TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 823 



The first of these is the restoration of the g^old coinage, a question which has 

 for many years past exercised the minds of successive Chancellors of the Exchequer, 

 and has been a stumbliug-hlock to bankers and the commercial world. It had 

 long been felt that the machinery provided by the law, as laid down in the old 

 proclamations and embodied in the doinage Act of 1870, was of necessity powerless 

 to maintain the gold currency in an efficient condition. The law provided that 

 * where any gold coin of the reahn is below the current weight . . . every person 

 shall, by himself or others, cut, break, or deface any such coin tendered to him in 

 payment, and the person tendering the same shall bear the loss ' ; but as there was 

 no penalty for the disregard of this obligation, it became practically inoperative. 

 Gold coins, however much below the least current weight, passed freely from hand 

 to hand, and bankers received them from their customers and paid them away again. 

 Only the Bank of England and a few other public departments obeyed the law, 

 with the result that the principal sufferers were the banking establishments, who 

 in the course of business pay large amounts of gold coin into the Bank of England, 

 and were obliged to submit to the loss on all coins found to be light. The banks, 

 in self-defence, naturally paid in as many full-weight coins as possible and put the 

 light again into circulation. Not more than 1,500,000/. of light coin, therefore, 

 was annually withdrawn, and it was calculated that, at last, of the sovereigns in 

 circulation as many as 46 per cent., and of the half-sovereigns no fewer than 70 

 per cent., were below the least current weight. A Bill was brought in in 1884 

 for the withdrawal of light coins by the State and for the substitution for the 

 half-sovereign of a ten-shilling piece of the intrinsic value of 9s., so that a fund 

 might be provided to cover the expense of the operation and of the future main- 

 tenance of the currency in a proper condition ; hut this Bill was not proceeded 

 with. Of the subsequent Bills introduced none became law, until in 18S9 an Act 

 was passed withdrawing light gold coins of former reigns, and these coins were 

 finally called in under a proclamation issued in November 1890. The entire 

 operation was effected at a cost of about 50,000/. It is curious to note that this 

 is the first instance in which gold coin has been decried in this country, for the 

 guinea and half-guinea had never been declared uncurrent, and doctors and others 

 might have contended that their fees were still represented by coins which were 

 legal tender. The Act of 1889, with the subsequent proclamation, having served 

 its purpose by clearing the circulation of all the older gold coinages, there only 

 remained coins of the present reign to deal with. The Coinage Act of 1891 pro- 

 vides for the withdrawal of light gold coin by the State at its full nominal value, 

 and will apply equally to coins which will hereafter become light as to those 

 which have already fallen below the legal weight. No one can now or in the 

 future suffer for tendering a li^-ht sovereign or half-sovereign more than for making 

 a payment with a worn half-crown or shilling, and any Victorian gold coin 

 tendered at the Bank of England, provided that it has not been defaced and that 

 its weight has not been fraudulently reduced, is received and exchanged. For the 

 present, coins must be sent in in parcels of 100/. It is unnecessary to dwell upon 

 the advantage which tliese arrangements have conferred, and will confer, upon 

 the public, In 1842-45, when the previous withdrawal of light gold took place, 

 the coin was only paid for by weight at the Mint price of 3/. i7s. \Oid. per ounce, 

 and many were the misunderstandings and bitter the complaints to which the 

 conditions of withdrawal gave rise. No inconvenience or alarm, on the other 

 Land, is likely to attend the measures necessary under the Act of last year, which 

 make it possible to effect the gradual withdrawal of the light coin without friction. 

 To July 1 last the amounts withdrawn were: sovereigns 5,150,000/., and half- 

 sovereigns, 3,850,000/. It had been estimated that the average deficiency of weight 

 in each sovereign would be 2'57f/., and in each half-sovereign 2'65^7.,and the actual 

 deficiency found has been 2'65f/. in the case of sovereigns and 2'93</. in the 

 case of half-sovereigns. After the first withdrawals have been effected it is 

 probable that the deficiency will become less, as a certain amount of much worn 

 coin had no doubt been accumulated in banks in anticipation of the passing of the 

 Act. As far as the work has as yet proceeded, however, the cost of withdrawing 

 1,000,000/. in sovereigns has been found to be 11,050/., and of withdrawing 



