Sweepings.-The ashes, fluxes, crucibles, sweepings and all other refuse materials from rooms in which the metals are worked, containing a small amount of gold and silver.

Seigniorage.-In modern times, the difference between the actual or bullion value of coins and their nominal or tale value; retained by some governments as a mint charge for coinage.

Standard.-The weight and fineness fixed by law for the coins. Hence the terms "standard weight" and "standard fineness" for coins.

Base Bullion.-Gold or silver bullion not fit for coinage purposes by reason of the presence of base metals until refined.

Mint-Mark.—The letter or mark on the coin designating the mint at which it was struck: as “S” for San Francisco; "C. C." for Carson City.

Money of Account.-The ideal unit, or money

term in which accounts are stated or transactions made, as the Pound Sterling of Great Britain, the Dollar of the United States, the Franc of France, and the Reichsmark of the German Empire.

Standard Coins, or Coins of Standard Value.—In modern times a government first establishes a money of account or ideal unit, and then fixes by law the quantity of gold or silver which shall, in the form of a coin with unlimited legal-tender power, represent

that ideal unit. Such coins with their multiples and divisions are termed standard coins, or coins of standard value.

Where a government fixes a certain weight of gold, and a certain weight of silver, to represent respectively the ideal unit in full legal-tender coins, a ratio, or relative valuation, of the two metals in the coinage, or a double standard, is thereby established, and the coins of both metals are standard coins.

Subsidiary Coins.-In the United States, silver coins of less denomination than the dollar, which have a nominal value exceeding their intrinsic or bullion value, and limited as legal tender to sums not exceeding five dollars.

Minor Coins.-Coins of small denominations, used for change, and struck from other metals than gold or silver.

Coining Value, or Mint Price of Gold or Silver.The rate per standard ounce at which the mint converts bullion into unlimited legal-tender coins.

The coining rate of an ounce of standard gold bullion-i. e. bullion 90% fine-in the United States is $18.604+.

1000

The coining rate for the silver dollar of 4123 grains, discontinued by law Apr. 1, 1873, was $1.16 per standard ounce.

The British coining rate is 1869 sovereigns for

forty (troy) pounds of sterling standard gold, or, £3 175. 10d. per ounce troy, British or sterling standard: that is, gold 22 carats (11), or .9163 fine.

Money Standard.-The basis of the money system of all civilized nations is Gold, or Silver, or both in a ratio fixed by law. These metals may accordingly be regarded as universal standards of value.

Where the ideal unit of the money of account is represented in unlimited legal-tender gold coin only, and the value and legal tender of silver coins is made subordinate to gold, the gold standard prevails; and where the money unit is represented in silver coins to the exclusion of gold as an unlimited legal tender, the silver standard prevails.

Where the unit is represented both by gold and silver coins of unlimited legal tender, with unrestricted coinage, the double standard prevails.

The ratio, or relative valuation of the two metals, in the coins of nations employing the double standard is, at the present time, almost without exception, one of gold to fifteen and a half of silver.

CHAPTER II.

AUTHORITY TO COIN MONEY AND REGULATE ITS VALUE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Government under the Articles of Confederation.

Α'

RTICLE II. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.

ARTICLE IX. The United States in Congress assembled shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective States. The United States in Con

gress assembled shall have authority borrow money or emit bills on the credit of the

to

United States.

Provisions of the Constitution of the United States as to Coinage, Legal Tender, Weights and Meas

ures.

ART. I, SEC. 8. The Congress shall have power to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coins, and fix the standard of weights and measures, to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States.

coin

ART. I, SEC. IO. No State shall money, emit bills of credit, make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.

ART. I, SEC. II. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people.

After the Declaration of Independence and before the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, each of the thirteen original States, had, as an attribute or incident of sovereignty, the right to coin money.

In the Articles of Confederation the States expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled, "the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin, struck by their own authority or by that of the respective States."