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

THE NEW COPPER COINAGE.

(From the DeAyshire 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 coinages, 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—e
particularly that of the reverse. Britannia with'
her ship and lighthouse is a noble figure.
But this coinage must be regarded as 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 coinage a pound of
copper is coined into 48 pence. The weight of the
last coinage of a penny of Queen Victoria, was 291
grains, th 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 orss 2d is coined into five shillings
,and sixpence. This is a departure from the strict
owing e t o t
h thisat
principle of making coins of intrinsic or equivalent
vfiaolmue
—buallniodniitstispriuei p our
sjudiciouslvermoney
departures
not melted down or expended. It is cheaper to buy
silver in the open market than to use the coin as a
metal for purposes of trade or commerce. But the
new copper coinage is of much less relative in-
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
I 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
paper money, £1 Notes and upwards, instead of
dear gold Sovereigns. The interest annually saved
on, possibly, some 50 or 60 millions of sovereigns
would be considerable. The expense of coinage
would be 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 discount, and panics. When a few mil-
lions of gold are exported, we have to create a demi-
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 Government
for all taxes, would discharge cheaply, efficiently,
and with perfect security all the functions of
money.
The only thing which stands in the way of
this great monetary reform is an idle crotchet of
Peel and Overstone, 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 Commereial 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 one 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—tlins:prominently brought before us
in the new coinage—but we believe it will be use-
ful to call attention to the fact, that its introduc-

tion, as a legal coin of the realm, is a direct viola-
tion of the great principle on which the far-famed

monetary legislation of 1819 and 1844 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, " That is a
pound." Meaning thereby to assert, that nothing
is a pound 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
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 he can
sell his coppers to the brazier for their current
value—that his penny contains really one penny-
worth of metal, just as the rich man's sovereign
contains a pound's worth of gold. Such, however,
is not the case. The sovereign can be melted with-
out loss, and can be exported, often at a profit, by
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 ; bat, unlike the sovereign,
they will always be retained within the limits of 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 enabling
every one who has twelve of them in his pocket to
description of
alone capableewreiigch
discharge a shilling's worth of indebtedness. . The
fact remains that they are not the
assert is
money which the bullionists a
e. They derive
their sustaining the credit of the empire. Theyh.
iswhsteinll
similarly worth t. wile
dealt
fonP.arllia'hmeesno;
their value solely from an Accitatoi
protects them from deeyere_
when broken up ur
vm 1
shillings. The
neP
more than a
etndnv
with will be worth little_ farthing.
In 1798 the pound of copper. was coined into 18
. In 1805 it was coined into 24 pennies.
pennies.
Now, a pound of the mixed metal, described above,
' d into 48 pennies, so that.
is come 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
than a halfpenny—and it would take more than
700 of the new Bronzes to be a real equiialent for
a sovereign ! Such are the facts out of which arises
the important question-.." 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 coin _
..0
age now in circulation amounts
to ,EBOO,OOO, and weighs 3,0 0 tons, Government
will realise a large profit on its misplacement by
the new Bronze tokens. Whatever may be the
diversity of opm
i on. 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 silver 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 ko 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
"old. -------

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One of the Madrid journals says that information
had been received that 30,000 tracts and other works de-
fending Protestant doctrines had been printed at London in
the Spanish language, an. d that 60 smugglers had under.
- tilkeA 0 iJ3 to duo tiaeut lAtc) rSIAiu