Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-11-23
George Roberts on Silver.

Our silver dollar coinage rat. Is
us and the rate for our suh-
sidiary coins $1-ss+. the latter being
, ,a proportionatsiy than the dol
originally intended to be . standar I'd
eoin-ehat is to say. its bullion value
and money value were intended to be
IDENTICAL. but the subsidiary coins
were intended to be merely token
coins. and purposely overyAlued in
order that they might not be taken ou ~.
OF the country or melted They are
OF limited tender value and redeema-
PIE AT the Treasury in full legal
with silver bullion in the public
rate for dollars, With a possihiiifv
that the price may even 20 above the
subsidiary rate. the situation is very
interesting. There is NO law against
the r=eiting Of our coins, and III the
market value of bullion should re-
main for some time above the COMA re
rate the coins undoubtedly would be
melted w
On November 1. 1919. the Treasury
estimated That the total stock of sill
Yer dollars in the country was S3oS. :
l4s.oeo or which $S1,ss5.oes were out
side the Treasury, $15Sl35,714 were
In the Treasury as trust funds against
silver certificates outstanding. and
aSS.41S.0e0 were in the general Treas
ury cash The pieces which have Al
ways been in the Treasury against
cernneates are full weight, but those
which have been in circulation are
in some degree abraded, and would
not yield full value IL melted The
s1IveH ceftlhcAtes in circulation are
mainly IN small denominations. and
could not be gathered up very rap
would be Accelerated if a premium
was offered for them.
Depends ON Trade Conditions.
Whether silver will 20 higher or
not depends mainly upon the Eeneral
trade situation between the rest Of
| the world and Asia, and particularly
upon the prices Of exports from
China. India and the other countries
demand at present is from China.
In 1914 the exports and imports Of
China nearly balanced, the former
Asgregatins S2s2.22s.000 and the lat
ter $29S.61s.0 600. In 1917 tho exports
were $7es.07l.oo0 against imports Of
s512.931.o00 and in 1918 the exnorts
were Ss7s.4oo.o00 against imports Of
In 1915 the normal movement Of sill
yer TO India was interrupted by the
German raiders in the Indian ocean
and the submarines in the Mediter-
| ranean and about the British Isles
The wants Of India were largely sun
piled from 1914 to 1917 from stocks
in China, and even in 1918 the ship
, ments from China continued. These
shipments reduced the stocks in Chin a
! below normal and partially explain
the extraordinary demands of China
this year
Sell Our Dollars.
THE nrosont s>>,,. .. +. -
tune time TO dispose Of all the re-
naming silver dollars and Congress
might well enlarge the authority of
, the Secretary of the Treasury to en-
able him to do this. II disposed of
upon the same terms AZ to repurchase,
which provide that the Secretary shall
replace the silver by purchasing hull
lion at 31.oo per ounce. it would Gre
ate . still larger reserve market at
that price. afording a very important
guaranty Of stability to the silver
producing industry. besides rendering
a world service by establishing the ex-
changes in the present. emergency.
The disposition Of the silver dollar
| reserves and Substitution of federal
| reserve bank notes for silver certifi-
money outstanding without metallic
reserves. but for many years the sill
yer certificates have been virtually
| considered as Treasury obligations,
without much reference to the silver
| reserves, which were worth only
about 50 cents on the dollar. The fed
eral reserve notes issued in substitu-
ton for silver certificates are in small
! denominations. as were the certih-
| Gates. and are to be regarded as q re-
tail currency. kept in circulation by
! the needs Of trade. and not at all
likely tn hA n mAnaeA to thA Hnld re-