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the convenience of retail trade, coins of any other material proved 
to be wanted, then they must be made to pass for so much more 
than their metallic value as to prevent all temptation to melt them 
down, and further, that as at the time gold was held in the highest 
estimation by the public, and had thus been made a virtual stan- 
dard. it was desirable to legally instal that metal as the standard 
of value, and in future to use silver for the manufacture of token 
pieces. 
In his letter, Lord Liverpool dealt at length with evidence 
showing how impossible it had proved to maintain a currency in 
which more than one metal was required to circulate at its intrinsic 
value. He states that ’‘By a decree of the Star Chamber Court, on 
the 7th February, seven persons convicted of culling out the 
most weighty pieces of coin of this realm, and melting them down 
and exporting the same, as well as foreign coin and bullion, to 
foreign parts were fined tS.lOO, and committed prisoners to the 
Fleet till they paid the fines so set upon them. It is asserted that 
individuals had by those practices made a profit of £7,1)00 to £8,000 
per annum. . . . "But notwithstanding the proclamations, and the 
severities exercised for enforcing the execution of them, it appears, 
from a writer who lived in those times, that silver, either in foreign 
coin or bullion, was sold during the whole of this reign at Id., 2<1.. 
3d., etc. per ounce, above the Mint price, and he alleges that £30.000 
in sixpences, shillings and half-crowns were melted annually by 
one single goldsmith for six years together, from 1624 to 1030.” 
The Secretary to the Treasury, ^\r. Lowndes, in a report dated 
the 12th Septmber. 1095. states “That in consequence of the defec- 
tive state of the silver coin, great contentions daily arose among 
the King's subjects, in fairs, markets, sho])s and other places 
throughout the Kingdom, to the disturbance of the public peace; 
that many bargains and dealings were totally jirevented and laid 
aside, which lessened trade in general ; that persons before they 
concluded any bargain, were necessitated to settle first the price 
or value of the very money that they were to receive for their 
goods: and that they set a price on their goods accordingly: that 
these practices had been one great cause of the raising the price, 
not only of all merchandises, but of every article necessary for 
the sustenance of the common people., to their great grievance.” 
Lord Liverpool’s conclusion was summed up in the following 
words, “Coins of both metals cannot be sent into circulation at the 
same tiiiic zvifhout exposing the public to a traffic of one sort of 
coiji agahist the other by which the traders in money ivould make 
a consulerablc profit to the great detriment of Your Majesty's 
subjects." ... 
He pointed out that the then existing silver coins were 
‘‘subordinate and subservient to the gold coins, and in this quality 
only are current.” and stated that in his opinion ‘‘gold coins should 
