Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1852-05-14


Wilmer Smiths Eeropeaa Times of the 18th
April has an able letter. on the subject of the use
and value Of Gold, intrinsic and coz ventionalo from
which we clip the following
The northern nations of Europe originally adop-
ted silver as the most suitable material for their
money; both gold and copper, although greatly
priced, having been unused as direct circulating
media for many years after the establishment of
those nations fact of which our own money cal
culations retain the traces to the present day ORR
glnaily' the English pound sterling meant pound
OF silver OF certain fneness now an ounce OF gold
of the mint standard of Oneness fixed at the price
OF t3 u.s. 102d. about 462 soveregns being coined
from troy pound Of gold. Formerly, ALSO the Eng
sh penny was only coined in silver and was exact
~ the 24Oth part OF a pound; the term shilling
being proved, by an ancient statute of Henry Ill,
to mean particular weight In the same way the
French ttUere, which term is still synonymous with
our pound, contained in the time Of Charemagne,
pound, Iroyes weight, ofsver; and even the Scotch
pound although in after times so much depreciated
originally weighed pound of that metal.
There was very little gold coined in England
until the reign OF Edward ILL.,; and copper money
came into use about the time of James l. Indeed
for many years after gold coined into money, it
was not considered as a legal tender nor we're the
relative va ues of gold and silver money determined
by law. that creditor could refuse gold unless
at valuation agreed on. Guineas were first coined
in 1864, but i not until 17l7 that the rate of
their value was fixed at twenty-one shillings. From
but in IVA, an consequence of ats hdCing been
Udued Nth respect TO soer, it was found necessary
to limit the amount for which silver could be used
in one payment to ELS; this was mainly caused by
the export of silver coins of full weight and pre-
| vent the indiscrimnate of the worn coins which
alone remained in the country The reader will.
no doubt be struck with modern antithesis to this
course of proceeding in the recent measures taken
by the Emperor of Austria to pay off in silver at the
market e1chonge ralue-after having aided in for
cling that metal up to large premium in COMPARE
son with gold-those debts which had been contrac-
ted when silver relatively OIL l-3 lower than
at the period of enforcing the redemption of the
loan. In the year 1916 the amount for which sill
yer could be used as a legal tender was limited to
forty shings and at the same time sixty-six shil-
lings instead OF sixtytwo coined out of each
troy pound Of silver, in order to prevent melting
down expectation.
Il have already stated that 46z sovereigns (near-
ly) are coined from pound troy of gold and that
therefore. G3 It's. 3ld is the recognized value oil
an ounce. When guineas were the current coin Of
pound weight of gold; and each guinea being con
sidered equal to 2ls., (hough we'll recollect see
ing them bought and sold by hundreds for 24s. tc
28s, each the mint price was thus fixed for pound
of gold at G46 l4s Cd; it follows, therefore. that
Of such gold is worth in shillings G3 It's
/ l0A hence what is called our 'stondard.n A
stranger on applying at the MINT and depositing
there pound weight ounce of standard gold
gets, in return, the same weight in ms. withou
by the nation at large. The present amount of gole
in the Bank of England is nearly 920,0O0,000 ster
ling and. in order to obtain this, our merchants
must have exported productions of real value to
extent considered commensurate with the worth o.
barter or exchange of that commodity"