COINAGE, COINS. Many substances have been used in different countries as money, but a metal of some kind has been found to be the most suitable in all respects, and of all metals gold and silver have been selected as the best fitted to act as a coinage. The properties which should be possessed by the material of which coins are made are enumerated by Professor W. S. Jevons in the order of their importance : (I) Utility and value ; (2) portability ; (3) indestructi bility ; (4) homogeneity (that is, all parts of the same quality) ; (5) divisibility ; (6) stability of value ; (7) cognisability (that is, easily recognised).
The early records of the use of metal as money show that the metal was weighed. The inconvenience, however, of having to use scales and weights on every occasion when the metal was to be exchanged, led to the invention of coins. The metal, or bul lion, was divided into small pieces, each portion or coin being of a certain weight. In the course of time a public stamp was placed upon each coin, so that anyone might recognise it as having a definite weight, and know that the metal so stamped was also of a certain quality. The coinage of Great Britain is of three metals, gold, silver and copper, or rather bronze. Gold is the standard measure of value. Anyone can take gold bullion, of the requisite degree of fineness, to the Bank of England and have it exchanged for bank notes at the rate of 17s. 9d. per ounce of standard gold. The coinage of silver and copper, however, remains in the hands of the Govern ment, and the public cannot take silver and copper to the Bank and demand coins for it. Gold coins issued from the Australian mints at Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth are legal tender. The coins which may be issued from the mint in London are shown in the following table, being the first Schedule to the Coinage Act, allowing for the corrections made by the Act of 1S91 As the double florin of the value of four shillings is no longer coined, no reference has been made to it in the above table.
The weight and fineness of the coins specified in this Schedule are according to what is provided by the Act fifty-six George the Third, chapter sixty-eight, that the gold coin of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland should hold such weight and fineness as were prescribed in the then exist ing Mint indenture that is to say, that there should be nine hundred and thirty-four sovereigns and one ten-shilling piece con tained in twenty pounds weight troy of standard gold, of the fineness at the trial of the same of twenty-two carats of fine gold and two carats of alloy in the pound weight troy ; and further, as regards silver coin, that there should be sixty-six shillings in every pound troy of standard silver of the fineness of eleven ounces two pennyweights of tine silver and eightc,n pennyweights of alloy in every pound weight troy.
Gold and silver in a pure state are too soft to be used for the purpose of coins, and they are, therefore, mixed with another metal, called an alloy, in order to harden them. Fine gold is the term used for gold which is absolutely pure. Standard gold is pure gold mingled with alloy according to the legal standard. The column, in the above Sche dule, headed " standard fineness " shows the proportion of alloy in the gold and silver coins. The " standard weight " is also shown and the " least current weight " of gold coins. When a gold coin has been in circulation for some time. it becomes and consequently reduced in weight. When the weight of a coin falls below the " least current weight " it ceases to be legal tender, but that fact does not prevent light gold coins from pass ing freely in circulation, as people do not, as a rule. pay much attention to the weight of a coin so long as the government stamp is not entirely worn off. The last columns in the Schedule show the " remedy allowance," that is a remedy (or variation from the standard weight and fineness specified in the Schedule) which is allowed, not exceed ing the amount specified in that Schedule. The allowance is necessary because of the difficulty in making coins absolutely accord ing to the standard weights and fineness.
Silver coins continue legally current. irrespective of their weights, until they are called in by proclamation, Pre-Victorian gold coins are not now current. Silver coins coined before 1817, and copper coins before 1861, are not now legal tender.
The obverse side of a coin is that which bears the head or more important device : the reverse is the other side.
The milling was introduced on the edges of coins in order to make it more difficult for fraudulent persons to clip the coins.
(See ALLOY, BASE COINS, BRONZE COINS, BULLION, FOREIGN MONEYS, GOLD COINS, GRESHAM'S LAW, LEGAL TENDER, LIGHT GOLD, MAUNDY MONEY, MILLING, MONEY, SILVER COINS, STERLING.)