Our Silver Coinage and Its Relation to Debts and the World-wide Depression in Prices

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Porter & Coates, 1885 - 108 pages
 

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Page 61 - But, upon the whole, it seems to be most advisable, as has been observed, not to attach the unit exclusively to either of the metals, because this cannot be done effectually without destroying the office and character of one of them as money and reducing it to the situation of a mere merchandise...
Page 100 - I believe that bi-metallism will ultimately prevail ; for I cannot see how the vast structure of credit — the most distinguishing feature of modern industry and commerce — can be supported on a gold basis alone. With both metals its base has often been found too narrow ; with but one it would be, to my apprehension, positively unsafe.
Page 94 - ... no national banking association shall be a member of any clearing-house in which such certificates shall not be receivable in the settlement of clearing-house balances...
Page 38 - That in order to remove any doubt as to the purpose of the Government to discharge all just obligations to the public creditors, and to settle conflicting questions and interpretations of the...
Page 60 - for dime. In time, the unit may succeed to the dollar. The word cent, being in use in various transactions and instruments, will, without much difficulty, be understood as the hundredth, and the half cent, of course, as the two-hundredth part.
Page 40 - Reserve," and the Bank Act of July 12, 1882, provided for the suspension of the issuance of gold certificates whenever the amount of gold coin and gold bullion in the Treasury reserved for the redemption of United States notes fell below $100,000,000.
Page 11 - ... of 420 grains of standard silver. Much complaint has been made that this was done with the design of depriving the people of the privilege of paying their debts in a cheaper money than gold, but it is manifest that this is an error. No one then did or could foresee the subsequent fall in the market value of silver.
Page 14 - In both gold and silver coins we now use 900 parts of pure metal to 100 parts of alloy. This is what the inscription 900 fine means. In our first gold coinage we adopted the proportion of alloy used by our mother country, England, which as they express it, is 11-12 fine, or as we would express it now, as 916J fine.
Page 29 - ... cent, more of the articles generally used in common life in 1849 than in 1809. The legal debt-paying value of the coined pound remained unvarying, fixed; while the purchasing or exchangeable value Increased In this surprising ratio. The statute law fixed the weight, the fineness, and the debt-paying value of the pound sterling; but here the statute law stops, as it always must in a free country, and the people, independent of statute law, will regulate prices. In the midst of our darkest greenback...
Page 29 - English pound sterling had the debt-paying value of one pound from 1809 to 1849. Yet, Professor Jevons tells us that it would purchase about 145 per cent, more of the articles generally used in common life in 1849 than in 1809. The legal debt-paying value of the coined pound remained unvarying, fixed; while the purchasing or exchangeable value Increased In this surprising ratio. The statute law fixed the weight, the fineness, and the debt-paying value of the pound sterling; but here the statute law...

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