The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1920-07-19
SYSTEM
OF MONEY NOT TO
BE CHANGED SOON
(Kansas CITY Starr

The British royal commission on de-
cimal coinage, after Investigating the
coinage problem Of the empire has
reported that it is not advisable at
present to change the coinage system
to decimal basis.
The real difficulty in changing the
value of the penny, the popular stand
ard of value upon which most trans
actions are based, rises from the ques-
ton Of industrial insurance and friend
ly society payments, and, to a less
extent, national health insurance pay
ments, and premiums. In the opinion
Of the commission the adoption Of a
decimal system which changes the
value Of the penny would entail the
altering of millions of industrial con-
tracts
70 replace the present coins, the
half crown. the threepence, the penny,
half-penny, and farthing with coins OF
a new value might require the whole
normal output Of the mint, at it's pres
ent capacity, for thirteen years, moth
ing being left over for ordinary in
crease of currency. If one-half of the
output were devoted to- replacement,
binary demands this period might be
Faults of Present System
The coins most generally in use in
the British Isles are the crown Is
shillings, or $1.25), the penny, (02),
the farthing, GA penny, or 12 cent?,
the sovereign GO shillings, or 5000,
and the shilling (25 cents).
The disadva ntages of this standard
as suggested by the witnesses ex-
amined by the commission are % It is
hard to learn and involves a waste of
time in education of children; (2)
liability to error in keeping accounts;
CD waste of time to those unfa miliar
with the use of decimals in those bust
nesses in which calculations in deci-
mails are necessary or convenient;
(4) the necessity for an additional step
in the process Of arriving at the equi-
valent of the price in sterling or col
onial currency on a decimal basis;
(6) the handicap to the export trade
involved in the tendency of a foreign
buyer to overlook quotations in cur
rency which he finds difficult to con-
vert into his own.
V. S. Standard Recommended
One of the systems recommended
for the purpose of simplifying COM
mercial transactions was much like
the standard now in use in the United
States. The system has the halfpenny
as its basis. The coins recommended
are l royal. 100 halfpennies (silver),
half royal, so halfpennies (silver) ;
quarter royal, 25 halfpennies (silver);
10 halfpennies silver; nickel bit, five
halfpennies; bronze halfpenny; one
halfpenny.
This system, 1t is urged would
remedy each Of the faults credited to
the present system; it'would be easier
to learn, more simple in keeping ac-
counts, and would be less liable TO
errors as it would do away with the
use Of compound arithmetic. 1t would
be better system in which to com
pute amounts expressed as percent
ages, and finally, it would bring great
er ease in converting British money
into foreign money, its advocates de-
clared.
In replying to the complaints against
the existing system. the commission
answers the statements in the order
in which they were enumeratd in a
preceding paragraph.
(D Experts testified that while the
decimal system would be easier to
learn, very little time in school would
v
for compound arithmetic renders the
existing system less convenient in
some respects than the decimal sys-
tenn, there is no evidence that the mis-
takes in keeping accounts are caused
by the system. If, however, compound
arithmetic is felt to be an inconven-
ience, it may be avoided by comput-
ing in, pounds and decimals Of pounds,
DlaD that has been adODted in many
offices. There is, too, an advantage
in the present system in the matter
of keeping accounts in that the units
Of measure may be divided and subdi-
vided. (4) No difficulty should be ex-
perienced in calculating foreign ex-
change as tables are in general use
for this purpose. In any case the ne
cessity for calcula ton would remain,
as 1t would be necessary to convert
the British decimal system to the for
eign decimal system. 60 We are in
formed, reported the commission, that
there is no difficulty in making quota