I think that there can scarcely be any other opinion upon this scheme than that, with the exception of retaining the present shilling, (certainly a point gained,) it offers serious objections even as compared with the proposal of the committee, since, without even retaining the pound, like that, it necessitates the coining of two new pieces of money which could not be represented by the present currency, and which, it is seen, would have to continue in circulation side by side with the new, for a period estimated by Sir John Herschell at twenty years. Yet a late writer advocating this system seems blind to this, its great defect, for he says, "Mark the ease with which cents and mils under this unit accommodate themselves to our present coinage-5 cents make 6d., 2 cents 5 mils make 3d., enabling us to let these coins circulate during the change, and, in fact, only rendering it necessary to withdraw the fourpenny pieces."* The writer does not say how he would accommodate our present 1d., 2d., 4d., 7d., 8d., 10d., or 11d., to the scheme he advocates. I notice, in the next place, four systems which are mainly disapproved of as establishing a silver instead of a gold monetary standard as we have at present, an alteration which is decidedly objected to by the best authorities. We have, under this division, the florin, shilling, dollar, and franc, respectively proposed as the unit of account. In the first two of these the decimal progression demands coins of the values of 23d. and 4 of a farthing, or of 13d. and of a farthing,—the same in fact as the cents and mils already referred to under the pound and ducat units; whatever objections, therefore, can be urged against those systems apply with the same force here. With regard to the dollar, the proposal is to divide it into 100 cents, as in the United States, and thus to assimilate the coinage of the two most commercial nations of the world. The cent being equal to our halfpenny, and the dollar to four shillings and twopence of present money, it is clear that the difficulties of the penny would at once vanish, and little or no confusion result to the poorer classes from its adoption, whilst we have the experience of America in effecting the change; and according to Mr. Brown, the Chairman of the Committee on Decimal Coinage, who was in that country during the period when the alteration was going on, "you were hardly aware of a change taking place." This system has lately been introduced into Canada, and were it not for the objection to which allusion has been made, there would not be such insuperable objections to its adoption in this country. The suggestion to make the tenpence, or franc, the unit of account, has been put forward by some who wish to see the penny retained; that coin being represented by the first decimal place in such a system, thus, as in the last scheme, getting rid of the chief difficulty in the question: the pound sterling would here be represented by 24 francs. It is to a modification of * Mr. W. T. Thomson on Decimal Numeration and Decimal Coinage. See Note C.-The Monetary Standard. this plan, (which has been most ably advocated*) and that which precedes it, that I shall, in the last place refer-a scheme for effecting the desired end which has, in opposition to first conclusions, forced itself upon my own mind after a somewhat careful consideration of what appear, under existing things, to be the chief requisites for a decimal system of money for the United Kingdom. These are: 1. That the new system should be one free from any liability to give rise to injustice or confusion among the poor and illiterate classes of the community, thereby creating a prejudice against its use. 2. That it should not necessitate the withdrawal of the most useful and popular coins already in circulation, and with which, from habit, every one is familiar. 3. That it should possess the greatest possible clearness in expressing its coins in the old money, and vice versa. 4. That there should be but few coins of account, and those of a convenient size; and, if possible, of different metals. 5. That it should be an experiment which might be withdrawn without difficulty if found inconvenient in practice. 6. That the unit of account should be a gold coin of moderate value. And, 7. That its lower denominations of account should range in value, as nearly as may be, with the units of currency of such foreign states as we have most important relations with. The proposal founded upon the foregoing principles, and which I advocated in a pamphlet entitled "A word in behalf of the Poor Man's Penny," published in February last, is simply as follows:For the unit of account I propose to create a new gold coin, to be termed an Imperial, or other more appropriate name, the value of which, in our present money, shall be exactly of a pound sterling, that is, 100 pence, and also a new silver coin of the value of 10 pence; these are all that would be required, and we have, with the present penny, at once a complete decimal system, our money of account being thus 10 pence = 1 argent (franc, tenpenny, or other name). 10 argents 1 imperial. It will be obvious at once that in such a plan as this we entirely get rid of the difficulty in relation to the copper coinage to which so much attention has been drawn; and not only so, but we should also adopt all the advantages that belong to the dollar and franc systems without the objection of establishing in this country a silver monetary standard. Moreover, all the conditions just laid down are admirably fulfilled, for 1stly. No confusion nor mistrust would arise among the lower * See a pamphlet entitled "An Examination of the Report and Evidence of the Committee of the House of Commons on Decimal Coinage, with reference to a similar, sounder, and more comprehensive mode of proceeding." By Theodore Rathbone, Esq. 3rd Edition. In the preface to the 2nd edition, page xv., Mr. Rathbone speaks in terms of high commendation of the plan I here advocate, and as (next to his own, in which the pound is preserved intact, and as the measure of value and legal tender) the one to which he gives a decided preference for "its simplicity, comprehensiveness, and perfectly decimal character." classes of the people, since the new coins could be represented in the old, while the penny would remain unaltered in name and value. 2ndly. The old coins might continue in circulation for any length of time that might be found necessary. 