The Production and Waste of Money. 275 



ment upon them, whilst the users of portemonnaies, , by dimin- 

 ishing the effects of friction, add to the longevity of the 

 metallic currency. Whether the present Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer by an ingenious adjustment of taxation may be able 

 to ce adjust the burden " fairly upon the shoulders of money 

 destroyers and money preservers, is a question for that able 

 financier's consideration. 



Cheap travelling is a source of destruction, or at least of 

 rapid deterioration, to coins. People move about now much 

 more frequently than in former days, and so does money. 

 Whether the former wear out sooner in consequence is a problem 

 for social economists, but that the latter does is certain. The 

 celebrated Mr. Jacob estimated, many years ago, that the loss 

 of metal annually by the abrasion of the coinage equalled one 

 part in every three hundred and sixty, and as he supposed that 

 there was in existence in the world, in 1810, about £360,000,000 

 in the shape of coin, the total sum wasted every year was 

 exactly one million sterling ! 



It has been calculated, and deduced from actual experiments, 

 that the deterioration of ten-year-old silver coins is as follows : 

 — crowns, 5 per cent. ; half-crowns, 12 per cent.; shillings, 30 

 per cent.; sixpences, 40 per cent.; and threepences, 42 per cent. 

 So far as the two last denominations are concerned it may be said 

 that at ten years of age they are worn out. In respect of the 

 bronze coinage sufficient time has not elapsed since its creation 

 to enable us to give data as to its durability, though, as has been 

 said, the extreme hardness of the metal is much in its favour. 



The gold coinage does not deteriorate in anything like the 

 ratio at which that of silver wastes. It rests indeed on a 

 totally different basis ; it is not subjected to such rude 

 treatment ; it moves in higher and more circumscribed 

 circles, is only a legal tender when of legal weight, and is 

 preserved with more care under the jportemonnaie system. It 

 is no uncommon thing to find sovereigns in circulation of the 

 date to which reference was first made in this paper, and which 

 are within the " remedy/ - ' allowed by law. The same law how- 

 ever exists in reference to the early life of this coin, which 

 governs that of all others. It wastes when very young much 

 more quickly than when old. 



One remark or two, of a mechanical character, as to the 

 means of promoting the durability of coins, and we have 

 done. They should all be provided at the Mint with deep 

 and broad protecting edges. This is a point of the highest 

 importance, and which if properly observed would add 

 materially to the length of their lives. In all cases those 

 edges, which form as it were the frames to the metallic 

 pictures, should stand out with sufficient prominence to guard 



VOL. VI. — NO. IV. T 



