the Mint. The token coinage might very well be struck by private contractors, as it used to be done at Birmingham, without any necessity for a national establishment for that purpose. Nor does it appear that the estimate of 0-3000 per cent. includes any allowance of interest upon the value of buildings and machinery, or for their annual depreciation; and pensions and superannuations, as well as law expenses, are excluded. It may be observed that one-half per cent. for gold coinage was the estimate given by the official authorities in evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons in 1837.

This allowance of 01605 could only be recognised as applicable to international coinage, provided all the countries in the Monetary Convention agree to follow the practice, which has prevailed in Englaud for a century and a half, of immediate delivery of coin in exchange for a fair allowance to the State bank of the various countries, each bank to take the agency for the Mint as the Bank of England does for the Royal Mint. Practically and substantially, the fixed statutory charge of 14d. per ounce, i.e., the proposed 0.1605 per cent., as the difference between the unvarying buying and selling price of bullion, has worked advantageously in England for the public interests, as well as for the special interests of the Bank of England.

=

§ It is desirable to combine these two charges, Nos. III. and IV., as the one is, in practice, incomplete without the other. Each is, in fact, the necessary complement of the other. For making the calculation, it is important to define with precision the elements and the method by which the total of 1·3412 per cent. is arrived at. The minimum charge of each recoinage has before been explained under item I. as amounting to 0-3000 per cent. The point where the British coinage now falls under legal tender weight has already been explained under paragraphs 6 and 7 of this Paper, as amounting to 0.631925 per cent. But according to the Article II. of the Monetary Convention of December, 1865, the international coin will be of light (non-legal tender) weight when worn to the extent of 0.5200 per cent. There is, therefore, a total of 0·3000 + 0·5200 0-8200 per cent. as cost of coinage and of reintegration of full weight at each remelting. The question remains, how often is a remelting and a recoinage requisite on the average? Here the ingenious method of inquiry adopted by Professor Jevons in his recent Paper, read to the Statistical Society of London, comes in aid. And taking as applicable, with considerable probability of approximate correctness to the future experience of international coinage, the same results as we find recorded from Professor Jevons's experimental investigation of the state of the British coinage, we may fairly assume 18 years as the average period of circulation of sovereigns and napoleons within legal tender weight, and ten years as the corresponding average of half-sovereigns and of 10 and 5 franc gold pieces. We may then use for calculation the ordinary formula for finding, at a given rate of interest, the present value of perpetual payments at constant 1 intervals of years, viz., where n = 18 and 10 years respectively, and (1 + 9')" — 1, r03, or 3 per cent. interest. And taking the average of gold currency in this and other countries, the larger coins represent about six-sevenths, the smaller about

one-seventh. With these data we have 3000 + 5200 ×

x =

1 1-70243306-1 1.0005536 per cent.; and 3000 + 5200 × X ÷ = '8200 × 2.90765 x 1429 =

8200 × 1·4236231 × 8571 = 1 1.34391638-1 1.00053407

=

3407 per cent.; and

total under this head of 13412 per cent., cost of perpetual

restoration of the coinage, according to the data here assumed.

10. The preceding supposes that the whole charge of reintegration of the coin in perpetuity can be made chargeable to the importer or holder of bullion, on his first bringing it to the Bank for coinage.

11.-But such a charge, although theoretically justifiable, can only in practice be carried out to a more limited extent. It would be extremely important, in an international coinage derived from the mints of various countries, to have one general average admitting of easy calculation by all. This general average is 1 per cent.; and it would include a proportion, about two-fifths of the cost of future coinages and reintegrations of the full weight of the gold currency. The following would be the working analysis of the total :

Per Cent.

0-3000 Mint charge for first coinage.

0.1650 Compensation to Bank for immediate delivery.

0.5350 Contribution of two-fifths of future charges of recoinages and reintegrations of weight.

Total 1.0000 per cent. on bullion, proposed seigniorage.

