COIN. 
pound weight of silver, has continued at 
less tlian one-third (or ||) of that quantity 
ever since the reign ot Elizabeth. Our 
neighbours, however, have universally ex- 
ceeded us in this respect. Thus the pound 
Flemish is less than eleven shillings, the 
French livre is ten pence, and the Italian 
lire is less than 
The Chinese still use fine silver, which 
they actually cut and weigh at every single 
payment. They are said to have formerly 
possessed silver coin ; but whether they 
were urged to their present practice by the 
uncertain variation in its value caused by 
their niters, or by the difficulty of other- 
wise resisting the artifices of coiners, we 
know not. 
The metals used for coinage are gold, 
silver, and copper. According to the ex- 
changeable value of gold, half a grain of 
this metal would purchase as much bread 
as a man could eat at one meal. This 
small piece of gold, if as thin as paper, 
would not measure the tenth part ot an 
inch in breadth, and would therefore be 
perfectly inconvenient for use. It has, in 
feet, been found, that the gold coin of the 
weight of 32 grains (or the quarter guinea) 
was too small to be conveniently used. 
The same observations will apply to the 
smaller subdivisions of the shilling of silver ; 
whence, upon the whole, it appears that 
coins of all the three metals are required to 
facilitate our commerce of buying and sel- 
ling. 
Gold, silver, and copper, like every other 
product of human industry, depend for 
their value principally on the labour em- 
ployed in producing and bringing them to 
market, and in a considerable degree on the 
actual demand. As these articles are not 
employed merely in the fabrication of coins, 
the demand will vary in each according to 
circumstances, which admit of no perma- 
nent ratio of exchange between them. If 
the state were to coin certain pieces of 
known weight and fineness out of each of 
these metals, and determine that a certain 
number of the silver pieces, for example, 
should in all cases be equivalent to one 
piece of the gold, it would naturally fol- 
low, supposing the individual to pay no- 
thing for the coinage, that a debt might be 
discharged witli more facility to the debtor, 
and eonsequently loss to the creditor, in 
the cheapest of these two metals, when- 
ever by the fluctuation of the market ei- 
ther of them should come to represent a 
larger portion of the other than the edict 
of the government had deterinined. This ' 
consequence of fixing the relative value of 
coins would shew itself in a variety of ways, 
which need not be enumerated ; because it 
is certain that the dearer metal would oc- 
cupy the greater part of the circulation 
while the cheaper pieces would either he 
melted down, or diminished if their rated 
value were too high, and they would be 
fabricated by individuals if it were too low, 
in defiance of eveiy public regulation 
which might be adopted. If we therefore 
admit, from considerations of this nature, 
tliat no government does in reality possess 
the means of fixing a ratio between two ar- 
ticles of commerce, intended to be applied 
as the tickets of transfer, or the mediums 
of exchange, we shall be naturally led to 
the adoption of one of the metals only, as 
the representative sign, while the two others 
are applied merely as instruments of ac- 
commodation for the convenient subdivi- 
sion of value. 
With regard to the question of prefer- 
ence in these three metals, experience has 
shewn that society is disposed to assume 
the dearest ; namely, gold. With a single 
standard of value, the fluctuations of the 
market price of the metal, when compared 
with commodities, w'ill be nearly impercep- 
tible, because they confound themselves 
with the rise and fall in the prices of all 
other articles to which the standard is thus 
applied. If a cheaper metal were to be 
adopted by the state, and gold were left to 
circulate at election of individuals, the 
changes of price in this metal of high 
value would operate so as to produce an 
uncertainty in the amount of large sums, 
and greatly disturb the general transactions 
of commerce. Merchants would therefore 
consider the gold coin as mere bullion, and 
the community would in a great measure 
be deprived of its use as a coin ; as actually 
is the case in Holland and other coun- 
tries where silver is the legal medium. A 
more defective scheme was proposed in 
France in a report presented by Prieur, 
from a committee of the Council of Five 
Hundred, of which a very full abstract is 
given in the Moniteurs of 6 and 7 Floreal^ 
in the year vi. Nos. 216, 217. It is, that 
silver coin should be unchangeable in 
weight and denomination of value ; but 
that the price of gold (also coined) should 
be settled every six months by a declara- 
tion from the national treasury, deduded 
from the medium price of that metal during 
the preceding half year. It Was rejected 
