COINING. 2 101 
VI. COINING. 
Corina is the art of making the metallic currency of trade. In civilized 
countries the currency is partly metallic, partly of paper; the latter having 
an imaginary value, based upon the credit of him who issues it. 
ae MeErattic Money. 
Gold and silver, the most precious metals, have been used from the 
earliest periods as the materials for the fabrication of money. Platina has 
also been resorted to in more modern times, but its value is too fluctuating 
for a steady currency, and its use has been abandoned. Besides these 
metals an alloy of silver and copper, and also pure copper, are in use for 
coins of the lowest denominations, on account of the diminutive size of silver 
coins of so small a value. 
Coins are almost always made in the form of small round plates or disks, 
on one side of which, called the obverse, is the head of the sovereign, the 
arms of the state, or an emblematic device; and upon the other, called the 
reverse, a suitable expression of its value. As, for various reasons, gold and 
silver are never coined pure, but with an alloy of copper, the proportions in 
which the noble metals and copper are used must be accurately prescribed. 
Almost every state has its own standard. In Germany this is determined 
by the number of sixteenths of pure silver which a crude alloyed mark shall 
contain, and the number of coins to be struck from the same. For gold’ 
coins, in the same manner, it.is fixed how many twenty-fourth parts, or 
carats, of fine gold they are to contain, and how many pieces of coin shall 
be struck from a given weight of the alloy. Though the just weight and 
proper alloy are thus fixed for every kind of coin, yet the rule cannot be 
applied with mathematical precision; a slight variation must therefore be 
allowed from the regulation. This variation is termed the remediwm, or the 
authority to the mint to diminish the alloy. Formerly this was more con- 
siderable than it is in the present advanced state of the art of coining. In 
France it is ;;5;; above or below the fixed rate for gold, and for silver -3.5 
2000 1000 
for five-franc pieces, >, for two-franc pieces, and ;3%; for quarter francs. 
The value of coined silver is of course somewhat higher than that of 
uncoined, as those fabricating the coin must be remunerated for their 
labor. This increase of value is termed the mint tax. In France, 
where the coinage is most excellent, the mint now reckons coined gold 
only at about 4 per cent., and coined silver only about 1} per cent. over the 
uncoined. The minting of the baser metals is much more expensive than 
that of gold and silver, as it costs more to coin one hundred cents than one 
dollar. 
1. Mertivce. The melting of gold and silver is generally carried on in 
large black-lead or cast-iron crucibles in cupola furnaces, with charcoal or 
coke. 
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