The Press.
London, England, 1854-09-23 00:00:00

DECIMAL COINAGE.

Ws had imagined that among commercial authori-
ties there was a general agreement that in any sys-
tem of decimal reckoning the pound should be
taken as the unit of account, and that it should be
divided into ten, one hundred, and one tnousand
parts. It seems, however, that there are persons who
entertain insuperable objections to the alteration of
the penny, and a pamphlet just published by the late
Mr. JAMES LAURIE, whose death occurred while he was
superintending it through the press, strongly urges
that a new coin, value tenpence, shall be established
as the unit, and that our system should be brought
as nearly as possible into accordance with that of
France. At the same time we have before us Mr. DE
MOROAN'S last-issued " Proceedings of the Decimal
Association ;" and from these two pamphlets, urging
all that can be said in favour of the respective sys-
tems they advocate, the public may form an accurate
idea of the whole question, and comprehend the diffi-
culties which are opposed to an alteration one way
or the other.
Of the advantages which would attend a decimal
system of accounts it is almost useless to speak.
It would greatly facilitate the acquirement of arith-
metic, would simplify all its operations, and would
effect in the counting-house of every merchant, and
the shop of every trader, a very considerable saving
in time and trouble. All computations of money
would then be as plain as the processes of simple
arithmetic, and the labour of turning farthings into
pence, and pence into shillings, and shillings into
pounds, would be entirely done away with. In the
more complicated operations of business, the saving
would be altogether incalculable.
The Decimal Association, retaining the pound as
the unit cf account, would divide it into tenths, for
which the florin is ready prepared ; into hundredths,
for which a new coin, to be called a cent, would be
wanted; and into thousandths, or units, nearly
equivalent in value to the farthing.

Mr. de MORGAN states :
" As an instance of the identity of simple and com-
pound arithmetical process, when divisions are solely into
fens, let one pound sterling be 10 florins, let one florin be
10 cents, let one cent be 10 mils. Multiply together the
numbers 793 and 438 in the common way—

793
438

6844
2379
8172

347334
" This is all the operation required in the following
questions:—
" If one yard cost 7 florins, 9 cents, 3 mils, how much
do 438 yards cost? Answer, 3471. 3 !I. 3 ct. 4 m.
" If a bankrupt estate pay 4 1 3 ct. 8 m. in the pound,
what dividend will be paid on a debt of 791. 3 fl.? Answer,
341. 7 fl. 3 ct. 3 m. [and 4.10 th of a mil, for which there
will be no coinage.]"
But what then would become of the penny which
enters so largely into all the monetary dealings of the
poor? Its value must be altered before this decimal
system could come into general use, for there are
twenty-four pence to a florin, and were a cent and a
mil to be added to our coinage, pence at their pre-
sent value could not be changed into one or the
other. A cent, the tenth of a florin, would be over
twopence farthing in value, and less than twopence
halfpenny, while four mils would represent less than
a penny, and five more. The difficulty is in
superable; some change must be made in the penny
if this system be adopted, and there must be an
alteration to some extent in all those monetary con-
cerns into which the penny enters so largely, parti-
cularly as regards penny tolls and penny postage.
Mr. Len= would retain the penny, and would
make a tenpenny piece an unit of account. The
pound would then consist of twenty-four of these
new coins—of 240 pence, as at present, and of
2,400 mils. This system, whatever may be urged
in its favour, is not a decimal system, nor would it
greatly conduce to that simplification of accounts
which is admitted to be so desirable.

It is a strong argument for retaining the pound as
the unit of account that it is our sole standard of
value, and that all other coins are measured in rela-
tion to it:—

" Its value, ( said Mr. Miller, one of the cashiers of the
Baulk of England,) has now been fixed in the sovereign, as