TRANSACTION'S Or THE SECTIONS. 223 



out that there are now in use two systems of decimal coinage — ilie French, hased 

 on tlie franc, and Die American, based on the dollar; five dollars being equal to 

 twenty shillings and ten pence, and twenty-five francs to nineteen shillings and 

 seven ponce, one standard of \alac being thus slightly above, and the other slightly 

 below the English, lie gives the preference to the former of these two systems, 

 but considers that one better than either may be formed from our English coinage, 

 by doubling our pound for the largest unit and dividing by 10, 100, and 1000, 

 making four coins of account of the respective values of 40a'. and 4s. and nearly 

 6d. and ^d. These four coins he has named arcJi (from the Greek dpxr], and as 

 used in monarch &c.), dor (French d'or, golden), silver penny, and an (old English 

 one), but lays uo stress on these names, which he does not consider an essential 

 point. 



These coins (except the smallest) he would, for convenience of currency, divide 

 into halves and quarters, making altogether four gold coins = 40s., 20s., 10s., 4s., 

 four .silver coins = 2s., Is., M., '2\d., and one bronze com = \d., thus using the chief 

 part of our present issue without alteration, the only coins that could not be used 

 being the half-cro'wn, the sixpence, and the fourpenny and threepenny pieces; 

 the bronze penny might be allowed to go gradually out of circulation, no new ones 

 1)eing coined. That despised and troublesome coin, the farthing, would be abolished 

 altogether, the experience of both France and America showing that no coin so 

 small is necessary ; the smallest coin in circulation would agree with the smallest 

 denomination of account, as it now does in America but not in France, while the 

 largest would also agree with the largest, as it now does not in either France or 

 America. 



The actual values of the coins of difi'orent countries would be made to agTee 

 by being raised or lowered as each case requires ; but as the English values hold 

 the medium place, and her pound sterling is a value universally well understood 

 and appreciated, and she herself is the acknowledged centre of the commercial 

 world, her standard seems to be the most natural and ad-^-antageous that can be 

 chosen. 



The French mint might raise the values of its coins to accord with ours, by 

 ceasing to charge a seignornge for coining, but giving to each coin a weight of its 

 full value in brdlion as is now done in England : this, if universally adopted, must 

 greatly facilitate transactions in bullion, as its value would be exactly expressed 

 by its weight in coin. 

 * Our English accounts would bo converted into the new denominations by divid- 

 ing the pounds by two, the shillings by four, and the pence by five, adding one an 

 for every shilling reduced to pence for the puii^ose of division. 



The French accounts would require simply dividing by five ; the American only 

 that the decimal point .should be shifted one figure further .back ; for example : — 



dels, cents, 

 American. . . .210 42 

 New accounts 21-942 



£ s. 

 43 17 

 New accounts 21-942 



English ....43 17 8^ 



francs, centimes. 



French 1097 10 



New accounts 21 '942 



In cases where smaller sums are required to be represented, as in marked quo- 

 tations &c., the decimal point might boused; thus, 85^7. = 17'5 ans, 8|f7. = 16-75 

 ans, S^^-^d. = \Q-7 ans. This is one particular in which this system would have an 

 advantnge over any based on the French franc and centime, which latter is a coin 

 much too small to be used, yet not small enough for quotations ; as, for instance, 

 in the cotton market, where iV^^'® ^'^^ often quoted. Another point is that the 

 largest denomination would make a very handsome and convenient gold coin 

 (about the size of our florin), on the other side neither 10 francs nor 100 francs 

 would make a good coin for the largest in circulation, one being too small and the 

 other too large. 



Again, the Eu.«sian accounts would be brought into accord with the 4.9. imit 

 more easily than with the ten-franc unit, the rouble, =8s. If/., being (near) tliree 

 qujirters of the former, while it is three eighths of the latter, which latter propor- 

 tion is one not readily understood nor easilj' calculated by the mass of the people. 

 This remark applies also to the German coinage based on the thaler, = 2s. \\d. 

 The Austrian, based on the florin, would also be with no great difficulty converted 



16* 



