The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-08-23 00:00:00

THE FOURPENNY-PIECE.

Upon the above subject, The Times has publiehed the
following letters:—

Sir,—Lord Macaulay in his "History of England,"
dwells very feelingly on the daily and hourly misery
of the English people at the beginning of the reign of
William and Mary in their dealings with the debased
and depreciated coinage of the period.
The truthfulness of what I at one time regarded as
an exaggerated description has been brought home to
me most unpleasantly of late in my transactions with
the damaged fourpenny-pieces of to-day.
In the payment of wages I use about £25 of those
useful coins weekly. They have been for a long time
past getting gradually worse. They are often BO much
worn that it is hard to tell whether they are fourpenny-
pieces or threepenny-pieces. I lose money by them;
and the men frequently return them to me, declining
to accept them at all.
Yesterday I was told by a cashier at our company's
bankers that no fourpenny-pieces have been coined for
the past fifteen or twenty years, and that the Mint is
not going to issue any more, while those at present in
use are being withdrawn from circulation. In my
natural dismay at the impending calamity of being
called upon to pay 1,500 men weekly In threepenny-
pieces and coppers, instead of, as at present, witu four-
penny-pieces, I appeal to you to give publicity to a
case which may probably prove to be by no means an
isolated one.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,
A RAILWAY PAYMASTITR,
London, Aug. 13.

Sir,—l am very glad to see that you have published
the practical remonstrance of "A Railway Paymaster "
against the bad state of this useful coinage. We
one this to the pedantry of the advocates
of the decimal system, who tried to cut off also our
supply of half•crowns, but, fortunately, the corn-
mon sense of the trading community and the
general public was too much for them. I am far
from deprecating any intelligent efforts to establish a
decimal coinage or an international system of weights
and measures, or any similar measures which may
facilitate the labours of calculation; but I protest
against the opposition to issue any fractional coins
which the daily conveniences of receipts and pay.
meats may require. It is pure pedantry of the
most short-sighted kind to suppose that the or-
dinary "vulgar fractions" will not in the very
nature of things constantly recur in the ordinary deal-
of life. No system in the world will do away with
the fact that we have constantly to divide a unit into
three parts—e.g., the shilling into three fourpenny-
bits, or the pound into half-quarters—i.e., into half-
crowns. Those who are anxious to introduce a decimal
system ef money and accounts only thwart their own
endeavours by neglecting Bo obvious a concession to
COMMON SENSE.

Sir,—As one who has much to do with silver coin-
age, I cannot agree with the remonstrance of "A
Railway Paymaster " in favour of the continued use
of "the fourpenny-bit."
Apart from all questions as to a decimal coinage, it
may surely be urged that the threepenny-piece and the
small bronze coinage can readily supply any practical
payment less than sixpence which may be necessary
tor wages, &c. ; and the almost universal opinion I have
heard from very many persons in the past few years
is in favour of the entire withdrawal of the few re-
maining fourpenny-pieces now in circulation, for it re-
quires an almost miaroscopic eye to be able to detect
the fourpenny-piece from the threepenny-piece, and
two coins so nearly alike were surely never intended
to r main in circulation at the same time.
_ _

....
The letter of "Common Sense" does not need any
reply as regards half•crowns ; the use of this coin must
be admitted by all, as it saves a very large issue of six-
pences, and no one can mistake a florin for a half-
crown.—Yours obediently, A BAN' CASHIER.

Sir,—Your correspondents" A Railway Paymaster,"
and "Common Sense" seems to attach an unwonted
value to the convenience of having this particular coin
in circulation.

I believe, if the commercial community was
canvassed, there would be a large majority in
favour of the abolition of this coin. The three.
penny-piece is the natural and more sensible divi-
sion of the shilling, and those who have to
count up masses of silver coin know the great incon-
venience there is in meeting with threepenny and
fourpenny pieces mixed up in it. You either have
to turn them or feel them on the edge to find out the
one from the other, if the face should happen to be
uppermost.
The "common sense" of coinage and the con-
venience of cashiers would be considerably consulted
by the recall of the fourpenny-piece, and it is difficult
to imagine that any inconvenience could arise to the
general public if such a step should be resorted to by
the authorities.—Yours, Cesium

Sir,—Your correspondent "Common Sense" does
not appear to understand the objection to the reten-
tion of both threepenny and fonrpenny pieces. The
objection is that when the obverse side is presented
the coin must be turned over in order to see if it be
a threepenny or fourpenny piece. When a heap of
silver contains a number of these pieces this is a great
hindrance to the work of counting. Either the two
coins should be easily distinguished on the obverse
side as they are now on the reverse side, or one of
them should be done away with. The matter has
nothing to do with the decimal question; a three-
penny-piece is as much a vulgar fraction of a shilling
as a fourpenny-piece is. The resolve (if such there be)
to discard the fottrpenny in preference to discarding
the threepenny is ia wise one, for, not only is the
" quarter " a more commonly-used fraction than the
" third " is, but a practical cashier knows that when
he has counted 19s. 6d. and comes to some fourpenny-
pieces he can only get up to 19s. 10d., or he makes
his handful amount to 20,.. 2d.
I admit that the abolition of the half-crown would
be in accordance with that scheme of decimal coinage
of which the florin was meant to be a part. But
this particular scheme is understood to be abandoned
by its own promoters, and the effort to do away
with the half-crown was made by persons who
practically find that the similarity of the two
coins often causes the one to be substituted for
the other in counting a quantity of silver. A similar
consequence follows by retaining the half-crown as by
retaining the fourpenny piece. A cashier counts nine
florins, and then several half-crowns present them-
selves. If he takes one of those, his pile of silver con-
sists of 20s. 6d. instead of the even pound required.

CAUSES OF AGRICULTURAL
DEPRESSION.
The Times of Wednesday published the following letter :
Sir,—With the unenual burdens imposed upon land
as compared with other descriptions of property, it is
no wonder that the owners and occupiers of land corn-
plain. It is a simple fact that the incidence of local
rating upon real property alone, the replacing of
indirect by direct taxation along with and following
upun the removal of Protection, have thrown an un-
equal share of the burien upon the land.
My neighbour A is the owner of 200 acres of land,
which he lets for £420. He as :
Land-tax..............£12 0 0
Income-tax, Schedule A—say 11 0 0

Total .. .. .. .. £23 0 0
His tenant pays :

Poor and highway rates £B2 0 0
Drainage rate .. 63 0 0
Income-tax, Schedul —.. 710 0
Education rate ...............0
0 0
Total..

.. ..Xd76 10 0

I may say that practically it is almost impossible
for the farmers to obtain a return of Income-tax,
Schedule B. even though his profit be nil.
My neighbour B has an income of £BOO from funded
property. He pays :
Land-tax .. .. .. .. .. £.O 0 0