(Signed)

FREDERICK HENDRIKS.

J. T. SMITH.

London,

3rd March, 1869.

5.-Return showing the Millesimal Fineness of Gold Coins, and Amount of Mint Charge per Cent., in the Principal States of Europe. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 22nd May, 1884.

TABLE SHOWING THE MILLESIMAL FINENESS OF GOLD COINS, AND AMOUNT OF MINT CHARGE PER CENT., IN THE PRINCIPAL STATES OF EUROPE.

REMARKS.

TABLE SHOWING THE CHARGE FOR THE COINAGE OF BULLION IN THE PRINCIPAL STATES OF EUROPE,

STATE.

STANDARD.

MINT CHARGE.

Double standard of GOLD.-6 fr. 70 c. per kilo. of gold, 900 fine.
gold and silver.

The bons de monnaie delivered to
importers of gold bullion are payable in
coin in ten days from the date of

(The charge is deducted from the importation.
bullion imported for coinage.)

SILVER. Florins, 1 per cent.

SCANDINAVIAN MONETARY UNION- Single gold standard GOLD.-Twenty-crown pieces, per cent.

Sweden
Norway

Ten-crown pieces,

per cent.

GOLD.-There has been no charge for the coinage
of bullion since 1868.

GOLD.-1,000 reis, or 534d. per kilo. of gold,
916.6 fine.-(4,500 reis £1.)

=

Royal Mint, 21st May, 1884.

C. W. FREMANTLE, Deputy Master of the Mint.

6.-Circular of Enquiry respecting Light Gold Coin.

ASSOCIATION OF ENGLISH COUNTRY BANKERS. 1, New Court, Lincoln's Inn, London, W.C., DEAR SIRS, 8th July, 1884. By the 3rd Section of the Coinage Bill, introduced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it is provided that the Treasury shall make arrangements for the exchange, by the Mint, of light Sovereigns and Half-sovereigns for new coins of the same denomination, except in cases in which the coin tendered for exchange has been illegally dealt with. The Section goes on to state that loss of weight exceeding 3 grains in a Sovereign and 2 grains in a HalfSovereign shall be taken as conclusive evidence that such coin has been illegally dealt with.

It is important to ascertain whether this margin is large enough to cover all worn coin which has not been unfairly tampered with, and we are therefore instructed to request you to be good enough to select 50 Sovereigns and 50 Half-Sovereigns from the most worn of your coin, and to have these coins washed thoroughly and each coin separately and carefully weighed, and to inform us (with as little delay as possible) whether any of the coins are below the limit of weight allowed in the Section, namely, 119.5 grains for the Sovereign and 59.125 grains for the Half-Sovereign.

Our object is to ascertain whether the margin allowed will enable Bankers to exchange the coin now in circulation which has become light by fair wear and tear without loss.

May we also ask you to weigh in one parcel (after washing) 50 average Sovereigns and 50 Half-Sovereigns taken at hazard from your stock of gold, and inform us of the weight of each parcel.

Perhaps you will kindly make your return on the enclosed form. Should your scales not be sufficiently delicate for the purpose, any respectable jeweller among your customers would probably be able to weigh them for you with the necessary precision.

Fears having been expressed in some quarters that the Regulations which, under the 5th clause of the Bill, the Treasury will be entitled to make with regard to the exchange of the new coins for gold at the Mint, and by the Bank of England, might prevent Country Bankers from getting rid of any surplus stock of these coins which may accumulate in their hands, we wrote to the Treasury on the subject and have received a reply from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, stating that, although for administrative purposes it is necessary to provide that arrangements are to be made by the Treasury, "it is the intention of the Chancellor of the Exchequer that those arrangements shall not interfere with the ready exchange at full nominal value of ten-shilling pieces at the Bank of England on behalf of the Mint."

We are, dear sirs,
Yours faithfully,

WATERHOUSE, WINTERBOTHAM, & HARRISON.