New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-04-20
THE MEASURES OF EUROPE
FOREIGN Coins and Weights and
Their American Equivalents.
METRIC SYSTEM IN VOGUE
Traveller Will Do Well to Learn
the Money and Distance Terms
of the Lands He May Visit.

The American going abroad will find coin
age distance weights and measures OF all
sorts q bit confusing at first. He will have
TO learn an entirely new system of reckon
ing all these things, and the sooner he be
comes used to estimating distances in kilo-
metres instead Of miles. and so on. the
sooner he will be relieved of a lot OF vexing
problems. The thing to do Is to familiarize
ones self so thoroughly with the approx
mate relations OF foreign and American
measures that one will begin to think in
terms of the metric system. Once that
point Is reached the trouble vanishes, for
the metric system is so simple. so complete
and so straightforward that II is bound to
commend itself to the American mind.
Great Britain has perhaps the most cum
brous system OF coinage to be studied. be-
cause the number of coins is considerable.
and the system is not a metric, or deci-
NAL, one, as in this country. which confuses
the reckoning OF bills a good deal
The standard in gold coin is the sovereign.
or pound sterling. equivalent roughly
speaking, to "a 80 in American money. 20
marks in Germany. livre or. 20 francs. In
France. or % crowns in Austria The
French livre is worth less than the English
sovereign Of course. pound being worth.
]
coin in common use in Great Britain is the
annoying little half sovereign. a good coin
! to fight shy of, because It is so small as to
he easily lost. Guineas, worth q shillings.
are no longer coined. but still used in
reckoning prices. which is confusing. II is
annoying TO have a non-existent coin used
as price for many articles.
British Silver Coinage.
The silver coins nre the FIVE and four
shilling pieces, which are rare. and annoy
ing on account Of their unwieldly size: the
! half crown. worth in American money 50
I cents: the form. or two shilling piece, worth
IS cents; the shilling. worth "a cents: the
sixpenny piece. worth II cents. and the
| threepenny piece, worth S cents. These
smaller silver coins are very largely used
There are three copper coins. the penny.
the halfpenny and the farthing, worth. re-
| spectively. two cents. a cent and half a
cent They are very extensively used.
much more so than the copper cents in
/ this country. and a pocketful Of them rep
resents a good deal in weight. The penny
serves the purpose. very generally. OF the
American nickel. 1t buys many things that
cost five cents here, and is really a useful
and handy coin.
! Paper money is used much less In Great
Britain than here. There are one pound
notes. but they are confined chiefly to Ire
/ land The smallest paper note IN circula-
ton In England is the five pound note Of
the Bank of England. which is standard
money the world over. II is big piece OF
paper, very thin, and in some parts of Eng
| land the production of a banknote causes
| great excitement. The one who wants to
change it is often required TO indorse II, as
| he would a check, for there is fear of coun-
! terfeits. although successful reproduction
/ of the notes is practically impossible and
is seldom attempted nowadays.
The Bank of England issues its notes in
many denominations, ranging from FIVE
pounds through ten. twenty-five. fifty and
a hundred pounds UP to five hundred and
a thousand pounds. and even higher. The
notes that find their way back TO the bank
are always at once destroyed. and as a re-
suit the paper money of Great Britain is
much cleaner than in this country. The
notes are printed on cunningly designed
| white paper in a specially manufactured
black ink
In England weights and measures ar.
much the same as in this country. Tbs
| metric system of the Continent has never
made any Roadway worth speaking OF there
,
, ancient measures survive in their entirety
Metric Systems General Adoption.
2 On the Continent the metric system o
r weights and measures is practically uni
0 versal. The metre. which is equivalent Z,
2 g. little more than thirty-nine inches-tha
{ is about one yard and a twelfth-is tn
{ standard. The nearest equivalent to on
: mile is the kilometre, or ore thousand
{ metres, which represents about sixteenth
of mile. Five kilometres, roughly speak
n ing. may be taken as equivalent to thre
Q miles, and II this is remembered. with Tn
: practical equivalent OF a yard as a metr,
IL will be easy to approximate distance
| expressed in foreign terms.
A litre. the standard OF liquid measure
is very nearly equivalent to our quar-
being a little less. as a matter Of fact, 1
dry measure. and little more for I'll