The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1896-08-13
SILVER BEFORE THE WAR.

In The NATIONAL TRIBUNE of July %
that there was only 100000 silver dollars
coined IN this country from 1892 to 1878
They say there was S140,0OG,000 coined In
silver coins during that time, and there was
besides about 100000. oC0 of foreign silver
coins in circulation making in all over S24O,-
100000 of silver instead OF Sc, 100000, as yon
stated. We have explained that your state
ment was correct rs far as it went, that is,
on the dollars, but the silver crankS harp on
your further assertion that for every dollar
In silver there had been 100 gold dollars
coined. They say that if you con6ne the
silver issue to The dollar piece you must also
confiDe the gold issue TO the dollar piece, and
leave out all the 5, 10 and 20 dollar pieces
In which nineteen-tweniiethso OF the gold was
coined.
They contend that your statement is
not fair nor truthful, and is intended to
mlslesd, so / write you that you may correct
yonr error if You have made one. or justify
yourself if you have not. and that We may
have the truth, for that is what we want,
and will have, before we vote either for
Mckinley or Bryan.-P. w. ANDERSON, Blue
Island, III.
The weakness Of the Free Silver state
ment lies in the fact that the subsidiary
coinage did not then cut any figure in
the coinage statements any more than 1t
does to-day. Coins under dollar, in
this country, under one pound in Eng
land, under five francs in France, and
so on in other countries, are never re-
garded, when speaking accurately, as
"coins." The more proper name for
them is "tokens," because they are gen
orally of much less than their face value,
and are of very limited legal tender
They are merely popular conveniences.
There is good reason for making them
of less intrinsic value. 1t costs about
as much labor to make cent, nickel,
dime, quarter, or half-dollar, as it
does dollar or an eagle. If these were
made worth their face, immense guam
titles would be continually used up in
the arts, and the work of the minis to
keep the people supplied with small
change would be enormously increased.
We see this illustrated in the case of such
tokens as nickels and cents. Ofnickels the
= Ill.
of PSI ,054,4 in IS years, and last year
coined $4,000 pieces, worth, at their
face, nearly half million dollars. Of
cents the minis have coined 1,l44,749,-
100 pieces, or enough to give Is to every
man, woman, and child in the country.
They coined last year SO, 343,636 cents.
As to the Spanish and Mexican silver
in the country, that is the n,erest guess
work. 1t may have been S50,000,000,
and may have been three times that
much. At all events, much the largest
portion Of it-ceItainly rs per cent
were small coins passing as change, and
therefore not to be considered as coins
The facts are that they drove our own
email coinage out of circulation. in
obedience to the law that the poorer
money always drives out the better. We
were then making our subsidiary coins
of full weight and value-that is, half
dollar had really half as much silver in
it as dollar. The Mexican and Spanish
coins were so worn that they were all
more or less under weight. The COM
mon practice was " that as long as the
pillars showed" the coins were taken for
their face value. When the pillars
were worn off the halfdoilar was only
taken for 40 cents, and the quarter for
20 cents.
Our new coins were snapped up as
fast as they came from the Mint, and
sent out of the country, because they
then had bullion value equal to their
face.
The coinage act Of 1853 remedied
this by lowering the weight of the minor
coins. The halfdollar was reduced
from 20S grains to 1872 grains; the
quarter from 103s grains to So grains
and the dime from Al grains to 1888
grains. Thus two halfdollars, four
quarters or 10 dimes, had bullion
value of about SO cents, and it was no
longer profitable to melt them up, or use
them for electroplating or making nitrate
of silver.
To take up the question of the S.
$40, $40 pieces, etc: To consider coin.
age properly, we must confine it to what
is absolutely and exactly money. The
only absolute, exact money in the United
States are standard silver dollars, anC