april — sept. 1859. ] Ancient and Modem times. 



77 



The French gold coin consists of nine parts pure gold and one 

 part copper. The silver is removed as in the English system. 

 The French Mint allows a tolerance of -002 — above and below 

 standard. Their standard gold for medals is finer 0*916, with the 

 same tolerance. There are three standards for jewelry ; 0*750, the 

 commonest, 0*840 and 0*920, little used. The tolerance is 0*003 

 below standard. There is no superior limit — Jewellers in Paris, 

 or elsewhere, not being likely to put an excess of gold into their 

 manufactures. 



In the British metallic currency gold preponderates greatly. 

 Adam Smith says it was so in his time, and the preponderance has 

 increased considerably since he wrote. He also states that in the 

 Scotch currency before the Union there was a slight preponder- 

 ance of gold ; but that in France " the largest sums are paid 

 in silver and gold is very scarce." We know that in this latter 

 respect matters are very different in our day. 



I add a small Table giving a comparative view of the values of 

 the principal gold coins in the chief commercial states of the 

 world.* 



Coin. 



Weight 

 grs. 



Quantity 

 of pure 

 gold. 



Sovereign 



123-274 



113-001 



Napoleon 



99*564 



89*610 



10 florin piece, (Butch). . 



103-880 



? 



Eagle, (American) 



269*850 



232*000 



I shall conclude the subject of gold currency with a few lines 

 on the sources from which (independently of California and Aus- 

 tralia) Europe has derived her supply of gold and silver. I in- 

 clude silver here partly for convenience, and partly from the im- 

 possibility of separating it from gold in some of the statistics 

 which I shall bring forward. 



* I have somewhere seen a calculation which gives a popular idea of 

 the amount of gold currency in the world. For its correctness I will 

 not vouch. It estimates the value at £150,000,000 ; and states that this 

 would weigh 1,150 tons, and could all be contained in a room of the 

 dimensions of 20 feet X 12 X 10. . 



