The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-13

law--those of legal tender and REDEEM ption.
These are artificial. The other two, of ex-
change and value measurement, are natural.
There is no doubt that coined money existed
and was used to effect exchange of commodi-
ties and to denote values long before legisla-
ton concerning redemption or debt.
But, although the natural functions of coined
money are older, much older-that is, artificial
functons-yet both these classes of functions
are very ancient, almost coevil with the COM
merce of civilization. The natural functions
of such money used in designating the price
and effecting the transfer of commodities do
not depend wholly upon law-have never SO
depended-but depend also upon usage and
agreement. They have no natural or neces-
sary existence, the artificial functions depend
ing wholly upon law. When an article is sold
and delivered and the price paid and received
this is fnality, but creates the need that
some measure shall be enacted by the public
providing for the payment of the private notes
and of the redemption of the public in coined
money of the century.
This need is not a natural one IT is alto
gether artificial, and it is caused by the thing
which is called credit. Credit-that creature
OF legislation-that product of the statutes
Credit, the promise of to-day, the cash of to-
morrow, looking to the power OF the Govern
ment for the collection and enforcement of it's
obligations, cannot gainsay the right of the
same power to enact what sort and what guam
tity of coined money shall be paid and shall be
received in the discharge and liquidation of the
same.
Such is the legal tender quality and though
1t is highly artificial yet 1t is doubtless one of
the most valuable functions of coined money
He who would deprive one sort of coin of
this quality and leave it only with the other
where two kinds had been used before from
time characterization the origin of the credit
system-is guilty of gross injustice And that
equivalent policy-another way of doing the
same thing-which would permit only the
making and use of one sort of coined money
and which would prevent the free and further
making and use of the other, where both had
formerly been coined and used as money of
final liquidation, perpetuates and maintains
system of bondage.
Those great artificial functions of coined
money were not the cause OF its primary worth
and use, although they have aided very largely
to it in both these respects. Coined money
has always been and yet is in itself thing of
value and this value is of two kinds-a general
value derived from the material out of which
1t is mlnted and specific or particular value
determined by law. The first is called the me-
tallic or bullion value; the second is known as
the money worth or legal value. The latter is
always matter of law; the bullion value is
one OF estimation and opinion. Neither of the
| two coined metals of the world has the best or
highest elements of intrinsic OF inherent value.
| Both are used in the arts, but if the use to
which thing is put is to be sole measure of
| the value, iron, with its necessary product,
STEEL is the most valuable, it is the most use
| full of all metals. But the vast abundance of
| this useful metal, denoting fal supply unlim-
! tied, has deprived it of monetary functions.
| Silver and gold. in order, have been from the
Ri 0Cf fyrtnaC
coin metal among mankind. Silver and gold
have been deemed and called the precious
metals. The word precious indicates their
money use and origin. 1t leads directly to
price; it is not only closely related to but is
connected with price. Price is the name of
that sum of money in coin which we pay in ex-
change for what we wish to purchase and it
must have always been in itself thing of
value-a material capable Of easy carriage, of
other qualities suitable for coinage-and it
must have always had relative to other COM
modities, the quality of scarcity or scantiness
in supply.
For 1000 years gold and silver have been
mined, coined and used as money During all
that time these two precious metals have been
furnished, both as to quality and as to cost of
production, in such manner and amount as
not to be compared with any other COM
modities, as to admit of no comparison save
with each other. 1t has already been said that
the bullion value of the coin metals was
largely matters OF opinion and estimation.
The bullion value of silver and gold, here
and elsewhere, has always rested and rests to-
day upon one conception, upon .one opinion
upon one single and simple item of belief 1t
is an old belief, universally credited, based
upon the actual experience of 100 genera
tons of the human race. It is this: That, as
there has been in the ages past, so there will
be in the years to come, no discovery of either
of such metals which as to quantity or
as to the expense of producing shall make
them comparable in value with any other
materials suitable tor the use of mankind as
money. The faith and credit of mankind in
the natural and unconquerable limitation of
supply as to those materials rests mistaken
and undisturbed as it did at the first dawn of
commerce, as it did in the days of the old
patriarch whose "silver was current money
with the merchant"
There has always been difference between
the commercial or bullion value of the two
metals and the legal coinage value. This
characteristic of difference attaches to both
No denomination of the gold coinage of the
United States has bullion value equal to the
legal tender value thereof. The gold dollar is
not what it purports to be. The whole series
of these gold coins is made from bullion only
nine-tenths fine. 1 do not go into the reasons
for this; l state the fact. The whole of the
gold coinage is tithed-it is placed under par
bullion value of the subtraction of one-tenth
This is why the coins outside of our own
country pass only by weight, not by count
The missing tenth is what is called alloy. This
alloy is not gold at all. It is mixture of cop
per and silver, only one-tenth of silver and
nlne-tenths of copper. Of course this alloy re-
duces the commercial value as metal of the
whole series OF gold coin. This is nowhere
spoken OF because of a very curious claim made
by the advocates of gold recommendation that
piece of money whose bullion may be worth
less than its legal value is unsound and is
dishonest.
1t is the same with the silver coinage, the
dollar and that part called subsidiary money.
This Is coined under par commercially. Like
the gold coins, the alloy is one-tenth, wholly
OF copper, and besides that the proportion of
grains of metal used diminishes with the de-
nominations of the coins. The halfdollar has
but l92 grains, good deal less than half the
number OF the whole dollar; the quarter-dollar
has only So grains; the dime has only SO
grains. The holder of ten dimes has only $50
grains, yet he can get halves, or quarters or
the whole for those dimes, Notwithstanding
,, \, n0cf yNria &c