold, and runs thus : — 



Standard Gold Units of Account. 



Signs .... V- g d c 



YiCTORiA 1 decagram = 10 grams = 100 decigrams = 1000 centigrams. 



Half-Ceowx 1 gram = 10 decigrams = 100 centigrams. 



(or Gmlder) 

 Threepenny 1 decigram = 10 centigrams. 



(or Denarius) 

 Cent = 1 centigram. 



Every one of these four weights of gold may be employed as a measuring-unit. 



Call, after the analogy of " Guinea," the prime unit or decagi'am a Victoria, as it 

 is the name of a principal gold-field ; then, where large units are required, V- 11 '875 

 wiU be read = ll Victorias, 875 centigrams or cents; orV-11. 8, 75 = 11 Victorias, 

 8 grams, 75 centigrams ; and where a smaller unit is preferred, 118 grams (half- 

 crowns), 75 centigrams or cents. For smaller sums cents alone suffice ; for instance, 

 we may say the price of a loaf of bread is 22 cents, of a pound of beef 30 cents. 



Although the coined shilling only consists of eleven-pennyworth of silver, it 

 exactly represents in an account twelve pence, or the 20th part of a gold sovereigTi ; 

 and a penny, consisting of a farthing's worth of bronze, represents the value of the 

 240th part of a sovereign. So, under the gram system, half-a-crown in silver, 

 weighing 15 gTams, represents one gram of standard gold ; a threepenny piece (10 

 cents) represents the tenth of a gTam, or a clecic/ram of gold ; a bronze cent repre- 

 sents a centigram of gold, ^^alue is invariably expressed in weights of standard 

 gold, which are conveniently represented in tangible manageable silver and bronze 

 tokens. 



The coins may be thus described : the four fundamental units are printed in 

 SMALL CAPITAL letters : 



Standard Gold: — 



Victoria Weighing 10 grams (a new coin). 



Sovereign „ 8 grams 1 Existing coins to remain in circulation 



Half-sovereign . . „ 4 grams J for a time. 



Crown „ 2 grams (a new coin). 



Standard Silver existing coins to remain in circulation, and to be gradually replaced : 



grams of gold. 



Crown Weighing 30 grams worth 200 



Half-crown „ 15 grams ,, 1-00 



~ "^ 0-80 



Florin „ 12 grams 



Shilling „ 6 grams 



Sixpence ,, 3 grams 



Threepenny „ 1-5 gram . 



■40 

 •20 

 •10 



