182

WEAR OF COIN.

CHAP. XXIII.

known that more silver was coined than the circu-lation could absorb,—that much was left in de-posit at the Bank which could not be issued,—thatthe bankers, especially in the country, were fullof complaints of the dead weight of the silver coinsthat were accumulated in their coffers, of whichthey could make no interest until they incurredthe expense of sending it to London , where onlyit could be exchanged for better money whichcould be used in discounting or lending out onsecurities. There was no outlet for it in foreigncountries from the high value affixed to it. Itwas issued at the rate of sixty-six shillings to thepound weight of silver, and as that pound was notworth quite sixty-two shillings in gold, it was con-sidered, and very properly, not as money, but as atoken of money, and no one, even in the countrywhere the fictitious value of it was enforced by law,would keep more of it than was necessary in smalltransactions to make payments of fractions of apound.

It is neither the design to blame or to ap-plaud the conduct of members of the governmentwhich fixed our present silver coinage, and the cir-cumstance does not come under consideration herefurther than as it may lead to a calculation of whatmay be deemed the fair rate of its loss by wear.

If we estimate, as we are fully justified in doing,that one-third of the silver coin was in a constantstate of rest, either with the Bank of England or