BULLION, uncoined gold or silver in bars, plate or other masses, which has been re duced to the standard fineness of the coinage of a country, but is sometimes used to designate the metals generally, whether coined or un coined. United States standard bullion con tains 900 parts of pure gold or pure silver, and 100 parts of copper alloy. The coining value of an ounce of pure gold is $20.67183, and the coining value of an ounce of standard gold is $18.60465. The coining value in standard silver dollars of an ounce of pure silver is $12929, and the coining value of an ounce of standard silver is $1.1636. The word bullion was of fre quent use in the proceedings respecting the Bank of England from 1797, when the order of council was issued that the bank should discon tinue the redemption of its notes by the 'pay ment of specie to 1823, when specie payments were resumed; for, by a previous law, the bank was authorized to pay its notes in un coined silver or gold, according to its weight and fineness. The investigations of the bul lion committee, and the various speculations on the subject of bullion, related to the supply of gold and silver, whether coined or not, as the basis of the circulating medium. The discovery
of the mines in America did not at first add materially to the stock of bullion in Europe. The total addition for the first 54 years was about $85,000,000; not quite so great an amount of value (in gold at least) as Russia has ob tained from the Ural mines in less than half the time. The average annual supply from all the American sources during the 54 years from 1546 to the end of the 16th century was rather more than $10,000,000. During the 17th cen tury the annual average was about $16,250,000; in the next half century it was $27,500,000; and in the years 1750 to 1803 it was $38,000,000. In the decade 1901-10, imports of gold, chiefly bul into the United States ranged from a minimum of $43,339,905 in 1910 to a maximum of $148,337,321 in 1908. The extremes of ex ports were $38,573,891 in 1906 and $118,563,215 in 1910.