CHAPTER XVII.

GOLD AND SILVER COINS.

THE following is a list of Gold and Silver Coins of a stated full weight and Assay Report. We have given the calculations of their fine and standard weights and their sterling value up to two decimal-places of pence, and would advise the reader to work some exercises for himself.

We give the Calculations of the French Napoleon as an additional example for gold :

and the calculations of the Prussian thaler as another example for silver :

GOLD COINS.

Full weight and reported fineness; with their fine and standard weights, and value at 77s. 10 d. per ounce standard.

Full weight and reported worseness, with their fine and standard weights, and value at 5s. per ounce standard.

N.B. The Mexican and Peruvian dollars are those of

1833, and the United States dollar of 1792.

CHAPTER XVIII.

BULLION.

BULLION means gold and silver in bars, ingots, dust, small pieces, old coins and medals.

Gold and silver are sold at so much per standard ounce, and owing to a varying proportion of alloy the gross weight of any parcel of bullion will almost always differ from the standard weight.

The purity is found by a process called an assay, in which an arbitrary pound weight is employed.

To standard gold or silver is to convert the given gross weight of any other purity than standard into its equivalent standard weight from the assay report of its quality.

Standard gold is a mixture of metal containing eleven parts of pure gold, with one part of alloy. Its standard purity is 11, or 0.9163.

Standard silver contains thirty-seven parts of pure silver, with three parts of alloy. Its standard purity is 37, or 0-925.

The betterness indicated by B, or worseness indicated by W, of gold or silver is the weight of the quantity of alloy to be added to or taken from the full or gross weight, in order to reduce it to the standard weight.

In whatever state gold is found it is mixed with a greater or less quantity of silver. Native gold contains. from 65 to 99 per cent. of gold, palladium gold contains about 86 per cent., and rhodium gold from 59 to 66 per cent. Silver is usually accompanied with gold, but there are some exceptions, particularly when it is

extracted from lead and other inferior metals. When the quantity of silver in such mixtures is very small in comparison with the gold, it is often disregarded or treated as alloy; and when the comparative quantity of gold is so minute as not to be worth the expense of extracting, it is reckoned as being silver.

Mixtures of gold and silver are called partings. When gold is greater in quantity the mixture is called a gold parting, and when silver is the greater, a silver parting.

Gold is weighed at the Bank of England and by private dealers by the ounce, divided into 1,000 parts, but not to a greater nicety than 025; and silver by the ounce, divided into tenths, but not lower than

CURRENCY.

We have in this country a Gold Currency, the Sovereign being the basis of all money exchanges.

Both silver and bronze coins are circulated, but they are known as Token Money, because they only represent fractions of gold coins, and are not intrinsically worth their free value.

LEGAL TENDER.

A legal tender of money in this country is gold up to any amount, silver up to forty shillings, bronze up to one shilling, and Bank of England notes up to any amount, but not exceeding the debt to be paid, as no one except the Bank of England is compelled to give change for these bank notes.

The following tables give the British imperial standard weights and fineness of the gold and silver coins now in use :

22 Carats, or 9163 Mill., or 11-12ths Fine Gold.

BRITISH COPPER AND BRONZE COINS.

Formerly 1 lb. avoirdupois of copper was coined into twenty-four pence, or forty-eight halfpence, or ninetysix farthings.

In 1860 the bronze coinage replaced the copper. It was of less weight, being composed of ninety-five parts copper, four of tin, and one of zinc. 1 lb. avoirdupois of bronze (7,000 grains) was coined into forty-eight pence, or eighty halfpence, or 160 farthings.