PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 55 



silver, consequent upon the change by certain continental govern- 

 ments — Germany and the Scandinavian Governments of Sweden, 

 Norway, and Denmark— from a silver standard for their money 

 of account, to a gold standard j and to the hoarding of gold by 

 the Bank of France preparatory to its resumption of specie pay- 

 ments ; and, also, to the large production of silver from the 

 Comstock and other mines of our silver-bearing territories, the 

 price of silver, relatively to gold, has been for several years 

 gradually sinking, until it has reached in the London market, 

 according to a late cable dispatch, the low point of 55| pence 

 sterling per standard British ounce (the equivalent quotation in 

 New York market, for fine bars, being from 1.21 to 1.22 per 

 ounce), the lowest point of value, relatively to gold, on record in 

 the history of man. 



The price indicates that the ratio of the value of gold to silver, 

 is as 1 7 to 1 ; that is, that the value of gold in the markets of the 

 world is now seventeen times that of silver of equal weight and 

 like fineness.^ It follows, as may readily be shown, that the price 

 in United States gold of the quantity of bullion contained in a 

 dollar of our new fraction silver is 88.0 cents; or, conversely, 



that what may be termed the silver-bullion price of gold the 



silver unit being 25 grammes nine-tenths fine — is 113.6. 



Gold Price of Silver Com.— The gold price of the United 

 States silver coin (fractional), which is used as currency con- 

 taining to the dollar, when of legal weight and fineness, 25 

 grammes nine-tenths fine— was quoted on the same day (June 5, 

 1875), in the New York market, at from 92 to 95 cents, showing 

 the silver coin price of gold to have been from 105.3 to 108.7 ; 

 the difference depending on the quantity of pure metal contained, 

 as indicated by the date of the mintage and by the degree of the 

 abrasion of the coin. 



Gold Price of Greenbacks. — The greenback price of gold is 

 now quoted, in the language of the market, at 117, showing the 

 gold price of greenbacks to be 85|-. 



Greenback Price of Silver Bullion and of Silver Coin— It 



' June 6, 1876. According to the latest quotations in the London 

 market the price of silver has fallen to 52 pence per ounce of the British 

 standard of fineness (to wit, lij fine), indicating that the ratio of the 

 value of gold to silver is now as 18 to 1. 



