Evening star., 1920-02-22
Queeresf Money Adventure
!, In History of the World
Sterling Heilig, Paris Correspondent Writes
of Astonishing State of SilUer Coin
Thr0uqhout Whole of Europe.

|, ing France alone that Watches her
disappearing silver. The boche has
none to melt mean. in circulation.
AS for us Americans, the recent deci-
sion of the United States Treasury to
melt up 100000 silver dollars and
use the ingots for settling trade bal
ances in China has brought to light
the fact that the American dollar is at
discount in several oriental coun-
tries-as 1t was, up to recently, in
Switzerland and Spain-includtng
China and India This astonishing
Of exchange) Is brought about by i'm
mese trade balances in favor of China
and India which have piled up in the
United States and in Europe. The
demand has been for payment in sill
yer. and the price of that metal has
advanced gradually to point which
makes the amount of pure silver in an
American dollar worth considerably
more than the face value Of the coin.
You see. We ourselves-the United
States Treasury-have begun to melt
it into merchantable bullion. Why
should we hand p coined bonus to the
Chinese equal to 100000 times 80
cents? Wed feel like it ourselves.
If this sort of thing continues. the
governments of Europe (and. doubt
less, our own) may be constrained to
call in the entire silver circulation
French silver dollars ceased to run
the streets around about November,
1914. But just rare. nothing more.
Cashing some American checks at
Geneva in January. 1915, 1 obtained,
for the asking. ESQ silver dollars at
labor. two valises. q passport and the
MO- Nobody Cd sea Searched me: Nobody re-
lieved me. Nobody offered me a bo-
nus: and in Paris little by little those
silver plunks were frittsred away
paying rent and grocery. Had stood
them off-moratorium!- Il could have
so per cent reduction today. Instead,
the landlord tried to double our rent
at armistice. I don't know what he
did with the silver. but I'll bet he
G9Id have " it s. BY Rssens pat n.
known how. before 1t disappeared.
French peasants have patrioticai-
ly given their gold to the govern
ment." it was generally. understood.
and. a. they've got to hoard some-
thing. they are loading the woollen
stocking with. silver dollars"
Fractional silver began to grow
less plentiful at the same time, but
much slower. Around 1918, in Tours,
it was real Inconvenience. Its
the peasants" sneered the cashier
lady at Felix Potin's; they come into
clean up all the fractional silver
take 1t with them"
~
But--here 10 the queer thing-lons
before that copper sous (large one
cent and two-cent pieces) had disap-
peared even more completely, and,
although the French government was
coming them continually and still at
a proflt. the drain continually kept
up with the new supply. and left
the dearth Of copper sous continual
Hoarding! So the wise continued
to explain' it. even when. in flow and
ebb. again and again. the fractional
silver reappeared and became prac-
tically current again during several
periods of the five years of war.
Yet all the time those copper sous
continued shy. The municipality of
Neuilly in 1917 coined aluminium
tokens. which became locally current
for 4 cents each. Neuilly never issued
tokens for fractional silver.
'The boche is buying it up" be-
came an explanation.
what. copper? Why, the value Of
their face" 1t was objected. sYes."
it was answered, "but they're hard
up for copper in munitions. and they
don't care what they pay"
All right; but how about the silver
when its weight was worth less than
profit on 1t to outsiders is only re-
cent. AS early as August IL, 1914. it
was already 80 scarce at Marseille
that the chamber Of commerce of that
city made a first issue of 100000
francs Of fifty-centime (ten-cent)
notes for trade convenience. guaran-
teed by the deposit of 100000 francs
real money with the French treasury
department. The city Of Bayonne
made her first similar issue on Janu-
ary 16. 1915. And thenceforth the
chambers Of commerce or municipali-
ties of all the larger French cities
and some departments were prac-
tically forced to issue such paper
money for the then equivalents of
10 cents. 20 cents and 40 cents. A
even seen them for Is centimes q
cents), but very rare. It was Mar
seille, quite early in the war.
Amateurs make collections Of these
"coupures." One party Of my, ac-
boche-occupied French territory be-
ing then more or less rare. incom-
plete. differently issued and includ-
ing larger sums. Impossible to be
guaranteed by a deposit (the boche
would have gobbled it,. these latter,
issued Dy FTencn ChaHDcTS OF cOm-
merce OF Municipalities. whether by
free will or constraint of the invader.
are paid on sight by the French gov
ernment. 10 -
All others are systematically guar
antesd BY deposits Of real money with
the French treasury department in
lump sums equal to each issue.
Nevertheless, they produce q great
profit.
You see. to be redeemed these frac-
tionaI paper tokens must be presented
for payment in the city where they
were issued, and. in many cases-per-
haps most eases-a time limit for
redemption is engraved, plain. clear
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