THE PRICE OF SILVER

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14256, 6 January 1920, Page 7

THE PRICE OF SILVER

AND ITS COINAGE. The increasing price of silver has brought very near a crisis in the coinage of this country (states the Shipping World.) As long as silver was costing 2s 6d to 3s pefli ounce, it was a profitable transaction for the Treasury to take a piece of silver, put an image and superscription upon it, and call It a shilling or a crown or half-a-crown, and say that it represented a certaia fraction of the value of a sovereign. The nominal value was then about double the intrinsic value But silver has been steadily rising in price, and the amount of silver required for any coin is now nearly equivalent in price to the face value of the coin itself. Should silver advance further In value, , our silver coins would he produced at a loss, which is, of course, an unthinkable proceeding. In such case, it would pay a person who manages to gain possession of a quantity of the legally stamped discs of metal called silver coins to melt them down and sell the silver to the Government to make further discs of the kind, it almost looks as if some speculatively-minded person were already preparing for this course. In Paris, it is said to be almost impossible Co get change in silver, and reports are current that both in France and this country an issue of papermoney is impending for smaller amounts than at present. A nickel coinage is also said to be contemplated. Might we urge the Government that, if it should be necessary to institute a nickel coinage, it should be courageous enough to take advantage of such an opportunity to institute a decimal coinage. It should be comparatively easy. Keeping the standard value of the sovereign as it is, there is the florin, which represents the tenth part of it, the tenth part of the fiorin represents a value of 2Jd., approximately, but hitherto a coin of that value has been awkward to mint. A bronze coin would he too clumsy, and a silver one too minute for convenience. A nickel coin would just fit this value, and 100 nickels would then constitute a sovereign. As for the 1000th part of a sovereign, all that is neccsary is to reduce the value of the farthing slightly, so that instead of there being 960 farthings to the sovereign, there may be 1000. The scheme is worth trying, and after generations may say of the present silver crisis—“lt’s an ill wind that blows nobody good.”