Certain bar charges, as given in the following table, are imposed by the government to cover the cost of making; these vary with the fineness and size of the bar. Bar charges as below are imposed when bars are sold or when a depositor re quests, directly or indirectly, special sized bars in payment of a deposit of bullion. Gold bars may be sold only when of standard fineness or higher, for gold coin or gold certificates only, and in lots of not less than $5,000. Silver bars may not be sold except upon special authorization.
Foreign Shipments of Gold When obtainable, bullion is preferred for shipment abroad, but as a rule the supply of large bars is more or less limited. When shipments are heavy, gold coins of the denomination of Io's and 20'S are used, preference being given to the latter, as they are likely to average better and the loss from abrasion is not so great. In shipping gold coin abroad, credit is given for the actual weight of the gold and not the nominal value. Each of the various de nominations of gold coins is put up by the United States Mint in bags of $5,000 each, the standard weight of which is 268.75 ounces Troy, or about 18.5 pounds avoirdupois; but many bags weighing less are current, and any such bag is likely to contain many coins below the limit of tolerance, that is, coins which have lost their legal-tender quality because of deficient weight. As these short-weight coins are not current, they are stamped "light" by the government, and must then be sold as bullion, the loss varying from y. to i per cent.
Gold Coins in Circulation The United gold coins in circulation now are the double eagle, the eagle, half-eagle, and quarter-eagle, containing, respectively, $20, $io, $5, and $2I2. The gold dollar, though no longer coined, was made the standard unit of value in 19oo, and since 1837 has contained 25.8 grains .9 fme, or 23.22 grains pure gold. An ounce of standard gold, therefore, will make i8.6 dollar coins, or be worth $18.6o, and an ounce of pure gold will make 20.67 coins, or be worth $20.67. The government has minted other gold coins than the above mentioned, but they are not in general circulation and command a premium as souvenirs. They are as follows: the $3 gold piece, coined by act of Congress in 1853 and discontinued in 189o, the weight of which was 74.4
grains; the $1 gold piece, coined first in 1849 and discontinued in 189o, which was of two sizes, large and small, but with the same gold content; the three issues of souvenir gold dollars, the first in 19o2 to commemorate the Louisiana Purchase Exposition held at St. Louis, in which issue two different coins were minted, one with a Jefferson head and the other with a McKinley head; the second in 1904 for the Lewis and Clark Exposition held at Port land, Ore.; and the third in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Interna tional Exposition. Only a limited number of these special coins were minted and they were sold at a premium for the benefit of their respective expositions. In 1916 special $r gold pieces were issued for the McKinley Memorial.
Silver Coins in Circulation The silver coins of the United States now current are dollars, half-dollars, quarters, and dimes. Silver dollars were first coined in 1794 under the Act of 1792, and weighed 416 grains .089 fine, or 371.25 grains pure; in 1837 the fineness was made .9 and the weight reduced to 4123/2 grains, but keeping the pure silver con tent at The coinage of silver dollars was discontinued in 1873, resumed in 1878, discontinued in 1904, and again resumed in 1921.
The subsidiary silver coins (halves, quarters, dimes, and half dimes) date from 1794 and contained their respective proportions of the silver dollar. In 1853 their weights were reduced from grains to 384 grains for two halves, or four quarters, or ten dimes. All silver dollars, halves, quarters, and dimes are put up by the mint in bags containing $1,000 each, a bag of the dollar coins weighing 71.6r and of the fractional coins 66.98 pounds Troy.
The commercial value of silver rose very much during the war, due, among other things, to the relative cessation of production in Mexico and elsewhere, its greater monetary use as a substitute for gold coinage in belligerent countries, shipment to India to settle trade balances, and special uses for war purposes; hence the silver content in the silver dollar rose in value and the government's seigniorage correspondingly decreased. The reverse effects oc curred during 1920 and 1921 as the price of silver fell again to its former level.