THE TRICE OF SILVER.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16786, 18 March 1920, Page 7

THE TRICE OF SILVER.

TO THE KDITOB 01" "TUB I'RESS." Sir.—Tho nrice of silver lias recently lic.'u quoted *as high as per ounce. • Now, as 0110 pound of standard silver ■ I (containing thirtv-suven-fortieths of fine silver and tiiron-fortu-i!i>. oi aLov), is made into 'iii shilling-, it i Q evident thai British mints car,net coin vsilver at I present prices. In l' 1 " 1 and If) 15 the I London average price oi silver wag • i under 2'd per ounce. therefore. the • j value of silver in a 'hiding was much less than fid. The I\n_.l"h Mlver Currency Hill now proposes to io luce the amount 01' ''Iv'.t in tiie coins to • 0 per cent., and reula'e the other half with alloy. As British M'ver money is only | Royal token money for home use. and legal tender for sums of £'2 and under, I lie shilling •dninly represents the twentieth part of a sovereign. if the British Government calls in th<- present silver coinage, melts it down, and reissues it with half the silver. The Mint would make a large profit, and the coins would he as good legal tender curlencv at twentv shillings Jot :i .sovereign, as the £1 legal tender notes costing about a pennv each, or as the shillings were when the price of silver was less than 24d per ounce. Ihe bimetallists want tree coinage of silver at the ratio of fifteen ounces of silver to one of gold, to make silver legal tender to any amount, and for foreign payments. American silver kings, rings, and mining companies, would. of course, like to coin their silver free of charge at 6s an ounce, and, probably, there is a conspiracy among them, which has largely lieioed to raise the price of silver. J. 8. Nicholson said "it was estimated that silver could be produced as low ns Is f>d per ounce." To reduce the weight of silver in the British coinago v.oukl probably checkmate the bimetnllists, and bring down the price of silver. Although the British flints have been coining gold for anyone at the expense of the people, there lmvo been very large profits to the Mint on the silvt>r coinage account. It 1013 this amounted . to over £730.000 on under £2.000.000 of silver coin. In 1914-15-16, with nn average silver coinage of over £7,000.000 a vear, and tlio prices of silver undej - 26d, 24d, and 32d, tho profits must have been far greater. (Seo . Whitnker's.) There 'is no doubt that if the British Government does not melt down the silver coinago for its own profit it will be done illegally to „.tha loss of the people. If the silver is recoined then Xew Zealand ought to get its share of the profit. Long a<ro I pointed out that the British Government, or Royal Mint, ought to get millions a year, rovalty or seigncurage. for coining gold. The M'«fc has often coined thirty or forty millions of sovereigns or half-sove-reierns for nothing! If a man or ft company wants a ton of rrold converted into legal tender sovereicrns, with tho IVT'nt stamp on ench, ought he not to willingly pav? Would not a ton of sovereigns be better value than a ton of fino gold dust?— Yours, efr*.. J. MTT/FS VET?T?ALL. Swannanoa, March 16th, 1920.