The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-20 00:00:00

infallibly to prevent monetary crisis or panics, excessive
fluctuation of discounts, inordinate depression of prices,
non-employment or insufficient remuneration of labour or
capital—appropriatei and productively applied. In all
these respects paper money manifestly is greatly superior
to any other form of circulation hitherto devised.
Bur is its security satisfactory ? Will it really be pre-
served from depreciation ? It rzay be secure as our lit or-
ties and our lives. It may be secure as our great national
investments—our national debt, consoh, exchequer-bills—
as railway, and all other joint-stock shares. It. iiihy lie
secure as stamps and documents of every description. Do
we doubt the security of the Bank of England issues ? If
not, then surely issues by Government made legal tender
and receivable for taxes, cannot he fictiti us or insecure.

At present, Mr. Kditor, I will not further trespass upon
your valuable space, but wilt reserve till another occasion
some delineation of arrangements requisite for the issue of
paper money, and of the features by which it should be
charactorised.

Till then, permit me to commit this creation of questions
to the earnest thoughtfulness of English minds—to land-
owners, tenant-farmers, labourers, artisans, mi:rchouts,
bankers--to all who are interested in the pruduerive pros-
perity of the nation; and urge them, as vitally cup eerned
in its solution, to master its various details, uud weigh it in
all its bearings. These, sir, alone, I venture to
will be found material relief to a burdened, groaning
people, elsewhere vainly sought. By adopting legal paper
tender money, representative of aggregs e national wealth
or deposited securities, may our monetary convulsions and
depressions be at once and for ever banished.
I am, Mr. Editor, yours very faithfully,
C ILA ItLES HAWARD.
1860.
Bromfield, Saxmundham, Nov. 26th,

THE NEW COPPER coINAGE.

(From the Derbyshire Courier.)

Mr. Gladstone's new copper coinage has just made
its appearance. For lightness, beauty of colour,
and freedom from the unpleasant smell of all the
former copper coisioges, the new coin is decidedly
superior to the old. Out of 100 parts of this bronze
coin, 95 parts are of copper, 4 of tin, and 1 of zinc.
The artistic execution of the new coin is good
particularly that of the reverse. Britannia with
her ship and lighthouse is a noble figure.
But this coinage must be regarded es the intro-
duction of a new monetary principle. For the first
time in our monetary system a coin is issued the
intrinsic value of which differs very materially from
its nominal value. A pound of copper previously
was coined into 24 pence ; in this coins ge a pound of
copper is coined into 48 pence. The weight of the
last coinage of a penny of Queen Victoria, was 291
grains, the weight of the new penny is only 145
grains. The new bronze penny is in every respect. a
mere token of value. It derives its nominal value
from an Act of Parliament, and is preserved from fear
of depreciation by being made a legal tender, and
receivable by Government for taxes. An ounce of
silver of the value of 5s 2d is coined intofiveshillings
and sixpence.
of making
enee. This is a departure from the strict
principlet
coins of intrinsic or equivalent
value—and it is owing to this judicious departure
from bullionist principle that our silver money is
not
silverm eioltetdho open marketdownor e
thanxpended. toituse th
icheae oil
cheaper to a
tobsuya
metalnew
of for
copper
purposes ogef
itsr adofe
rooro co ohm
itensesr c
re
e. l
tßi
vuet tihoe_
trinsic value than the silver coinage. A bronze
penny is, in fact, intrinsically worth less than a
halfpenny, according to the value of copper. This
new coinage will, therefore, neither be melted nor
exported, but will continue to be what it was in-
tended to be—i. e , Money. The saving to the
country will also be very considerable—we shall
use cheap tokens instead of dear pennies.
Let any one consider for a moment the saving
which it would be to the country if we had cheap
naper money, £1 Notes and upwards, instead of
dear gold Sovereigns. The interest annually saved
on, possibly, some 50 or (30 millions of sovereigns
would be considerable. The expense of coinage
would he avoided. Bat these advantages are trifling
compared with that which would result from the de-
liverance of this country from monetary crises, rises
in the rate of disc aunt, and panics. When a few mil-
lions of gold are exported, we have to create a desni-
panic or a whole panic to bring the gold back. With
Bank Notes for our domestic circulation, the with-
drawal of gold would be perfectly innoxious. We
should still possess Paper Money for our do-
mestic circulation. This paper made, as the
copper coinage is, a legal tender, and secured from
depreciation by being receivable by the Goveratuent
for all taxes, would discharge cheaply, efficiently,
and with perfect security all the functions of
money.

The only thing N- hic h stands in the way of
this great monetary reform is an idle crotchet of
Peel and Overtone, which the panics of 1819, 1825,
1847, and 1857. have proved to be as ridiculous and
impracticable as it is unjust and ruinous.

