Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1922-02-24
THE FUTURE OF SILVER

Because of its monetary use in sub sidiary coinage and in the Orient, sil- yer of all the metals has responded, in the most eccentric way not only to the process of world imitation but also to the deflation which is now taking place. During the war period silver , was the last of the metals to rise in price, thus reflecting a delayed ap- preciation of the importance of this metal as war necessity. Not until the silver crisis in India arose, was the value of silver as war require ment fully realized, when England petitioned the United States to release the only available reserve of silver to satisfy the pressing and abnormal re- quirements of India. Arrangements were made to accommodate Great Britain under the contract included in the Pittman Act, and that nation has expressed it's gratitude for the loyal assistance of it's ally in an hour of critical need.
 Silver could not resist the general increase in prices which accompanied the post-armistice imitation, and in 1920 reached the high price of $1.37 per ounce. While this fact may have been regarded at the time by the pro- ducers of silver as benefit, especial ly as costs of production were con- tinually increasing it may prove to be one of the greatest misfortunes that has ever befallen the silver in dustry. It became impossible for na- tions to maintain their high grade silver currency in circulation because of the profit that could be made at this price in the conversion of coin into bullion. The demand for sub sidiary currency was at that time be- coming greater as the volume of paper currency released for circula- tion became greater. As a result, some nations enacted laws lowering the silver bullion content of their coins to nearly half their previous content, while others adopted the substitution of base metal coinage. This wholesale debasement of silver coinage is an act of imitation which has greatly impair ed the monetary use of silver. A computation cannot be based upon the estimate of silver coinage circulation for the reasons that some of the coin may have been destroyed, some may have been converted into bullion be- fore the law became enacted, and still another portion may be hoarded.
 However, it has been estimated by competent authorities the reduction of the silver content of the silver cur rency of Great Britain from 1925 to 500 will ultimately release some 40,- 000,000 ounces of silver bullion. :. In continental Europe it would be prac- tically impossible to estimate the amount of silver which may be re- leased from the coinages of those countries but from the fact that over 49,000,0 ounces of coin and bullion derived from the melting of coin were sold in the London market during the last two years, it is evident that a great amount of silver has been re leased. Of the 4s,000,0O0 ounces re- leased by continental Europe in the last two years, 22,000,000 ounces were sold in the London market during 1921. It has been estimated that 6,500,00 ounces were released in 1921 from the demonetization of English silver coinage.
 The demand for silver for coinage purposes has considerably fallen off, and will continue. to be relatively less on account of this debasement, until such time as these countries may re- store the high grade content of their subsidiary coin circulations. It is i'm possible to conceive that this could take place until such countries have returned to a sounder financial con dition, a process which may take many years. The ability of India and China to absorb silver must be meas ured upon their ability to dispose of their products in the worlds market The purchasing power of Europe will exert an adverse influence upon these countries, with tendency in the di- rection to create adverse rather than favorable trade balances for them.
 There is, however, one bright spot in the monetary outlook of silver, in that a mint is to be established at Shanghai which will have the. effect