* 'Report of the Director of the United States Mint for the year 1873-4,' p. 8.

+ This estimate is, however, very uncertain, and a statement of the Master of the Mint, which appears in the ' Report of the Director of the United sovereigns and 24,000,000 half-sovereigns; the average time in which the coin falls below its least current weight is given as eighteen years for a sovereign, and ten years for a half-sovereign. The result of the calculation gives £1 8s. 1 1/2d. as the amount that must be paid down for £100 in sovereigns, and £3 4s. 8d. as the amount that must be paid down for £100 in half-sovereigns. Assuming the respective circulation of these coins to remain in the present proportion of 68 to 24, it is found that the sum of £1 13s. 6d. will defray the cost of coining and perpetually keeping in repair £100.

Fifthly, the question whether the actual operations of coinage should be performed by contract or by the Government, though it perhaps lies beyond the plan of this chapter, is deserving of some notice. The Deputy Master of the English Mint in his Report for 1870 strongly opposes the contract system. He says, " The principal mints in Europe in which the contract system is now in force are those of Paris, Brussels, and Utrecht, and, at first sight, it might seem that it is to the advantage of a government to contract with responsible persons, and under proper securities, for the performance of duties which involve some risk of loss and demand much special knowledge. It is to be observed, however, that, apart from the necessity of entering into an agreement which will prove profitable to himself, a contractor will only be found willing to undertake the coinage of precious metals on the condition of being constantly relieved by the supervision of government officers from the responsibility under which he will lie of producing coins of good workmanship and of proper weight and fineness. This supervision, which must be entrusted to persons well versed in the different processes of minting, would necessarily involve the employment of a staff of officers who might themselves, with no increase of expenditure, be charged with the responsibility of coining." It may on the other hand be urged that in most other concerns a contract system has been tried and found successful, for the reason that a contractor who is consulting his own gain always manages the business with greater economy than a paid official is likely to do, and can therefore afford to offer terms more advantageous than those at which the Government can do their own work.

States Mint for 1875-6,' places the amount in circulation on the 31st December, 1875, at £118,560,000.

The merits and demerits of either system are, however, hardly matters for general arguments, as so much depends upon the surrounding circumstances particular to each country. The question, regarded as an individual one for this country, may be more conveniently resumed later on.

It is evident that the many differences, not only in the coinage regulations, but in the very unit and standard of value of the chief commercial countries, render it hard to solve the problem of an international currency. The question has, indeed, received much attention during the last twenty years, and the arguments brought against any such scheme have hitherto proved strong enough to defeat it. It is not to be disputed that the period of transition would be attended by certain obstructions to commerce. There must be a subversion of all valuations in every country except that whose unit of value is chosen, or in every country if an entirely new unit be preferred; and the impossibility of exactly converting a duodecimal into a decimal system of accounts, or vice versa, becomes in itself a very serious consideration when it is remembered that the property of the civilised world is expressed about as much in the terms of one system as in those of the other. But there can be little doubt that these difficulties have been exaggerrated by those interested in keeping things as they are, and the monetary conventions of the last few years are sufficient evidence that they can be overcome. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the lasting benefits which it is on all hands admitted that an international coinage would secure may before long outweigh considerations of temporary inconvenience. In this fortunate event, it would be better to make a certain weight of standard gold identical with a certain number of coins. This, as we have seen, was the principle on which the old English silver system was based, and it was also one of the results of the restoration of the coinage at the close of the reign of Edward VI. Assuming, for instance, 100 grammes to be the unit of weight of universal adoption, its equivalent in coin would be twenty-five half sovereigns,* and this exact correspondence of the integers of weight and of value would go far to dispose of the present confusion respecting the 'price' of gold to which we have above alluded.

Without, therefore, admitting the establishment of an international coinage to be impossible, yet until the renewal of the mutual confidence which the commercial crises of late years have so materially shaken, it may be so accepted. It is, therefore, worth while to consider whether its advantages may be to any extent attained in a way free from its immediate inconveniences. It must be remembered that a coin is simply a piece of metal bearing on its obverse its certificate of weight and fineness. A weight of metal without any device at all is intrinsically just as valuable as the most elaborate coin, and it would be so practically, if its value could be attested by any other means. For the purpose of a national coinage, however, no means are so efficient; but the case is different when large international differences are considered, which might be settled equally well in bullion as in coin. Such an agreement would at once obviate two of the chief disadvantages which it is proposed to remedy by an international coinage. There would be no necessity to establish a relation between the moneys of account of any two countries; and as bullion is valued by assay and weight, while coin depends very much for its current value on repute, feelings of distrust in the fineness of foreign coin would also cease to prejudice the interests of commerce. Indeed, however excellent the coinage of a country may be, there must always be a turn in the shape of the unexpressed fractions of the assay and weight, which gives bullion the preference; and thus, to put the point broadly, when a man buys coin he pays for more than he gets, and when he buys bullion he gets more than he pays for. To these arguments it may be added that ingots are more cheaply packed than coin, and are less liable to lose weight by friction during transit. But it is vain to hope for this system of settlement as long as bullion continues in its present relation to coin. It is now everywhere subject to a disadvantage averaging about 2d. per oz., which is chiefly occasioned by the existence of a charge for coinage. We have already spoken of the unfairness and bad policy of this charge, in whatever form it is levied, but we now condemn it on broader principles, as the main obstacle to the attainment of the most important advantages which might be secured without any of the immediate inconveniences of a change of the money of account of any country. Another circumstance which operates to the prejudice of bullion is the loss in weight and assay, and this is especially the case in England, the lowest weight recognized by the Bank of England being 12 grains troy, while the fineness of gold is only reported to the 3000th part. In France the margin of weight may be taken as 1 1/2 grains troy, and the assay is reported to the 10,000th part; these differences are equivalent to about 6d. per cent., or 1/4d. per oz., and this is often sufficient to induce the export of bullion (which is constantly moved in very large quantities for the sake of very small profits), and therefore to affect the interest of money, which the Bank of England is obliged to raise in order to, in the common phrase, "protect its gold." In no country indeed is the absolute freedom of bullion so essential as in England, which is the greatest channel for its circulation, and so far has this necessity been appreciated that the Bank of England in 1871, by altering their system of reporting assays, sacrificed a portion of their profits on coinage in the interests of the importer to the extent of about 1/2d. per oz.