Omaha daily bee., 1896-09-26
CHEAP MONEY IN FRANCE.
Shnrpers Unload II Quantity Of bogus
Copper Coins.

COppcr Coins.
France has a small free coinage crisis on
hand. which, while amusing In its manfes-
tations, really embodies a serious object
lesson in this department of finance. The
offending metal in this case is copper in
stead of silver writes a correspondent OF the
New York sun. but the principle involved
is precisely the same as that which fur
nishes the chief issue in the United States
campaign. 1t is matter of almost as
much difficulty to confine the circulation
of small coin in Europe to its native coun-
try as it would be to restrain to local cir
culation the small currency of each state
in the United States, provided each com
monweath had a mint of its own. Gold
passes current practically at its face value
everywhere, no matter what national stamp
Ii bears. 1t is different with silver and
copper, for the reason, of course, that their
intrinsic value is much below their stamped
value. The silver currency of all countries
except Italy suffers, however, only to the
extent of the cost of exchange, |. e., the
expense of sending it back to its native
land. Italian silver is at a discount be
cause it is not redeemable; it ranks just
the same as the Italian paper money, which
iuctuates with the rise or fall of the credit
of the Italian government.
The value of copper coins in Europe, as
in other parts of the world likewise de-
pends solely upon the credit of the issuing
government, for their intrinsic value as
metal is even smaller in proportion to their
stamped value than in the case OF silver
coins In France and some other CONT
mental countries it has been customary to
accept any copper coin of the size of the
10-centime (2-cenD piece without botherlns
to note whether 1t comes from the French
or from some other mint The postofiices,
the railroads. everybody, have taken in and
paid out the copper pennies without question.
Certain clever but INSCRIPTIONS persons
have recently taken advantage OF this ma
tional complaisance and have undertaken to
carry on a lucrative and nefarious trafhc.
We have heard how two three small
states, such as Liberia, enhance their ma
tional revenues by cateringl to the world
wide passion for stamp collecting bThe latest
device is not so legitimate. 1t consists IN
turning out an immense number of copper
coins at the mere expense of the crude metal
and cost of mintng. The profit is enormous
much greater. in fact than the paltry 40
or 80 per cent which the owners of great
boards of silver in India expect to realize
when the United States mints are opened
10 free coinage | am not sure that the sharp
ers who are playing the game in France take
the trouble to obtain their coin from o law
full mint although most OF the stuff is os-
! tensibly issued by one of the South Ameri-
can republics usually the Argentine The
modus operand is this: A city or dis
| trict, usually on the coast or frontier is
| flooded Systematically for several weeks
with the copper pennies until In the ag-
| gregate a large sum is in circulation. Then
| suddenly the conspirators themselves cul-
| tivate a popular prejudice against the stuff.
| Local street railways, tradesmen, and also
the postofIice begin to refuse the foreign
| coin. Everybody seeks to get rid of 1t
| at any price, and the sharpers are able to
| buy 1t back at slight advance above its
| value as old metal. Then they pack it UP
and go off to play the same game else
| where.
| Several times recently the trick has been
| played on such a large scale that 1t has
| aroused serious popular disturbances. In
| Bordeaux last week there were genuine riots
caused by the issue of a government order
| refusing to accept Argentine pennies for
| postage stamps, tobacco and matches.
Tradesmen of course promptly adopted the
same course, and the working classes. who
are the real sufferers, revolted. Urgent
representations have been made to the gov
ernment from several parts of France and
adequate measures for dealing with the
evil will doubtless soon be adopted.