The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-03-30
The "Whig" on SeigniOrage.

The "Whig" on Seigniorage.
If President Cleveland is shown
a copy of the Cecil Wing of last
, week and its general status explain
) ed to him, he would most likely
exclaim with the Greek statesman,
: "What crime have / committed
that my enemies should praise me"
This unusual performance on the
t part of the Whig,-praising Cleve-
land-appears in an amusing article
, in the editorial department of that
veracious paper last week. The
seigniorage is under discussion, and
the editor knowing nothing about
, the subject the attempt is made to
; gather from the daily paper whose
constant effort is to mislead the
public on all financial questions of
course the reader of this calculation
of the seigniorage will be more in
the dark at the end than in the
beginning. The following is the
Whig's definition of "seigniorage."
"Legitimately used, the term
"seigniorage" means, the cost or
charge made by the Government,
for the coinage of silver bullion
voluntarily brought by individual
owners to the minis. In other
words it means, the accumulated
profit or gain the Government has
made, upon the mechanical act of
converting silver bullion into coin
for the use and benefit of the in
dividual owners of silver-mostly
mine owners"
Now isn't that a luminous defini-
tion(?) After reading that an ape
ought to understand "seigniorage"
and "fiat" money.
In olden times when owners of
silver took their bullion to the
mint, the silver bullion was mixed
with one tenth copper, called alloy,
for the purpose Of toughening the
metal, this mixture is known as
coin metal, the surplus created by
the addition of the alloy was
called seigniorage and belonged to
the government. But since John
Sherman clandestinely had silver
demonetized bullion owners cannot
take their silver to the mint and
have it coined, but the government
: since 1879 has been purchasing
silver in the open market along
) with other spectators and issuing
. nOtes-silver certitlcates-in pay
ment for the silver at market price
r up to 1890 when the Sherman law
f was passed $2,O0O,OO0 a month was
coined. After the Sherman law
was passed in 1890 the government
continued to purchase silver at
market price and pay for it in
illegal tenders" By this silver
speculation of the government, a
surplus has accumulated in the
Treasury of bullion OF uncoiped
silver sufficient to make 30, 900, 900
coined dollars. The Wing in it's
cuckoo role following the lead of
FIX Mayor Hewitt and the gold ring
dailies calls this thousand ton or
more of silver a "vacuum."
The law says the silver eertifi-
: Gates and legal tenders shall be re-
deemed in coin, and that the Trea-
surer shall coin this silver into dol
lars and redeem the notes ON de-
mand, If there was to be a demand
made on the Treasurer for "redemp-
ton" of the notes the Treasurer
could not pay them in bullion but
In coin and when all those notes
which have been issued in payment
for the thousands Of tons of silver
in the Treasury vaults had been
"redeemed" in coin there would be
enough silver left to coin $55, 000,.
900 which belongs to the govern
ment and is called seignOirage. That
is pretty solid "vacuum.n
In order to demonstrate what
Substantial money these silver dol
lars are and also the silver notes
we publish an extract from Senator
Teller's speech delivered in the
Senate when the "seigniorage" bill
was under discussion. The Senator
said:
1t has been taken everywhere,
and as my colleague stated the
other day, it is as potent for pur-
chase and payment in Great Britain
las it is here. Ip every country
where we trade and traffic, wherever
civilization exists, the silver certi.
ficate is the equal of gold in every
respect. / do not care whether YOU
go to Mexico or whether you go to
lthe Continent of Europe, you may
put down your greenback, your
Treasury note, QF your silver certi-
ticate, and it is just ~ potent in
purchase and payment as the gold
eagle, and in many cases will be
taken in preference to gold q am
jspeakiAg .loW outside of our own
country, because it caa be returned
to this country at less cost than
either gold OF silver can be return.
ed. The despised silver dollar in
London is not bullion. The man
who charges that the silver dollar