The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-19 00:00:00

OUR SILVER COINAGE.

It has been demonstrated in previous articles on
the state of the British coinage that there exist
great defects in it, and that the let-it-alone tendency
of the public—so notoriously characteristic of the
English—has permitted the copper coinage espe-
cially to degenerate until it has become a positive
nuisance. It is now our purpose to refer to the
silver coinage of the kingdom, and to urge the
Government to adopt such improvements therein
as shall ensure the advantage of a circulation of
legible coins, instead of the plain and polished discs
which at present slip through the fingers of shop-
keepers,
and require a stretch of credulity to make 1
one believe that they ever bore a Mint mark at all.
It is, as we have previously stated, a fact that
£lO,OOO are voted every year for the purchase of
worn silver coins, and that pieces to that value, of
the various denominations, pass yearly through the
melting-pots of H. M. Mint, to be re-issued in the
form of newly-struck money. It is equally a fact,
nevertheless, that this renewal does not keep pace
with the rapid deterioration constantly going on.
The wear and tear of the hardworked sixpence, for
instance, is enormous. It is the medium useful coin,
which is allowed no respite from its duty, but is
compelled to move unceasingly. The per-tentage of
worn sixpences annually consigned to the Mint
crucibles is far higher than that of any other coia.
So far as this amount of annual exchange goes,
the evil of which we complain is met ; but it is
unfortunately a remedy quite unequal to the dis-
order. Our silver currency, in spite of the infusion
of £lO,OOO worth of new coins yearly, is growing
gradually worse and worse, and the bad conse-
quences attending this state of things increase
hourly. It is not of the direct material importance
to the mercantile classes perhaps/that a worn gold
currency—the value of whose individual units de-
pends on exactness of weight—would be ; but in
other senses it is of most serious import to the whole
community. To the counterfeit maker, a worn
and defaced silver coinage is serviceable in the
highest degree; as it is also to the utterer of his
spurious productions. The imitation in other metals
of defective money is comparatively easy to the
contraband artist ; whilst in company of each other
true and false coins are difficult of distinction. A
used •up coinage, in fact, invites fraud in a hundred
ways, and is a positive curse to tradesmen and
others among whom, principally, it circulates. It
involves loss of time, and is a heavy pecuniary tax.
We need not, indeed, particularise all the inconve-
niences arising from this evil ; they are patent, and
the thing is to suggest a cure.
It is a fact as well known to the Government
as to ourselves, that during the last fifty years
the trading and commercial transactions of Great
Britain have increased enormously. They are
happily, too, still increasing. It is plain then—
without invoking Adam Smith or John Stuart Mill
—that the gold, silver, and copper tokens of value
we use ibust, as a consequence, have, say, treble the
amount of duty to do that they had in the days of
our fathers. The effects of heavy duty are only
too plainly exhibited ; and the images and super-
scriptions of George 111., George IV., William IV.,
and even of our good Queen Victoria, are scarcely
recognisable on the coins of their respective
reigns. There is nothing for it but to make
the supply equal to the occasion. Where one
sixpence, for example, was coined in times past
there should be now coined six ; and, moreover,
the age of all coins should be limited. There must
be enacted a compulsory retirement clause for old
half-crowns, shillings, sixpences, and threepennies
—(groats are dying a natural death, for no More
are to be struck)—after they have circulated for a
certain number of years, say 10 or 12, their places
being filled by new, intelligent, and intelligible
candidates for public service. This would be
systematic and practicable. Data might be obtained
from the dates of the present silver coinage, as to
the longevity in a useful condition of all deno-
minations of coins, and the tenure of office of
new monies would be made to expire with their
fitness for active duty. It is no fanciful theory
which we are propounding, but a necessary im-
provement, which ought, nay must be carried out.
If the Mint on Tower Hill be not of sufficient
extent for effecting speedily the alterations, let its
mechanical resources be augmented. Much, how-
ever, might be done, we are convinced by the exist-
ing establishment in giving effect to our suggestion.
The Mint, in days gone by, has done much when
pressure required it, and its productive powers
are now, as was shown previously, far . greater.
The entire silver coin in circulation in these
realms represents a value of £12,000,000, or
thereabouts, and the annual returns of the