178 REPORT—1868. 
As gold must be the ultimate standard of monetary value, it will be admitted to 
be of great and lasting importance that it should be made so in the form which is 
theoretically the simplest; in other words, in that form which will inevitably prove 
most convenient in the long run. Now the gram of pure gold in a coin has the 
requisite properties in the greatest attainable degree, and it happens to have a rela- 
tion to existing coins which very much smooths the way for its intreduction. 
It has the requisite properties, because it is more natural to take pure gold as our 
standard than an alloy, just as it is most natural to take distilled water, and at a 
natural though unusual temperature, as our standard of specific gravity; and a 
little consideration will show that in both cases the same lind of permanent con- 
venience will be the result. And if some mass of pee gold is to be our radix, it 
will at once be conceded that the quantity to be taken should bear the simplest 
attainable relation to the best system of weights. The gram of pure gold is there- 
fore the NarurAL STANDARD. 
Calling, then, the value of each gram of pure coined gold a monad, we may (in 
conformity with metrical nomenclature) form the following decimal series :— 
Kilion, or kilogram of gold. Decim, or decigram of gold. 
Hekat, or hektogram of gold. Cent, or centigram of gold. 
Deka, or dekagram of gold. Mil, or milligram of gold. 
Monad, or gram of gold. 
The present silver and copper coins of Great Britain are of less than their nominal 
values, but the artificial values of these coins are kept up by their being made 
exchangeable with gold at the rate, fixed by statute, of 20 shillings to the sovereign ; 
and by providing that silver and copper shall not be legal tenders for others than 
very small debts, so that no one can be forced to take a large quantity of the coins 
whose value is artificial. Now our existing coinage would be adjusted to the new 
one by slightly altering this artificial value, and legislating that after a certain 
date the sovereign shall be exchangeable for 20 shillings and 4 pence, and the 
half-sovereign for 10 and 2 pence. In this way the present nominal values of our 
existing silver and copper coins would be lowered to the extent of one-sixty-first 
part, which is less than half the change which would be required in some part of 
ow coinage upon the adoption of either the pound and mil, or the five-franc 
scheme. Moreover, all contracts above one pound sterling would be wholly un- 
affected, and the relation of our silver to our copper coins would be undisturbed— 
the former of these being the condition which it is of most importance to observe 
in regard to large transactions, and the latter what is of most importance in regard 
to small. 
After the change, the sovereign and half-sovereign would maintain their present 
values in virtue of their being gold: there would still be 7 monads and 52 cents 
in the sovereign, 8 monads and 66 cents in the half-sovereign. The penny would 
become precisely three cents, and the only British coins which would not fall in 
with the new ones would be the halfpenny of 15 mils and the farthing of 73 mils. 
The copper coins proper to the new system would be the cent, the two-cent, and 
the three-cent or penny. In countries where smaller coins would be useful a five- 
mil piece (equivalent to one-sixth of a penny) might be added. In silver we should 
have the decim (about the size of a threepenny piece), the two-decim, the three- 
decim (value for tenpence), the five-decim, and the seven-decim. The half-crown 
is a nine-decim piece, and would add another coin of the series so long as it remains 
in circulation. The gold coins would be a seven-monad piece (about the size of a 
sovereign), a five-monad piece, and a three-monad piece, worth 100 pence. The 
monad is worth 33 pence and a cent. These coins are so selected that very small 
payments can be made by exchanging the larger coins, and that change of a large 
coin can be obtained in several different ways. These are both of them matters of 
much practical convenience. The gold coins should have the weights of pure gold 
they contain stated on them; for example, on the largest coin, “ This coin contains 
7 grams of gold.” If the alloy for the three gold coins were +{ths fine, they would 
weigh exactly 7:7 grams, 5°5 grams, and 3°3 grams. Accounts would be most con- 
veniently kept in three columns of dekas, monads, and cents. 
The pound and mil scheme has the advantage over that which is here advocated 