(From Gore's Commercial Report.)
The new bronze coinage is gradually coming into
use, and from its lightness, durability, and free-
dom from any unpleasant odour, is a great improve-
ment on the old copper coinage. It quite fulfils
Mr. Gladstone's prediction of last year, when in-
troducing the bill for its authorisation into Parlia-
ment, that it would be " very convenient, very nice
in appearance, and a most agreeable coin to handle,"
The metal of which it is made consists of ninety-
five parts of copper, four parts of tin, and ono part
of zinc. But the most important consideration
arising out of its issue is, that its intrinsic value is
little more than one fourth of its current value.
We are not about to discuss the vexed question of
the currency—thus prominently brought before us
in the new coinage—hut we believe it will be use-
ful to call attention to the fact, that its ii.roduc-
tion, as a legal coin of the realm, is a direct v:ola-
tion of the grcitt principle on which the far-famed
monetary legislation of 1819 and 1814 was founded.
Sir Robert Peel is said to have illustrated that
principle by the production of a sovereign in the
House of Commons, which he triumphantly threw
on the table of the house, exclaiming, '"lnat is a
pound." Meaning thereby to assert, that nothing
is a ponnd in money which is not intrinsically
worth " twenty shillings." If, then, this be true
of gold, it is equally true of silver, or any other
i metal. If the rich man has a right to boast that the
jeweller will purchase his sovereigns at their cur-
rent value of 20s. each, the poor man has an equal
right to be in a condition to boast that be can
sell his coppers to the brazier for their current
value--that his penny contains really one penny-
worth of metal, lust as the rich man's sovereign
I contains a pound's worth of gold. Such, however,
is not the case. The sovereign can be melted wit h-
out loss, and e,an be exported, often at a profit, by
I its possessor, because of its intrinsic value ; the
penny can neither be melted nor exported, except
at a ruinous loss, because it is nothing more than a
token of value. It is simply and purely what it is
intended to be—money. The new bronze tokens
will, consequently, circulate from hand to hand as
freely as the sovereign ; but, unlike the sovereign,
they will always be retained within the litnitsof the
kingdom, there to discharge at all times the legiti-
mate functions of a legal-tender currency by facili-
tating the exchange of commodities and enablingek,tto
every one who has twelve of them in hdisepso.
The
discharge a shilling's worth of iudebte
descriptionn of
fact remains that they are not the
They derive
of sustaining the credit of theoefmptit:.
money which the bullionists assert jsealonecapable
13 fitment, which
their value solely from an c.
still worth twenty
when similarly dealt
protectswhe nbrotkheenm
up
proomr
mcleelpterAednevitai
st ion. The sovereign
with will be worth little more than a farthing,
2 Pennies.
-
In 1798 the pound of copper was coined into 18
pennies. In 1805 it was coined into
Now, a pound of the mixed metal, described above,
is coined into 48 pennies, so that, the new penny
coin is little more than one-third the weight of that
of 1798; that is to say, its intrinsic value is less
!
the new Bronzes to be a real equivalent for
i
! Such are the facts out of which arises
iha sovereign
fa Halfpenny—and it would take more than
700
important question—"
the Whether Sir Robert
Peel's famous theory—that a pound did and could
mean nothing else than a certain quantity
of gold
of a certain fineness, worth £3 17s. 9d. per ounce
in all the markets of the world—was after all a
delusion," And—it may well be queried—if we
find it to our advantage to have Bronze tokens for
our pennies,
and silver tokens for our shillings,
may we not also find it to our advantage to have
gold tokens for our pounds, or if these be too costly
for general use, to have that most portable and
most economical of all tokens for a Pound the old
fashioned one pound note ?
As the copper coinage now in circulation amounts
to £BOO,OOO, and weighs 3,500 tons, Government
will realise a large profit on
the new Bronze tol:ene. W its misplacement by
hatever may be the
diversity of opinion as to the policy of its introduc-
tion, it certainly involves the recognition and adop-
tion by the legislature of a new monetary principle.
The silver coins it is true are not exact equivalents
of their nominal value, an ounce of sliver costing
only ss. 2d. being coined into five shillings and six-
pence. But the new Bronze coinage is the first
that has been issued from the Mint, and which will
be receivable in payment of taxes, whose intrinsic,
is materially less than its nominal value. It is on
this account that we have noticed it at so much
length, and indeed the subject has a peculiar in-
terest at the present moment, when we are deprived
of the just and full reward of our industry, energy,
perseverance, and skill, by the exportation of our
gold.

One of the Madrid journals says that in f ormaticat
had been received that 30,000 tracts and other wurks de—
fending Protestant doctrines had been printed at London is ►
the Spanish language, and that 60 smugglers had under. •
taken to introduce them into Spain