The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-01-17 00:00:00

FLORINS versus HALF-CROWNS.
Itetonine to the recent ditcus,ton on this sabjeot. the
Globe lays:—

Considerable divergence of opLiion exiete on the
threefold question lately propoundel by the new
Matter of the Mint. . . . Shall we keep half-crowne
end eh dial liming, or vice versa, or wilt greater con-
V./Attu:a result to the public from the continuance
of a mired iesne? Each couree has its advocates,
ahewing 'mare on its behalf, nor can either be sum-
marity diesel...eel in contempt. The half. crown has in ite
favour long nee, and the regard whieli all feel for an old
userevant who, in his time, has performed meritorious
work. Why inch a coin ever came into existence iii a
problem difficult to solve. It certainly forms the eighth
part ot a sovereign; but as Our Currency is not based
on a .stem divieible by eight, that in itself cannot hs
regarded as au advantage. On the otlier hand, there
is something barbarous in a coin not divisible by the
silver unit of currency, but representing a value of two
and a half unite, and there* compelling the iesue of
another coin—the siepence—to represent the frac-
tion. Again, the half-crown is cumbrous, not par-
ticularly beautiful, ',toffy imitated, cud calculated
I to lead tradespeople to charge twmandsixpenee
I where two shillings would give a fair profit. In
short, it I. hard to discern any rpecial work done by
an eel familiar friend not equally well performed by
the rin, whilst its disadvantages are many arid
great. Tee verdict must therefore be entered against
the coin, by Itself, while the sucteested iesue of &mixed
coinage ef ball-crowns and &wine neede but little
argument to prove its manifolt disadvantages. Every
me knows the innumerable blunders constantly oc-
curring through tie eiwilarity of size between the two
Coins; and it in hardly possible to believe that the mixed
issue has other advorates than those who hope, through
it, to keep the hell-crown in the currency. BM if that
fine al favourite dose; not possess sufficient merits of
ite own to stend on, without the extraneous help derived
from association with a more eonveeient twee, it must
depart into the litut• ordained for things; out of date.
A two shilling piece is handy and convenient although
the present coin ri presenting that sum cannot be
extolled either for beauty of design or that deli-
cacy of workulansi,ip which prevents' imitation.
The twin, no deistic, is bad as a coie, but the
nriueitele it represents poseesees a value finite in-
dependent of faults of workmanship. In it is seen
the first direct attempt of the Eoglish Mint La
gra' pie with the difficulties' attending the introduction
of • decimal eystem ; and to abandon the effort at the
very time when tbertinghly estehliehed in public
form Ur would be to retrace a step taken on the road
(teemed a rat-curter olireiit,twere.oriv-.6 241.
einneee. Thie retrograde movement is eppeeed 4, the
spirit of the age, and no doubt remains that the flirts
—poseibly is a more beautiful form—will eventually
'upends the timiphonoured hstlf•oreorn.

This being certain, the question preeente Itself: what
will be the next development of the currency towards
a decimal system? Nothing could he more unreason-
ship than the existing state of matters. The copper
unit is a twelfth of the silver: the silver a twentieth of
the gold; so that in ',Ageing both to lower denorui•
nations different multipliers have to be employed.
Toe BAILIe extraup2Mary confusion reigns throughout
our prevent coinage. To reduce pennies to farthinge
or threspenny bite to pence, or florins to shillings,
the memory haa to be ransacked for the cor-
rect multiplier, and in rapid calculations of a
minute sort, this process is very fatiguing. With a
decimal system such a difficulty could not arise, since
pounds, shillings, pence, and farthings would be mul-
tiplied and divided by the same fiure, and this alone
would be a great boon to calculators of email change.
Of course the decimal aystem has far higher claims than
this, but we are regardteg it merely from a social point
of view; and even from that it is impossible to avoid
..cichowledging its paramount advantaged. Granting
that sooner or later we must introduce this system,
woulit not much advantage result from substituting the
II vin for the 'Alining as the unit of the silver cur-
rency? Taking the sovereign as the gold unit, and
the florin as the silver tenth of the higher denomina-
tion, a decimal system is at once established in the two
.hief descriptions of our existing coinage. There they
are, the silver and gold unite, already provided for,
and all we have to consider is the copper unit. By
no possible means can the present penny be ..tted
exactly int) a decimal coinage of which the sovereign
is the gold unit, and the ticrin the silver. Either
they or it nowt be altered, and tie question is which?
Accepting the present pour), as the copper unit, the
sovereign would have to be reduced in value to
16x. 81, and the fl inn to is. 81. before the decimal
:intern was completed, by making the penny a 20th
of a florin and a 200:h of a pound. On the other
hand, were the two higher denominations left at their
present value, it would result that, 200 peonies being
exchangeable In each pound, instead of 240 as at pre.
sent, each would be rased 1-6th in comparative value.
lint it is more than probable that as time went on, and
the nation became used to the new system, the penny
would not posers any greater purchasing power than
at present This seems a tolerably feria:bin way of
making another approach to that perfect decimal
system of the future to which all who have to do with
our present confusion of currency look forward as a
kind of monetary millennium.

The limes tpu also published the toll ,wing letters on the
subject:—

Before stamping and kicking so very much against
the fl3rin, and laying, in the words of your corres-
p ndent in The T 11,68 of the 7th inst., " the sooner the
florin disappears the better for gl who are employers
of labour,'" it would be well to ascertain the facts in
practice when that coin is used by Udell and in con.
bioation with others.

A paragraph reprinted by you from the Pall Mall
Gazette says among other flings :—" The superior con-
venience of the half•crown over the florin is a fact
almost too obvious to rtiptire stating '• " and further on
the lierin is described as "not particularly pretty and
very particularly ueelesa," &a.
_

What ticket clerk, whose power in dispensing ready
change is by his position unrivalled, will confirm those
words? _ _

•
My experience of 15 years m bank cashier—which
means six hours daily distributing moot broken sume—
is dead against tne writer. I knew the p )wer of the
fl,eie intuitively al life while, but only nurr upon ex-
amination find the proof of its ready combination with
the other silver coins. I leave out the amalleat,

The florin with eixpenny coin makes nine payments
under 20.; the florin with shilling coin makes nine
payments under 20g. ; the florin as a folio alone makes
nine payments under 20g. ; the florin with half-crown
makes eight payments under 20g. ; the florin with crown
makes seven payments under 20g.—to•al, 42.

_
The half-crown with sixpenny coin makee seven pay-
ments under 20e. ; the half-crown with shilling coin
makes seven payments under 20s. ; the half-crown with
florin makes seven payments under 20s. ; the half-
crown tis half-crown alone makes seven payments
under 245. ; the half-crown with crown maked five
payments under 2O.—total, 33.
Further, if the half-crown be abolished, the florin,
with the held of other coins, will pay 34 items within
20e.; hut abolish the florin, and the half-crown would,
with the !Me help, pay only 26 items, Is not this a
sad deficiency of the hat i -crown? And what would be
the curtailed power of distributing change if the florin
be given up, ray to a ticket clerk or bank coelfier, whose
time i wholly occupied in handling ?
_ .