The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1908-12-31

the French five-franc piece as a basis,
and to strike gold coins OF the de-
nomination OF 25 francs for interna-
tional use.
Trying to Find Standard.
To bring the five dollar gold piece
70 the value of twenty-five francs il
would have been necessary TO reduce
ITS value seventeen and one-half cent
The British sovereign would have
ad TO suffer reduction in value OF
cents. A reduction IN the stand
ard of the British gold coins was dis
tasteful to the representative of Grea:
Britain and it was suggested As a
compromise that the United States
gold dollars be taken as a basis
which would increase the standard
-ather than lower it. This suggestion
did not meet the favor of the con-
vention.
The French mint in 1867 struck a
gold coin fulfilling the reqmrmen:s
Of the plan considered by the CONVEX
ton 1t was about the size OF five
tollar gold piece and on the diverse
bore the laureatcd mead OF Napoleon
III. Under the bust was the name OF
he engraver, Barre" On the reverse
vas a circle inclosing the inscription
Five Dollars twenty-five Francs
While around the border was inscrio.
ed, "Or Essai Monetaire'
Three duplicates OF this coin in
gold were given to Samuel B. Rug
giles, the United States delegate II
he convention, by Senator Dumas,
resident of the French Commits sion
on Coins and Medals, for presenta-
ton to the President, Secretary OF
State and Secretary OF the Treasury
Of the United States. and fourth
One of these coins tnrned up at TIE
Stickney sale of hast year and bro right
specimen was given TO Mr. Ruggles.
SIS.
The new coin was OF the denomi,
nation of SO, and was intended TO
pass for an equal value in FIVE differ
ent European countries. On the OBJ
verse was head of Liberty wearing
diadem ornamented with FIVE stars.
On the diadem was the word '.Liber-
ty." Across the neck was an olive
branch, to the end of which was at
tached a ribbon. Below was the date.
1874"
The reverse was divided into seven
irregular sections. In the center was
Inscribed 1872 Grams 900 Fine. Ubi
que" In the second section was in
scribed Dollars TO-" The third con-
tanned, Sterling BIB l u; fourth.
Marker, 4199" fifth, 'Kronen 1891
sixth. "Gulden 2O73, and the seventh
Francs 51s1."
This com was struck in bronze and
aluminium, but met with no better
success in Congress than its prede-
cessor. By no means discouraged,
Mr. Bickford proposed two other in
terlational coins of the denomina-
tion of half dollar and ten dollars in
1876.
The reverse design OF the silver
tece contained seven circles, the
first of which inclosed the inscription
1850 Grams Unique" second
Sterling 12'; bird, Marker" 225''
fourth. "Kronen 1s9" fifth, Florin
i.O1"; sixth, Peseta 241"; seventi,
Francs 27O." The diverse design
was that of the half dollar of regu-
lar issue of the year 1876.
No Dies Were Made.
The diverse of the dollar piece had
the same diverse as that of 1874, but
bore the date 1876" below the head
u Liberty and the denomination
Ten Dollars" On the reverse in
the first of the seven sections was
inscribed 1872 Grams 900 Fine. Ten
Dollars The second section contain
ed the inscription in Russian "Rubels
125s"; third, Sterling 211"; fourth.
Marker 4199"; fifth, Kronen 1881"
sixth, "Gulden 2O7O" (instead OF 90
49," as on the 1874 piece, and
seventh, Francs 51.s1.'.
So far as known, dies represent
ing the above designs were not made.
The last United States internation-
al gold coin was made in 1879 at the
mint. AT this time the coinage COM
mittee of Congress had under consid-
Grafton metal called goloid, the
patent of DIR. W. wv. Hubbell, who
proposed to use it for coins in de-
nominations ranging from a dime to
twenty dollars, with the weights and
measures based on the continental
metric system.
DR.. Hubbell worked out the prob
lem in a metrical coin of 400 even
cents value, which would contain six
grams of pure gold, three decigrams
of pure silver and seven decigrams OF
pure copper, having a total weight
of seven grams. This piece was close
TO the value of the Austrian eight
ITALIAN twenty lira, Spanish twenty
pesetas and the Dutch eight forms