Improvements relating to Coins.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 11th July, 1889
Complete Specification Left, 21st Oct., 1889-Accepted, 25th Jan., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to Coins.
I, CHARLES CUMMINS, gentleman, of Newstead, Dunham Massey, Altrincham,
Cheshire do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The encircling of gold coins by a silver rim (continuous or otherwise) of slightly
greater thickness than the coin it encloses or surrounds by means of which the gold
part of the composite coin is protected from contact in counting, passing from hand
to hand, and generally from abrasion under any circumstances whereby the ordinary
deterioration incidental to circulation or transmission will be largely if not entirely
avoided.
In the same way and for the same reasons, silver coin may be protected by a
copper rim wherever such a precaution against loss of weight or injury to silver
coinage may be thought necessary.
CHARLES CUMMINS.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to Coins.
I CHARLES CUMMINS Gentleman of Newstead Dunham Massey, near Altrincham,
Cheshire do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say :-
This invention will effectually protect Gold and Silver coins from deterioration in
circulation owing to their unavoidable reduction in weight in their passage from hand
to hand. It consists in the application to gold or silver coins of a rim or edging,
continuous or otherwise, and made, as considered most convenient or applicable, of
silver, steel, nickel, or any other metal, or compound of metals.
The protecting rim, edging or guard may be made in numberless forms, shapes or
patterns; but I claim that the principle of my invention covers every modification of
shape and every description of metal employed.
To explain the modes which may be employed (amongst many others) to prevent
gold and silver coins from abrasion, I refer to the accompanying sketch, in which
figure No. 1 represents the surface and section of a coin protected by a circular rim ;
this projects beyond each surface of the coin and prevents its coming in contact with
desk or counter.
Figure No. 2 represents a coin also encircled by a rim projecting above and below
the surfaces of the coin it surrounds, and also overlapping its edges; figure No. 3
shews a coin to which four wedgeshaped clamps are affixed, by means of which the
coin would be thoroughly protected from wear in counting or circulation. If it were
thought an advantage that the suggested rims or clamps should be easily separated
from the coins they protected, then in place of their being fixed by other means, fine
screws might be used, with a plain end or point, to run into a hole drilled into the
coin to receive it; whilst the thread only worked in the rim or clamp. This method,
in case of any doubt as to the genuineness of the coin would easily permit its thorough
examination. But protected coins could be so easily tested in other ways that it
would scarcely be an advantage to make the protecting parts detachable with too
much facility.
In the sketches, the letter "C" indicates the coin, the letter "R" the rim or
guard.

page_text: Coins protected as suggested would probably be less convenient in many ways than
those at present in use, but as the coinage of gold, with the exception of the half-
sovereign is both wasteful and unnecessary, it is for the public good that it should be
rather discouraged than stimulated. The employment of the metal rim or guard for
gold coins would also tend to check the export of gold coinage to supply foreign
mints for recoinage. It would also check its being melted down at home (as it now
largely is) by jewellers and others.
If, for instance, sovereigns were struck of gold worth 19/6; and half sovereigns of
gold worth 9/7, the difference of sixpence in the first place and of 4 d. in the second,
representing the cost of the silver rim or guard at the mint value of silver coin, such
coins would quite answer every domestic requirement, as currency, but would be
of appreciably diminished value for export, as well as for manufacturing purposes at
home. Consequently a foreign demand for gold would not be met, as it frequently is
at present, by the export of coin possibly fresh from the mint, but by the shipment of
bullion. Thus the useless expence of coining gold which either never went into
circulation at all or was quickly removed from it, would be ended. The substitution
of one pound bank notes for gold cannot be worked with advantage under the present
Bank act even if it is workable at all; which is very doubtful. The expence of
printing bank notes which gold must be held in hand to cover, is itself a costly and
unprofitable item, not much less considerable than the loss by the depreciation of gold
in circulation. Therefore so long as gold coins are in use (and half sovereigns
cannot be easily dispensed with) great public benefit would result from the application
of a protecting rim or guard to them; on which ground I respectfully ask the grant
of a patent for it.
Having now particularly ascertained and described the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is,
That no such idea of protecting gold and silver coins from deterioration in
circulation has, to the best of my knowledge and belief, ever been previously suggested
by any one, and that it is perfectly new and, in my judgement, calculated to put an
end to the present serious annual loss on the circulation of gold and silver coins.
Dated this 19th day of October 1889.
CHARLES CUMMINS.