Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/506

Rh 484 supposed to be the weight of coin which could be manu factured in a day when the operations of coining were performed by the hand. The journey weight of gold is 15 5&amp;gt; troy, coined into 701 sovereigns or 1402 half- sovereigns. The journey weight of silver is 60 Ib troy. From each journey weight a coin is taken and deposited in the &quot; pyx &quot; or chest for the annual trial. This is made by the freemen of the goldsmiths company under the direction of the crown in the presence of the queen s remembrancer, who administers the oath to the jury and presides over the proceedings. The coins selected for trial are compared with pieces cut from trial plates of standard fineness, which are in the keeping of the warden of the standards, these pieces being assayed against the coins under examination. If the coins are found to be of the standard fineness and weight, within certain limits, a verdict to that effect is drawn up by the jurors and presented to the Treasury. In consequence of the impossibility of ensuring an abso lutely exact admixture of metals in coining, it has been found necessary at all times to allow to the mint master a certain margin, or &quot;remedy,&quot; within which coins may vary in weight and fineness from the fixed standard and still be considered of the current standard. The remedy of fineness for English gold coin is now fixed at 2 parts per 1000. The great importance of maintaining the standard of fineness for gold will be evident when it is stated that the variation of y 1 ^ of a millieme (or thousandth part) above or below the standard causes a gain or loss of 100 in every million sterling. Gold coins would be within the remedy of fineness permitted by law if the amount of precious metal contained in them varied from 914 6 to 918 6 parts in 1000; and, although this remedy cannot be considered to be more than would meet occasional and unavoidable deviation from the exact standard, still, in the case of gold, but a very small part of the remedy of fineness is actually used, the coins seldom falling below 916 3 parts of gold in 1000, or rising above 917 - 0, while the mean composition of many millions of coins issued from the mint is often of the precise legal standard, 916 66. The remedy of fineness for silver coin, which appears to have been always greater than that for gold coin, is 4 parts per 1000. The remedy of weight for gold is 1 6 per 1000 parts, that for silver 4 - 17, and that for bronze 20. Extreme care is taken to prevent the issue from the mint of any coins that exceed these permitted variations in weight and standard, each coin being weighed separately, and all those found to be above or below the standard being returned to the melting-house. Since the real value of the gold coinage is the same as its nominal value, it is of the first importance that gold coins which are below the standard weight should not be allowed to circulate, otherwise holders of large quantities of gold coin are liable to considerable loss. After a certain amount of wear a gold coin in passing from hand to hand loses weight and becomes legally uncurrent. By the Coinage Act it is made compulsory for every person to &quot; cut, break, or deface &quot; any coin tendered to him in payment which is below the current weight, the person tendering it bearing the loss ; but, as no penalty is imposed for disregard of this obligation, the law is practically without effect. The withdrawal of light coin from circulation was formerly accomplished solely by the Bank of England, the mint regulations making provision for the receipt of gold tendered for coinage only in the form of bars. The bank undertook to purchase the light gold from the public at the rate of 3, 17s. 6^d. an ounce, a price which, as compared with the mint value of 3, 17s. 10|d., entailed a loss of no less than 4d. an ounce on the seller. This loss was occasioned chiefly by the circumstance that the bank, being obliged before sending the light gold to the mint for recoinage to melt, assay, and cast it into bars, found it necessary to deduct the sum of 2|d. an ounce from the rate of 3, 17s. 9d. an ounce at which it was allowed by statute to purchase gold for coinage, in order to cover the expense of these operations and the loss incident to them. The heavy loss in price, added to that from deficient weight, occasioned constant disregard of the law requiring all light coin to be cut or defaced, and consequently a large amount of light gold continued to be circulated. After the passing of the Coinage Act in 1870, accordingly, fresh regulations were made, by which the mint authorities undertook to receive light gold coin for recoinage, returning to the importer the full mint value of 3, 17s. 10|d. an ounce, thus reducing the loss to that arising from deficiency of weight only. As the Bank of England was enabled by these regulations to raise its price for light gold to the rate of 3, 17s. 9d., the same rate at which it is bound to purchase ingots of standard gold, greater inducements were offered to the public to send in light gold for recoinage, and its withdrawal from circulation was in consequence greatly facilitated. It is evident, however, that, as the deficiency in weight must entail some loss on the holders of light gold coin, they will be disposed to keep it in circulation as long as possible ; consequently only a small proportion of the light gold received by bankers finds its way to the Bank of England and thence to the mint for recoinage. The result of some careful experiments made by the late Mr Stanley Jevons, and published by him in the Journal of the Statistical Society (vol. xxxi. p. 426), showed that a sovereign becomes so light as to be legally uncurrent at the end of eighteen years. The last state measure taken for the withdrawal of light gold coin from circulation was the issue of a royal pro clamation in 1842 calling attention to the laws and regulations relating to light gold coin, and instructing those persons whose duty it was to enforce them to see that they were carried out. From the beginning of July 1842 to the end of March 1845 14,000;000 in light gold coin was withdrawn from circulation and recoined. This amount was estimated to represent 95 per cent, of the whole of the light gold then in circulation. In order to facilitate this withdrawal the Treasury had in June 1842 entered into arrangements with the Bank of England by which the bank was enabled to purchase light gold on behalf of the Government, at the full mint value of 3, 17s. lOid. an ounce. Light coin, however, continued to be sent into the bank for some time after it had reverted to its original rate of payment for light gold, i.e., 3, 17s. 6kl. an ounce. The expense to the state of this withdrawal, including the expenses of recoinage, was 67,816. As no important withdrawal of worn gold coin has occurred since that time, it is evident that a large amount of light gold must be at the present time in circulation, and that the loss in weight must be considerably greater than that of the coins withdrawn in 1842, the oldest of which were not more than twenty-five years old, the first issue having taken place in 1817. It has been proved by experiment that the average loss of weight in worn sovereigns and half-sovereigns now in circulation is about 3d. in each sovereign, and that the deficiency in fineness of a large proportion of the coin amounts to about 400 per million. This deficiency arises from the trial plate of 1829, which determined the standard of a portion of the coins still in circulation, being itself below the legal standard. Taking the gold circulation at 100,000,000, of which about 50 per cent, is light, it is estimated that the amount to be recoined cannot be less than 50,000,000, on which the loss from deficiency of gold, both in weight and fineness, must be reckoned at about 650,000, independent of the expenses of recoinage. In the case of the silver coinage, the loss consequent on the