The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1853-02-25
CURRENCY OF THE UNITED STATES. !


We copy the following from the New Yorl
Express, relative to the bill now pending be
fore Congress, in regard to the currency o
the United States
The Coinage and Seignorage bill befor,
the House of Representatives is one of :
great deal of importance, for it proposes al
| most total revolution to the currency of the
country. 1t is misfortune that the commit
tee which has reported the bill has mixed ur
two principles, an alteration of the silver coin
and seignorage, because the first PROPOSE
ton has now many friends, and the latter few
or none among practical men.
The silver propositions in the bill are a re.
duction of the number of grains of silver in
the half dollar, quarter dollar, dime, and hall
dime. The silver dollar, which now weighs
4l24 grains, it is not proposed to touch, but
it is proposed to reduce the silverhaf dollar
from its present weight, 206t grains, down to
1872 grains and the quarter; dime, and half
dime in like proportion. OF course, two half
dollars then weighing but 384 grains, the
present dollar of 4l2f grains would no lon
ger be in circulation, but would bear high
premiutf1.
The weight proposed in the bill being for
half dollar 1872 grains. this is reduction
below the old weight of 6 9l-lOO, nearly 7
per cent; but as the intrinsic value of silver
bullion, compared with gold, is about to I5,-
522, dollar in silver, to be at par with the
dollar in gold, should weigh but 4OOt glains,
or IL grains less than its actual weight, and
thus the reduction is only II 100 per cent.
Ii the present appreciation of silver In to
continue, this is not reduction enough, and as
this calculation of to 1922 is based upon
the price of silver bars over n year ago, the
reduction now is not probably even this
l2-l0O per cent. Congress, therefore, should
well and deliberately reflect upon this very
important change in the coin, for such n
change, when once made, is not revocable
without the greatest inconvenience.
These silver coins, thus reduced in value,
the bill now before the House proposes to
make receivable in government dues to the
amount of FIVE dollars only; and they are not
to be legal tender to individuals, ms propo-
sed in the bill from the Senate. It was con-
tended that to pay debts in silver half dol
lar Of 1874 grains contracted to be paid in
silver half dollar Of 2O6t grains was a viola
ton of contract, and hence the government
alone is to be made the loser. -t
The bill which came from the Senate in
flicted seignorage of one half of one per
cent upon gold coined or cast into bars or
ingots; but the House provision now is, a
seignorage upon coin; but where It is cast in
to bars or ingots, or formed into blocks, the
charge shall not exceed the expense, to be
regulated from time to time by the Secretary
Of the Treasury"
The practical effect of this bill will be to
make gold the standard Of value to the ex-
clusion of. silver, because the present silver
coin is to be appreciated by the bill about
per cent, and the contemplated silver coin de-
preciated to like amount; and hence, as this
deprecated coin cannot be legal tender be-
yond live dollars, gold will be resorted to as
the only medium.
The idea of this bill is borrowed from the
British silver act of 1916. The British mint
buys pound of silver at its market value, or
standard British value of 60 shillings, and is
sues it with the impress of the realm to ap-
plicants at the rate of &C shillings, and silver
is made a legal tender only to the amount of
40 shillings. Del
The seignoragc of one half of one per cent
proposed in the bill would be tax on the
$50,0OO,00O in gold that 60 from New York
to Philadelphia, to be coined there, of $780,
600 per annum; which tax, added to the pre-
sent cost of transfer-abOut $l25,00O per
annum-wOuld be such burthen as to stop
sending gold there, and lead either to its as
saying here, Under State authority, or to its
export to England where no seignorage ex-
lists. F. ' r.