Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/151

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A bare inspection of the above operations, will evince the labor which is occasioned by subdividing the Unit into 20ths, 240ths and 960ths, as the English do, and as we have done ; and the ease of subdivision in a decimal ratio. The same difference arises in making payment. An Englishman, to pay 8 13s. lid. 1-2 qrs. must find, by calculation, what combination of the coins of his country will pay this sum ; but an American, having the same sum to pay, thus expressed $38.65, will know, by inspection only, that three golden pieces, eight units or dollars, six tenths and five cop pers, pay it precisely.

III. The third condition required is, that the Unit, its multiples, and subdivisions, coincide in value with some of the known coins so nearly, that the people may, by a quick reference in the mind, estimate their value. If this be not attended to, they will be very long in adopting the innovation, if ever they adopt it. Let us ex amine, in this point of view, each of the four coins proposed.

1. The golden piece will be 1-5 more than a half joe, and 1-15 more than a double guinea. It will be readily estimated, then, by reference to either of them ; but more readily and accu rately as equal to ten dollars.

2. The Unit or Dollar, is a known coin, and the most familiar of all, to the minds of the people. It is already adopted from South to North ; has identified our currency, and therefore happily offers itself as a Unit already introduced. Our public debt, our requi sitions, and their apportionments, have given it actual and long possession of the place of Unit. The course of our commerce, too, will bring us more of this than of any other foreign coin, and there fore renders it more worthy of attention. I know of no Unit which can be proposed in competition with the Dollar, but the Pound. But what is the Pound ? 1 547 grains of fine silver in Georgia ; 1289 grains in Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire ; 1031 1-4 grains in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey ; 966 3-4 grains in North Carolina and New York. Which of these shall we adopt ? To which State give that pre-eminence of which all are so jealous ? And on which impose the difficulties of a new estimate of their corn, their cattle, and other commodities ? Or shall we hang the pound sterling, as a common badge, about all their necks? This contains 17183-4 grains of pure silver. It is difficult to familiarise a new coin to the people ; it is more difficult to familiarise them to a new coin with an old name. Happily, the Dollar is familiar to them all, and is already as much referred to for a measure of value, as their re spective provincial pounds.

3. The tenth will be precisely the Spanish bit, or half piste-