180

WEAR OF COIN.

CHAP. XXIII.

by all experiments, that the smaller the piecesare, the greater loss do they suffer by abrasion.

The gold coin of the ancients certainly ap-proached nearer to the weight of the half-guineasthan to that of the guineas. The aureus and thebezant were but little heavier than the former, andsome of their coins were very much less; andthus the loss from abrasion must have been muchgreater than on the average of our coin.

It is true that a small portion of the existinggold among the ancients was actually in coin orin that kind of circulation which would cause itto wear excessively; but, on the other hand, ifthe effect of the alloys they used was, as is shownby the experiments of Messrs. Cavendish and Hat-chet, to increase the wear in a fourfold degree,instead of the annual loss being one part in ninehundred and fifty, it would have been at the rateof one part in two hundred and thirty-seven.

Making due allowance, then, for the inferiorityof the metal, for the size of the pieces, and for theinferiority of the fabrication on the one hand, andon the other, for the less degree of circulation, itmay be assumed that a medium rate of loss wasmost proper, and that taking it at one part in sixhundred would be as near an approximation tothe loss of gold by abrasion as is likely to be ob-tained. It is upon that scale that the general rateof the consumption of the precious metals up to