3rdly. The two systems are obviously convertible with great simplicity, and all the old coins easily represented by the new, and the reverse, thus 4thly. There would be but three coins of account, whereas the committee names four, (it would, I think, be better to ignore halfpence and farthings in account, as is frequently done at present, but they should still be current for the use of the poorer classes; nevertheless, if found desirable, the farthing might be withdrawn and the penny subdivided into ten mites,) so that two places of decimals would represent argents and pence, or simply pence if preferred, and thus the absence of a third column of figures would materially lessen the labour of addition. Also the new coins would be of different metals, and of a convenient and, at the same time, a different size, thus precluding all chance of mistake in their use: the imperial would be a little smaller than the present half-sovereign, and the argent somewhat less than a shilling piece. The 5th and 6th requirements are also equally fulfilled: and Lastly. It will be readily observed that great facilities would be afforded to travellers and others in more easily effecting exchange operations. The half-imperial would represent the United States' dollar, and the hard dollar of Spain and the South American States; the argent would equally approximate to the French and Belgian francs and other foreign coins of the same value; while the Dutch guilder and the florin of the Zollverein, &c., would be indicated by two argents. For this and other reasons it would doubtless be found convenient to coin such pieces as The half-imperial, or dollar: value in present money. two-argent piece, or guilder ,, half-argent 8. d. 8247 1431 05 These could be struck in silver, and would eventually supply the place of those at present in circulation. A Victoria, equal to ten imperials, or 1,000d., answering to the double eagle of the United States, would likewise be found useful, and might be made a handsome commemorative gold coin, considerably smaller than the present crown piece. There is one point-I think the only one-that may seem objectionable in this scheme for a decimal coinage, namely, the necessity for the change of the unit of account from the sovereign to the imperial; it has, however, I trust, been made sufficiently evident to every impartial mind that to retain the pound would be to include in the system an element entailing far greater practical inconvenience than to continue our present money without alteration, and that if a decimal coinage is to be introduced in this country it should be at the expense of the pound. Those who would be affected by such a change are much better able to cope with the difficulty than the labouring classes would be with the far greater and more confusing alteration in their penny. In the system under consideration the unit of account is fivetwelfths of that now in use; hence Value of imperial value of £ :: 5 : 12 or 1: 24. That is, any number of pounds may be represented in imperials by multiplying by twice 12 and separating the last figure by a decimal point. Examples 1. Reduce £143 to imperials. 143 × 1.2 x 2 = 343.2 imperials. 2. Reduce 15s. 9d. to the new coins. Imp. Imp. ar. p. 15s. 9d. 189d. 1.89 or 1 8 9 A five-pound note would exactly be twelve imperials, and the value of any other note would be twelve times the number of fives contained in its sum. Such operations as these would not require any large amount of intelligence to effect, and would cease to be requisite in a few years when the system became generally adopted; and thus the only difficulty, if it be one, would be opposed to the class least likely to be puzzled by it. An objection may possibly be made to the loss of the familiar term "pounds sterling," and the introduction of new and strange names; but the argument, if good, applies with equal force to the plan proposed by the committee; indeed, I think "pounds, florins, cents, and mils," have a much harsher sound than imperials, argents, and pence," which terms, by the way, might, at some future period, when the old coinage had disappeared, be exchanged for those now in use. 66 This, then is the system of decimal coinage for the United Kingdom which I advocate, under a strong conviction that it is the only one that could be attempted under existing circumstances with any probability of success, and without the introduction of incalculable confusion and mischief, to say nothing of the great mechanical difficulty of withdrawing and recoining the copper and silver now in circulation, (amounting, according to Sir John Herschell, to "not short of seven hundred million pieces,") as required in the plan put forth under the sanction of the Decimal Coinage Committee. Nothing of this kind would be necessary under the system now proposed, and for which, in the various phases* that it has appeared, I rejoice to say a favourable feeling is now increasingly manifested. Thus the leading journal of the day, on a late occasion, remarking upon this subject observed, "There can be little doubt, even from the experience of the past five years, that if the matter is really to depend on any organic change affecting the copper circulation, the discussion raised and the obstacles suggested will be such that no recommendations of mathematicians, however constantly reiterated, or parliamentary reports or articles in the newspapers, will succeed within any moderate space in bringing the Government to assume the trouble and responsibility of such a measure. If the desire in favour of a decimal coinage is as great as those who trust in the rough intelligence of the masses believe it to be, the argument is not unreasonably urged that they will soon voluntarily bring it into operation if simple means are offered them, while if, on the contrary, the change would be intrinsically unpopular, no compulsory measure, especially of a kind to disturb all previous ideas, could be anticipated without embarrassment. Supposing a tenpenny piece to be introduced, it must certainly be the fault of the public alone if all their calculating habits do not soon flow into the decimal direction; and, at all events, few will deny that while the philosophers are discussing more general changes it may be well to let so simple an experiment make its way."t To this testimony in favour of the system now advocated I shall not hesitate, in conclusion, to add another derived from the Chairman of the Committee on Decimal Coinage, according to whose statement already quoted, the change made in the money of account of the United States was effected so readily that it was hardly noticeable; and why? clearly because it created no confusion among the humbler classes by introducing a copper coinage that interfered with the halfpenny with which they were already so familiar. Well, then, that is just what is here proposed. The double dollar and the double cent for England; and I think I am not wrong in believing that if it were adopted it would afterwards be recorded, "you were hardly aware of a change taking place,"—and I think, moreover, that no one will venture to predict the same of the plan selected by the Committee on Decimal Coinage. NOTE A.-RAILWAY FARES. It has been objected to the author's views upon this subject, that the particular fares under consideration would continue to be estimated at a penny per mile, and that the total amount at that rate would be converted into mils, a process which would not involve an addition of more than a single farthing on the whole journey. A little consideration, however, will show the weakness of this objection; for it must be borne in mind that, upon the adoption of the system of decimal coinage recommended by the committee, the legislature would have to fix the rate per mile to be taken by the railway *See Note D.-The Penny Systems. |