Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-08-15
THE New York Independeut Of :

i TIE New York Independent of
a recent date produced the following
plain and interesting article ON thl
unit of value: The unit of value is
specific quantity of that commodity
which is used as money, generally
determined by its weight, that is ta
ken as the standard of all other meas
ures of value. This unit in the Uni
ted States is called a dollar, whose
standard weight is twenty-five and
eighteenth grains of gold, consisting
OF nine hundred parts by weight Of
pure gold to one hundred parts OF
alloy. A piece OF gold having this
weight, with these proportions of its
constituents, and bearing the stamp
of the United States Mint, is gold
dollar. The legal equivalent of this
piece is silver dollar, weighing four
hundred and twelve and haH grains
troy, and consisting of nine hundred
parts by weight of pure silver to one
hundred parts of alloy. All the 9th
er coins of the United States, with
the exception of the minor coins
composed of certain proportions of
copper and nickel, are graded in
their weight and fineness to the gold
or the silver dollar. The eagle or
ten dollar gold piece, for example,
weighs ten times as much as the gold
dollar. The different coins are gra-
ded to each other and to the unit of
value according to the decimal prin
ciple. The objsct of having variety
of coins of different weights is simp-
ly one of convenience In their use.
Their relative value is fixed by their
relative weight
The fundamental principle that un-
derlies all these coins is one of quaa.
fify as determined by weight. The
fineness or parity being the same,
each coin has value in proportion to
its weight. The stamping is moth
ing but sign and guaranty of this
weight. A load of wheat containing
forty bushels is by the same rule
worth Just forty times as much as
one bushel of wheat. A piece of
cloth, ten yards in length, is worth
ten times as much as one yard of the
same cloth. So the ten dollar gold
piece is simply the one dollar gold
piece multiplied ten times, because
containing ten times as much gold.
The difference in the quantity of gold
makes the difference between the
two The proportions of quantity
must be maintained in order to main
TEN the proportions of value.
Paper money, of necessity, ignores
the whole question of quantity as
having anything to do with that of
value: and this is one of the fatal
objections to it as measure of val
ue, when divorced from metallic mon
ey. Its value depends not upon the
quantity or quality of the paper, but
entirely upon what is written or
printed upon it The paper, as pa
per is worth almost nothing, and
hence it can never, except when US
ed as the representative of gold or
silver by being convertible into one
or the other, be made a reliable meas
IRE of value. 1t costs no more to
produce a hundred dollar bill than it
does to produce a hundred-dolla
bill than it does to produce a one
dollar bill and one is really worth
no more than the other except as
they represent different quantities OF
gold or silver. Both are promissory
notes, and their value depends upon
what they pledge and the certainty
that the pledges will be kept.