THE PRICE OF SILVER

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 81, 31 December 1919, Page 6

THE PRICE OF SILVER

AND ITS COINAGE. The increasing price of silver _ has brought very near a crisis ; n the coinage of this country (states the "Shipping World"). AS long as silver was costing 2s. Gd. to 3s. per oniice, it was a profitable transaction for the Treasury to take a picee of silver, put an image and superscription upon it, and call it a s.lulling or a crown or half-a-crown, and say that it represented a certain fraction of the valiicAif n sovereign/ The. 110111iral value was then about double the intrinsic value. But silver has been steadily rising in price, and the amount of silver required for any coin is now nearly equivalent in price to the faco value' of the coin itself. Shou'd silver advance further in value, our silver coins will be produced at a loss, which is, of course, an unthinkable proceeding. In such case,. it would pay a person who manages to gain possession of a quantity of the legally stamped disc", of metal called silver coins to'melt them down and sell the silver to the Government to make further discs of the kind. It almost looks as if somq sneculntively-minded persons were already preparing for th's course. Tn Paris, it is said io be almost impossible to get change in silver, and reports are current that both'in France and this country an issue of paper-money is impending for smaller amounts than at present. A nickel co llate is also said to lie contemplated. Might we urge the Government that, if it should be necessnry to institute a nickel coinage, it should be courageous enough to talte advantage of such an opportunity to instiluto a decimal coinage. It should be comparatively easy. Keeping the standard value of the sovereign as it is, there 13 the florin, which represents the. tenth part of it, the tenth part of the florin represents n value of 2Jd„ approximately, but hitherto a coin of that value has been awkward to mint. A bronzo cojn would be too clumsy, and a silver one ten minute for convenience. . A nickel coin would iust fit: this ,value, and 10fl n-clcel; would then const : tnto a sovereign. As for ihl 1050 th part of a sovereign, all that i'; necessary is to. reduce the value of the farthing slislitlv. so that instead of there being %'0 farthings to the sovereign, there may l:e. 1000. The p;heme is worth trying, and after generations may snv of (lie present silver crisis —"It's an ill wind that blows nobody good."