Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-06-13

Early in the war, England made use of the
geographic positions of her colonies to reduce
her gold shipments to minimum. vaults
| for receiving gold were established in Brit
ish Africa Canada and Australia, and money
deposited in these vaults accounted the
same as a deposit in the Bank of England
This enabled America to meet it's obligations
| to Great Britain by way of the Canadian
bank and risk of crossing the Atlantic was
avoided
Though billions of dollars in gold and
silver we're shipped from one country to an
! other during the war, money played COM
paratively small part in financial transac-
tons Since 1892, little over $17,O00,000,-
600 in gold has been produced in the world.
| The amount Of silver produced IN that time
| is little less in value. Comparing this with
| the 100000, 100000 or more spent by the
allies, it will be seen that necessarily most Of
| the trading and loan transactions had to be
| in the form of exchange and credit on mate
rials.
! Each country at war boarded it's gold and
| drew on it only when it's creditors demanded
it, Belligerents hesitated to ship gold to
neutrals for fear the money would reach their
enemies. Yet gold or promises were the only
return they could offer for supplies at the
| time. Countries at war called upon their
citizens to bring gold to the government and
exchange it for paper as patriotic duty.
Because of this '3ncentration Of gold in banks
and treasures, cid coinage has become al
most unknown n ordinary circulation. The
| small prOpOrClCI Llat IS not u6lu ny Cu6 gov
ernments is hidden away by people who re-
| fused to give up their coin, which they knew
had permanent value, for paper, which might
| become worthless.
In many countries silver coin has become
| as scarce as gold, because, like the gold, it
was boarded by the governments and the
people. Even copper and nickel were forced
| out of circulation in some countries, due to
war demands for these metals AS a substl-
| tute for the minor coins of copper and silver,
Tho 9T1U
and scandinavian countries issued iron
pieces, France printed pasteboard money, and
Russia used postage stamps. Germany also
printed paper money, said to be OF the small
| est denominations ever issued. One-fifth of a
cent was the value of the smallest of these
'shinplasters.'
! The effect of war on minor coinage, copper
especially, is being felt in this country also.
| Here the situation is not due to a lack OF
metal, but to war prices and war taxes Ever
since the first "war prices brought the penny
into prominence, the minis have been put to
| it to keep up the demand.
Philadelphia coined over 100000 one
cent pieces last year, and just when the de-
mand began to be less insistent and the
minis had accumulated 44,000,000 extra new
pennies in the vaults for future use, the lux
ury tax went into effect. In a week the A.
! 100000 cOppers were absorbed, and now all
| the minis working tWenty-fOur hours a
day so that everybody will have the neces-
sary increase in his quota of pennies.
There are 100000, 600 one-cent pieces in
circulation which is about thirty apiece for
our population. Of course, some of these are
| lost, put in penny banks, or otherwise out of
the game. But the losses are comparatively
small, and the minis are turning out 100,-
100000 new cOppers month.
The strain on the minis will be somewhat
lessened when the Philippine Island mint is
ready for business. Heretofore foreign coins
used in the Philippines have been minted in
the San Francisco mint. Thirty-three million
Spanish pieces were turned out in San Fran
cisco last year, but soon the islands will have
their own coin factory. Machinery for the
Philippine Island mint is already finished.
It was made at the Philadelphia mint machine
shop, which Mr.. Ray Baker, director of the
mint, pronounces one of the best equipped
machine shops in the United States.