Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-07-20
The Silver Question.

first, to the Imperial Government OF
Germany, and, secondly, to the b.
nanza Mining Companies, represent
ed in Congress by Senators Jones
and Sharon, of San Francisco Sena-
tor John Sherman, of Ohio; and a
large number Of other statesmen in
both Houses of Congress. The Ger
man Government sells it's silver in 3
business-like way. II offers it 10 open
market, and let's it 60 for what it will
bring The way the German Gov
eminent became possessed Of so much
silver is as follows: Four or five
years ago it resolved in future to use
money made of gold, instead of the
unwieldy silver, which was previous
ly almost the only specie known in
Germany. But befor the change
could be made it became necessary
for the Germans to buy immense
quantities OF gold to coin, which they
were able to do out of the great in
demnitv paid to them by the French
after they had defeated that people
in war,
The total of new German money
coined up to the end of May, 1876,
was about s417, 900, 900, of which up.
wards of $3.50, 000,0 900 consists of gold
pieces. The remainder is made up
of silver, nickel and copper coins
The new silver coined is of the kind
known as token money, and is in
tended only for use as small change
The popularity Of this kind of money
is, that it is not worth as mere metal
the amount for which it passes. In
England or the United States, or in
Germany, thousand dollars in gold
coin would still be worth q thousand
dollars though the gold pieces were
melted, provided mono of the metal
was lost. Disregarding an insignifi.
can't fraction, which represents the
loss of interest while the owner oil
the gold is waiting for it to be coined
double-eagle of tho United States
has the same value at the Bank oil
England as it does at any bank in
New York. Four hundred and eighty
six and two-thirds dollars in gold
and one hundred British sovereigns
are of the same value in New York
as in London, and are equal to each
other in both places, aud are worth
just as notwithstanding the small
fraction above noticed as uncoined
bullion as they are in their manufac-
tured state, None of these things
are true of token money, like our sill
YER halves and quarters, and the en-.
tire silver coinoge of Great Britain
1T person should melt down two
thousand silver half-dollars and
should save all the metal, he could
nowhere sell the silver except at O
loss in greenbacks of from one humid
red and fifty to two hundred dollars,
and in gold, supposing the half-dol-
lars to be circulating as parts of gold
dollars, as they did before the war,
the loss would be nearly four hundred
dollars, or twenty per cent. These
computations are ba ed on the pres
ent value of silver.
The old money of Germany was
silver, and was value or standard
money That is to say, after deduct
ing the charge made by the Govern
ment for coinage, the pieces were
worth as much as uncoined bullion
as when they were coined. If the
Govern ment had made no charge
for coinage, as is tho case in Great
Britain and the United States with
respect to gold coins, silver in Ger
many under the old coinage laws
would have stood on precisely the
same footing as gold does here and
in London under existing laws. But
we must now consider the effect pro-
duced on the value of silver by the
coinage operations of the Germans
Of course, as fast as they exchanged
the new gold pieces for tho old sill
YER, they found themselves with sill
yer bullion to sell. IL so happened,
and still remains true, that outside
of Asia there is no nation that wants
any considerable quantity of silver
1t is too clumsy and unwicldy to use
as money, except as change. A man
would be Obliged to hire dray or
an ox-team, to pay a debt of ten
thousand dollars in silver, to carry
the money. At the present time,
before the Germans have sold half
their silver, the price of that metal
has fallen nearly twenty per cent. so
so that our silver dollars, that used
to be worth in gold dollar and
three cents, and upwards, and th ere
fore were never in use as money,
would now be worth only about
eighty>six cents. In law, as we'll as
in fact, the old silver dollar is an OBJ
solete coin, and it is fortunate for us
that it is so. Otherwise our gold
coins would utterly disappear from
circulation, and if we over had specie
payments nothing could be got but
silver dollars. 1t would please the
Bonanza Senators and the infation-
lists s'to restore the old silver dollar, "
as they call it, but it would be dis
honest act, and step towards the
standardization of the Chinese. All
the Bonanza men care for is to sell
their silver, which costs them worry
little, and has made them millionaires
as well as Senators, and all the infia-
tionists want is the cheapest kind OF
money, and they would make their
creditors take Spanish dollars made
of pig-iron, if such men as Pig-iron
Kelley could have their way. But
men who are really in favor of hon.
est money will leave the German
Government and the millionaire Sen
ators to get rid of their silver the
best way they can, without stepping
out of the way to help them by in
PRODUCING an Asiatic silver currency
into the United States, even before
,ro Laro r~nt ill of ou~ ;poopuarfi hi a