Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1919-12-13
Silver Comes Back
by Frederic ]. Haskin


three times that figure, he is not per
| t,trbed
But there iH an unusual element In this
case. The silver dollar, which rs used ~
currency in this country, Is worth more
as metal than as monty when silver goes
above 100 When an individual may take
hundred silver dollars and melt them
and sell the resulting metal for more than
hundred dollars, there are sure TO be
people here and there who will go into
the dollar melting business. As matter
Of fact, there is no law to interfere with the
| melting Of silver coin Anybody who has a
dollar and wants to melt it may do SO.
MELTING poLI.ARs.
So IL appears that II silver goes much
! higher there will be the danger OF large
| industry growing out OF dollar melting.
| IF such an industry develops it IS obvious
| that silver coin will rapidly disappear from
/ circulation II the government attempts
| TO replace If, the result will be but 10 IN
crease the material from which the
ualters may make a profit. SOONER or
| later the end Of the reserve silver supply
Of the United States would be reached
and then, when the coin was melted, there
would be none 10 take its place.
This is Theoretically what would hap
| pen when silver goes above Sl.30 an
| ounce, or 81 30 10 be exact. of course
| the price would need to be several cents
over that amount 10 pay for the melting
and to Weld a profit that Is worth the
effort The dollars must be new, also,
for old dollars have lost some Of their
weight So it is apparent that tho nEtal
must f,o M to sl35 or better kefore there
will be much melting. 1t has not quite
reached that figure yet
The government would not worry much
II the silver dollars should be neltef- 1t
has not coined silver dollars for long
time It may never coin them again IL
is about converted 10 the belief that only
subsidiary coins. those Of the fractions
of dollar. should he Of metal. Unless
policy changes, the old iron man IS
destined to take his place with those who
have gone before.
But the subsidiary coin we must have.
Dimes and quarters and half dollars are
Indispensable We're there danger Of tho
silver meters getting busy on Subsidiary
coins there would be occasion for real
worry.
It happens, however, that the coin
makers, in the very beginning, took
precaution which fits exactly into the
present situation 1t would be interesting
II
or by accident Anyway they put less
silver in proportion to their value into
the subsidiary COINS than they did into
the silver dollars. Ten dimes, four quar-
ters, or two halves, weigh exactly the same
amount when they come from the mint
But dollar in any Of these subsidiary
coins weighs less than docs a dollar com.
While silver must be worth more than
81 % an ounce 10 affect the dollar coinage,
1t must be worth more than 81. .3S 10
endanger subsidiary coinage.
As q matter Of fact it viii have TO be
around 81 l45 or Sf.50 to pay for the
trouble, take care Of abrasion and pay
anything like worthwhile profit on the
melting business.
So the government IS not yet worrying
about having its dimes and quarters
melted When the point Of danger is
reached, there are several lines Of govern
ment action possible During the war
there was an embargo on silver. If this
embargo were put back, the demand
would be cut Of and the price might
tumble. Then there IS the possibility OF
prohibiting the melting Of subsidiary
com. This would discourage the industry
The Treasury has many million Of doh
lars worth OF silver and could readily re-
place lesser losses. There IS much silver
IN Treasury vaults In bullion. There are
vaults in New York, Philadelphia, Den
yer, IN which gold and silver IS stacked
up like sacks IN 8 granary. 1t Is meas sured
III tons, ID carloads, even IN shlpioads.
HIGHEST PRICE FOR FIFTY YEARS.
To appreciate the present silver stu
alton one must 60 back to the Is cents
an ounce in 1914. He must follow the
record back and find that the price has
PLAYED back and forth from 80 cents to
70 cents for 80 years. Never before since
1890 has silver gone above dollar an
ounce. Not since lS66 has It been up TO
its present price Until this war came,
the decline had been eonStant since the
Civil War Before the Civil War silver
ranged regularly around aS1.30 20 Sl.35.
1t was probably in those days that the
present amount of it came to be put into
our CONS, thus giving them an actual IN
trinsic value about equal TO their lace
value
The present boom in the silver market
Is due principally TO the demand for the
metal in the Far East. There Is likewise a
demand from several of the European
cations that have issued large amounts
of paper money and are anxious TO get
metal back of it to steady that currency
But the chief demand Is from India
China and Japan, all OF which are on 5
silver monetary basis.
The big run on American silver came
when, in the midst OF the war, Great
Britain came to us IN much pertur-
baton. The trouble Was IN India The
situation there Is unique. The East
Indian has an Unsuitable appetite for the
precious metals India Is known as the
sinkhole Of the world for gold and silver.
These metals 90 to India in shiploads, are
absorbed and disappear. There IS no
coinage with which to transact business
and the outside world sends more gold
and silver 1t is Indifferent. II India
wants to buil the precious metal market
the producers are glad Of the fact
But IN the midst OF the war there was
no.coln In India london had always been
the silver market of the world, and India
and China had bought through London
But now England was without silver
The only agency which could save India
was the United States Would we furnish
silver for the Orient?
We would. We had little matter Of
$50 00O, 900 silver dollars ready coined,
that We would sell to Grea< Britain for
use IN the Orient. Ii had cost us from 80
to 20 cents an ounce We were offered a
dollar an ounce The amount wanted was
about IL 900 tons of silver, enough of it
to load two big ocean liners, enough of
il to load string Of freight ears two miles
lonp We would nour these dollars into