Arizona silver belt., 1898-11-10

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 The 1-ccnt copper coin of tho United States is enjoying an increased popular demand. It is significant fact that the coinage of this piece has of very recent years taken up more of tho time of the Philadelphia mint than ever before. Three presses are now Ut work there on copper coinage, turning out iso,ooo cents a day. This rate has before been equnlea or exceeded, but it is worthy of remark now in view of the previous great output of the copper coins within the past dozen years. Since the foundation of the mint in l7ss l,Oee,C7T,sns one.cent pieces have been struck, md 1t Is estimated that some 7so o,ote COO pieces are now outstanding.
 But the great bulk of this coinage has taken place lately. From 1793 to the beginning of the civil war the coin. nge of the cent piece did not average much nborc ses,o0o worth year, or 2,sco,ooo pieces. Just prior to and dur. ing the wnr the coinage became un. usually large, but fell oil during the time of inflated prices to marked cx- tent. But in 1880 the penny coinage rose suddenly to an unusually high figure, and has kept there ever Sincc. Within the past Is years almost one- half of tho entire penny coinage of the whole country hes been executed. Of the amount outstanding of 73o,ooo,ooo pieces, no less than so4, 100000 pieces have been struck in the Is years. And the public demand for the coin appears to be unaba.ed and rather on the in- crease.
 The explanation of this is doubtless to be found in the more general prac- tice of cash payments in the retail trade ard the great fall in prices which has come about in the past 20 years. Not long ago the smallest coin lrown in the general circulation west of tho Mississippi river was the nickel 5-cent piece. Only within few days tho larger St. Louis papers were charging cents copy for their issues, when , cents, cents and even cent were the prevailing rates farther cast. Now pa- pers costing only the fraction of 8 nickel arc the rule rather than the ex. ception in the vest The growth of the country md the competition in business would of themselves finally bring the cent into active use therct but the downward course of prices has operated all over the country to mako 1t much rnope active coin than ever beforc. Odd prices are TOW frequent even where purchases are for round amounts or considerable sums. Penny bargain counters in some of the big de- partEcnt storcs have lately been intro duced. A Scent street car fare is not unknown; md no doubt is to become better known.
 In fact. 50 closely is the trade of the country calculating its prices that dc Eard my not i,c far off for the rein troduction of the half-cent piece. Frac- tional parts of Q cent are now very common in even retail quotations England finds use for such a coin in the bronzr farthipg, France in the sou. which is, however, more nearly ths value of cent than half-cent. Our own coinage laws have authorized the coinage of haif-cent piece, and from i793 to 1911 large number of thess pieces were struck. At two other pe- riods before the war there was some coinage of this coin; but in 1857 it was discontinued, and has not been since revived. The 2-ccnt piece was dropped in 1873. and the Scent piece in 1890.
 The growing importance of the penny or, more properly, the cent, has an important bearing on the economy of the people. It gives to the nickel. the dime, ard all pieces of money higher value in the eye of the rossessor than they tad before, and teaches cara in all expenditures. No one now needs to feel ashamed to wait at the store for the change to be brought back amounting to only cent. That penny has come to possess m important pIr. chasing power, greater than it has ever had before. Ard it is in the way of oo. ing advanced to second place above the lowest in the divisions of the monetary circulation.--springheid (Mass.) Rs- publican. .~