St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-06-20
THEY DON'T WANT COIN.
Germany and France Order
Heavily of Gold Bars.


New YORK, June 19.--The resent
shipments of s2,254, 900 in gold to Ger
many. s75OOOO of which went on the
steamship Columbia this morning, has
been followed by the circulation i'll
banking circles of several disquieting
rumors, one reaching government
officials to the effect that the
shipments are on direct orders
from the German chancellor. They re-
fuse to talk about the story, however,
although tacitly admitting that they
know of it. One of the leading bank
erS here said: "The recent advance in
exchange in Berlin and the low rate Of
sterling exchange in Germany arose
from the policy of extending the Ger
man export business, ard at the same
time placing such restrictions on i'm
ports as to practically prohibit them. The
reason for this policy is that the German
government is boarding gold, and no
matter what excuse the banker acting
as its agent might make, it is we'll I'M
dersto0d where their orders come from
and where the gold goes to-" Attention
was directed by other bankers to COM
parlSOn of the recent statements of the
Bank of France and the Bank of Ger
many. The Bank of France holds $780,
100000 in gold, while the Bank of Ger
many holds but $145, 100000. During
the past year the Bank of France
has increased its gold holdings by $780,
100000 while the bank of Germany has
lost S10000,00 This situation is said
to have been discussed by the German
cabinet and the Withdrawals from Lon
don and New York resulted. 1t is eSti
mated that Sl0,000,000 will be taken by
Heidelbach, lckelheimer 81 Co., on
present orders from this city, and
English bankers said to-day that
Sterling exchange, and exchange on
Paris, was just at the
gold shipping point, and that any fur
Their advance in rates would bring out
large export orders. The worst feature
OF the situation is the fact that gold bars
i'll the assay Office, which two years ago
amounted lou aa to to $4,000 900, have decreased
to 49,, 500, 900. Ii they should be all alb
sorbed drain on the double eagles in
the SubtreaSury would follow. and the
banks will lose part of their specie
holdings. The opinion on Wall
street is freely expressed that the
law allowing the withdrawal of gold
bars for export should be amended, and
that the treasury officials should insist
on paying all checks in coin. This
would limit the shipments of gold to a
small figure, for it would take wide
difference in exchange for shippers to
realize profit in shipping coin.
The reason of this is that gold bars are
of known fineness, and are charged for
accordingly. On the other hand, gold
coin often falls off per cent below the
standard of fineness, and in addition
there is always loss caused by abra-
sion. The Bank of England took this
course year ago when the rates of eX-
change were in favor of this coun-
try. A banking firm ordered gold
from the Bank of England, and
requested that it be paid in bars. This
request was refused and the bankers
got sovereigns. They sent some of the
sovereigns across the Atlantic and had
hem tried at the assay office. The re-
suit was that each sovereign turned out
only S4.S5 i'll gold, while the standard is
S4.S6 5-S, difference which wiped out
the estimated profits and prevented any
Importation of gold to this city.