St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1895-08-09
HISTORY OF COINAGE.
SIXTY-ElGHT YEARS UNLIMITED USE
OF BOTH METALS.

cents have it stamped 100 cents. With
out government support 4l2l@ grains Of
silver and the new silver dollar would
be Of the same exchangeable value. The
question, therefore, u.s. What effect
would free coinage have on silver bull
lion? Would 4l2R grains of silver be-
come worth as much as 25. 8 grains of
gold? Would free coinage give it an ex-
changeable value equal to our present
dollar in the markets Of the world? If
the value Of silver isnot doubled by free
coinage, then the eXchangeable value of
our new silver dollar must drop to the
actual value Of the silver put into it.
We would not have bimetallism, but
a gold dollar worth twice as much as
the silver dollar, and the silver dollar
would become the standard measure of
value, driving the gold dollar out of cir
culation. We would reduce our stand
ard one-half.
When the act Of 1892 was passed, JEFF
ferson and Hamilton both determined
to make the new gold and silver dollar
equal in value to the then standard of
measurement, which was a dollar equal
to 243 grains of gold. They recognized
the fact that the exchangeable value of
coined dollar must be controlled by
the commercial value of the bullion put
upon it. Therefore they undertook to
find how many grains of silver uncoined
were commercially equal in value to
24A grains Of gold. They decided thai
it required 10 times as many and null
tiplying 2424 by Is placed 81 . grains
of silver in dollar.
This undervalued gold For the first
few years, owing largely to the lack of
quick international communication it
circulated to limited extent, and then
long before 1884, went entirely out of
circulation, and we We're on the silver
standard. In 1884 Jackson sought to re-
store bimetallism, but he was unwilling
to change the standard upon which husi-
ness was then being done. He recog-
nlzed the danger to commerce Of chang
ing the standard. He therefore reduced
the amount of gold put into the dollar,
so that under the new coinage the bull
lion value of both dollars would be lust
equal to the dollar then in use, and at
his instance new ratio of 16 to was
passed. 1t was soon found that this new
ratio undervalued silver, and shortly
after 1884 this country went to the gold
standard of %. s grains of gold to the dol
lar and has been on it ever since, with
the exception of the time incident to the
war.
Under the new ratio, after 1884, even
fractional currency was worth more
when melted than its coinage value.
and therefore in 1858 it became neces-
sary to provide fractional currency,
containing reduced number of grains
to the dollar, and their legal tender was
limited to So. The Spanish milled dol
lar was still in circulation, but the
highest amount Of foreign silver by the
estimates Of the treasury department in
circulation at any time was $50, 900, 900.
In 1860 the gold circulation was
S214, 000,O 900 and subsidiary silver
$21, 900, coo. While 4 200, 900 silver dol
lars had been coined they have all gone
out of circulation, being worth more
when melted as bar silver than their
face value.
These facts prove that free and unlim-
tied coinage of both metals by the Unit
ed States did not substantially affect
the bullion value of either metal; that
the cheaper metal became the standard
of value, and the other went out of cir.
culation.
If 6S years Of experience with free
and unlimited coinage of both metals
showed that by free and unlimited coin
age we were unable to affect, first, the
value of silver, to make it equal to gold
at the ratio Of 10 to /, or. second. the
value of gold, to make it equal to silver
at II to /, when the difference in their
bullion value was only per cent, is it
not preposterous to claim that free and
unlimited coinage now will so increase
the value of silver when the discrepancy
is 90 per cent?
1t cannot be claimed that the legisla-
ton by the United States in 1878 seri-
ously affected the commercial value Of |
silver, for since that time we have fur
nished amarket for 5000, 600, 900 of sill
yer, very much more in proportion to
our Increasing commerce than went
through our minis during the days of
free and unlimited coinage of silver.
The fall i'll the price of silver eau
easily be accounted for. In 1873 tho |
worlds product of silver at coinage
value was $S1, 900, 900; in 1892, it was
S196, 400, 900; in 1898, 5000, 1G5, 900,
and in 1894, $214, 4S1, 900. This enor
nous increase in the production of sill
yer took place despite the fact that sill
yer had fallen in value so per cent.
By legislation passed in 1919 Nor
way and Sweden and Germany suspend
I'd the coinage of silver in 1874. Ger
many demonetized silver and put $780,
300, 600 of bullion upon the markets of
Europe. Denmark, Holland, Russia.
Austria and Hungary each suspended
he coinage of demonetized silver. Tho
latin union, composed of France, Bel
GUM, Switzerland, Italy and Greece,
vas forced to suspend the coinage of sill
'er because it was found impossible by
rec coinage to sustain the value of sill
'er bullion, This was done by suspen-