The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-06
A COSMOPOLITAN COIN.
The Aid II Would BE to Travellers
in All Countries.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer
For many years commercial men Of all
nationaliues have spoken and written on
the subject of the introduction of a sys-
tenn of coinage which should have a uni
versal standard. The proposition has fail
ed to meet with success on account of the
difficulty in persuading the people of differ
ent countries TO abandon their own eys.
TENS of coinage, which appear to them
part and parcel of themselves, as much a
their language itself
THE time seems approaching" said
Philadelphia fnancier, when it viii be
possible. and perhaps advisable, for ihe
great nations of the earth 10 meet in con-
vention and adopt a coin which shall be
cosmopolitan, the weight and fineness of
which might be determined by the con
vention, and the minting of which might
be intrusted to a body of experts made up
of representatives from all the nations
who care 20 enter into the project 1t
may be some time before this comes
about, yet ii would greatly facilitate inter-
national business, especially since large in
ternattonal transactions have come to be
quite common. Such a coin would prob
ably never supplant the coin local to the
various countries in which also the cosmo-
poitan coin became current, yet with ed
ucation taking such strides as Il seems
to be doing everywhere il ought not 10 be
difficult to instruct the children in schools
in the table of the proposed coin, and give
them practical Illustrations in its use.
Such a coin would net be welcomed onthus-
iastically by small traders in different
countries who are won't to profit by the
unfamiliarity of travellers with the coin
of the realm and their natural bewilder-
meut in attempting to fix in their minds
the comparative value Of articles consid-
cred in relation to the money they have al
ways handled, but it would be a boon 10
the great travelling worlds public, TO our
globe trotting commercial travellers, 10
opulent tourists and to INDECENT emigrants
The current is surely in the direction OF
a universal harmonizing of commercial
interests and the elimination Of all the lit
tie tricks by which people deal to them
selves lucky cards and a relegation of all
things and people in trade TO sound ba-
sis of intrinsic merit"
THE subject of a cosmopolitan coin is
not a new one" said George Stevenson,
of the banking firm of Sailer & Steven
son, recently. "In some of the aspects Of
TIE case 4 appears to be very desirable.
It has been suggested that the various
commercial nations agree upon gold
coin. of uniform weight and fineness. to
be given a name which would be under
stood in most of the countries agreeing
to its coinage. Each country is to coin
it's own pieces and to be responsible for
their accuracy. The coin is to have on
one side the stamp or legend Of the coun-
try coming il, and on the other side its
universal name. 1t will readily be seen
that with such a coin in universal use,
both in practice and accounts, CONNER
cial transactions would no doubt be great
ly facilitated. l do not look, however,
for its early accomplishment
Its desirability is not sufficient TO over
come the long established customs of the
various countries so as to lead them to
relinquish the names and style Of their
various coins. Conservative England for
instance, with its cumbrous system. is not
likely to relinquish its pounds, shillings
and pence and adopt the decimal system
of France, Germany. Italy and the United
States And it is not likely that the latter
would give up their quick and handy dec
imal system for that of England. On
the whole, the idea is a very good one,
but, like many other good things-like the
proposed metrical system, for instance
impossible of accomplishment for various
reasons at present"