MINT PRICE OF GOLD. In any form of metallic cur rency it is essential that the law should lay down the weight of metal that each coin should contain, as otherwise uniformity would be lost, and the currency would have no fixed value and purchasing power and would cease to command confidence. Fur thermore, the law usually reserves the right to coin money to the official mint, which is a government institution. From this it fol lows that all gold or silver bullion which the holders wish to turn into coin has to be handed over to the mint in the form of bullion and returned by the mint in the form of coin.
The need for this double transfer immediately raises the ques tion of the terms on which the mint is prepared to act. In these terms, three main factors are involved. These are the mint price of gold or silver, seigniorage and loss of interest.
Confining this examination to gold, it is clear that if, as is always the case, the weight and fineness of gold in each given coin is fixed by law the mint price of gold is equally fixed. Thus the English law lays down that twenty pounds weight troy of stand ard gold shall be coined into 934 sovereigns and one half-sovereign, and standard gold is defined as twenty-two carats fine gold to two carats of alloy in the pound weight troy, or eleven-twelfths fine.
The mint price of gold in England can thus be calculated: b34.5= 20 lb. standard gold = 240 oz.
.*. I oz. standard gold = =3 17s. Told.
£3 17s. or 77s. per oz. standard is the mint price of gold in London.
President Roosevelt formally revalued the United States gold dollar by proclamation of Jan. 31, 1934, under the Act of May 1 2 , 1933, as amended by the Gold Reserve Act of 1934. The procla mation fixed the weight of the gold dollar at 15 5/21 grains of gold, nine-tenths fine. This action constituted a reduction of the gold in the dollar to 59.06% of the former content and gave to gold an equivalent value of $35 a fine ounce. Thereafter the United States mints and assay offices accepted proffered eligible gold at the price of $35 per fine ounce.
Having shown how the mint price is calculated, it remains to determine its significance. It simply expresses the amount of coin
that the mint will return to the tenderer of a given amount of bul lion. Thus in England if 20 lb. of standard gold are tendered to the mint the holder will receive back 434 los.
It will be seen that, so far, the mint has made no charge for the cost of coining the gold. In England this was the case, but abroad the mint usually does make a charge. This is called seigniorage (q.v.) and it has the effect of reducing the mint price of gold.
The third point, namely loss of interest, arises from the fact that it usually takes a week or ten days for gold bullion to be minted. During this period the owner of the gold is earning no interest upon it. This also has a practical effect upon the mint price of gold, as can be seen very simply from the following calculation.
Assume that the operation of minting takes ten days, and that the current rate of interest is 5%. Then in London, one ounce standard gold equals 77s. IoA. in ten days' time, which is only equivalent to 77s. 9d. spot cash.