The Winslow mail., 1900-06-21

|
dollar as the standard, in England
the pound, in France the franc, Ger
many the mark, etc. With us the
dollar was defined by act of congress
April 2, 1902, as Eeing 371A grains of
pure. silver. They did not define what
that dollar should exchange for, or
the value of it, nor is there such
law to this time, except the law of
supply and demand. The gold coin
was named eagle, to contain 247
grains of pure gold. by act of con
eress June IS, 1884, it was reduced to
2a2 grains of pure gold, The act
S3S 9EaIHS OF baE6 60IG' IHG aGG
value of ten dollars, or units. The
eagle, it's multiple and divisions are
the only things that the law has de-
fined as to what their values should
be in comparison with the dollar, not
limiting the amount. The law defin-
ing the English pound, or sovereign,
says that three pounds, II shillings,
1912 pence, shall be made of each
ounce of standard fneness of gold.
The English standard is II parts pure
gold one part alloy. In this law,
adopted in 1914, it was made obliga-
tory for the Bank of England to pur-
chase all gold presented at it's counter
at the rate OF r shillings, nine pence,
English standard, thereby establish
ing the value of an ounce of gold as
to their unit or standard of money
Of ho
this country between the standard
dollar and eagle, while France adopt
ed the franc, as the standard of value,
as containing 69.445 grains of pure
silver, but the smallest full legal-ten-
der piece coined was fve-franc
piece, to contain 347.228 grains of pure
silver, the gold coins to be five, ten,
10, SO and 100 francs, each to contain
q proportionate amount of standard
gold, which is the same as ours (nine
parts pure and one part alloy); and
here again we find that there is no
law as to the value of coins, only that
these gold coins shall be equal in
the payments Of tll debts, public and
private, as the fve-franc silver piece,
courts and public offices in francs it's
multiples and divisions, the same as
dollars in this country, and the pound
in England
Let us examine these moneys as
they are in comparison with ours in
this country. l will first take ours.
Taking the law of this country (sec-
tion 1864 Revised Statutes of the
United States) is as follows: "Thevalue
of foreign coin as expressed in the
money of account of the United States
shall be that of the pure metal of such
coin of standard value" (that is coin
that is Of full weight of the country
where ccined.)
If we have to take the pure metal
of foreign coins to get at the value.
we must take the weight of pure
metal IN our coins.
Section 3511 says: '"The standard
weight of the gold eagle or ten-dollar
piece shall be 25S grains"
Section 3514 says: "The standard for
both gold and silver coins of the
United States shall be such that Of
1000 parts by weight, 900 shall be
pure metal and 100 of alloy"
Then one-tenth Of the eagle is alloy,
that is, of the 25S grains 25.S grains
are alloy, deducting this, and we then
have 1922 grains of pure metal in
the eagle. There being 4S0 grains in
the troy ounce, we find the ounce O.
pure metal (gold) will make $50 di-
vided by 1922 the number of grains
in one eagle we find from the ounce Of
gold we can make 2.O67 eagles as the
eagle is of the value of ten dollars,
the ounce of gold made into coins
will be Of the same value as $20.67.
The silver dollar is defined in sec
ton 1 of act of February 2S, 1875
which reads as follows: THAT there
shall be coined at the several -mints Of
the United States silver dollars of the
weight of 412h grains troy of stand
ard silver as provided in act of Jan
uary IS, 1887"
BY the law, then, this silver dollar
contains cne-tenth alloy, one tenth of
41231 is Az. this deducted leaves US
then 371H grains of pure silver IN the
dollar. We will divide $50, the num-
Der of grains in troy ounce, by 371H
the number of grains of pure silver
contained in the dollar, and find it to
! be 1.292929, therefore, an ounce of
silver made into dollars will make one
and twenty-nine one hundredths dol
lars.
We are now prepared to make COM
parison of foreign coins, the pure metal
| contained in them with ours, knowing
their weight and tineness.
The ounce of gold will make $20.67 of
our coins.
The ounce of silver will make $1.29
of our dollars.
Turning to mint report OF 1896, page
432, we find the sovereign or pound to
contain 113O01597 grains of pure gold,
dividing 4S0, The number of grains in
the troy ounce, / find the ounce will
make 4.248 sovereigns, or pounds, divid-
ing. $2067, the number CT dollars an
ounce OF gold will make in our money