Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-07-09
COINS FOR ORIENTALS
representative Doolitsle Favors Mintirg
Special Dollars.
Our Relations With China and Japan
The Success of the Eng
lisll "ChOp' Dollar.

Representative Doolittle of Washington,
who has recently made a trip to China and
Jaran, speaks very encoura gingfy of the
prospect of extending American trade in
those countries. and he thinks that the
opening up of the interior of China, under
the provisions of its new treaty with
Japan, will furnish an opportunity for
American enterprise. He suggests various
methods of developing this trade, one of
which would be the coinage Of portion of
our silver product into coins, such as would
be accepted by the orentals. He observed
with especial interest the popularity of the
English silver coin known as the chop dol
lar, and expresses the opinion that the
United States should lose no time in INIT t.
ing the example of Great Britain in pre-
pairing a special coin for the trans-Pacific
trade.
Silver in the Orient.
'I have" said Mr.. Doolittle, "already
been quoted upon this subject and do not
wish to be put in the light of unduIy press
ing my veiws upon the public. I feel the
Importance of the question, however. The
good feeling on the part of both the Chi
nese and the Japanese toward the United
States is unmistakable, and the universal
expression of opinion among Americans in
both China and Japan with whom | talked
was that if the United States government
would only devote itself to the undertaking
1t could secure for the American people
a large share Of the oriental trade which
row goes to Europe.
''Silver is the money of the orient Gold
is at discount there. While gold is of
course, more valuable than silver at the
established ratio, even then the people pre-
fer the white metal, and I, for one think
that the United States Would score great
gain in that section of the world by open
ing It's mints to the absolute free coinage
OF silver. In lieu of that, and at least tenn
porarily, l should like to see the chcp dol
lar scheme adopted. The chop dollar is a
coin containing about 4l6ia grains, a little
heavier than our American silver dollar
Its particular value consists in the fact
that 1t IS known to the oricntals to be what
1t purports to be. They are suspicious OF
new designs. This fact explains the sue
cess OF the Mexican dollar and the chop
dollar in those lands. and the comparative
failure of our trade dollar of few years
since"
More ''ChOp'' Than Mexican Dollars.
Mr.. Doolttle says that according to his
observation there Were more of the chop
coins than Mexican coins in circulation.
They are marked on one side by the profile
of Queen Victoria and OF the other by the
oriental characters. indicating their value
The English government has found the
device to work so we'll that a large British
mint is berg established at Hong Kong
for their cottage. 4 see no reason" ne
said why the United States could not de-
wise coin which would be just as popular
1t would provide a market for portion of
our silver product, but above all would,
according to my opinion. go a long way
toward promoting our trade in that part of
the world. a chop dollar will buy as much
in China or Japan three gold dollars
will buy in the United States"
Mr.. Doolittle would not undertake to say
what amount of these coins should be
mirted in this country, merely expressing
the opinion that the quantity should lie
controlled by the demands of our trade
He thinks that with this concession to the
orientals and with a general reform in our
consular system, and the su5s.d!zing of a
few steamships in the Pacific the COM
merce of the United States with the orient
could be increased many fold.