DECIMAL COINAGE.
Loaders, 27th August 1855. Sim—May I beg your insertion of the enclosed observations on reply to myletter of the 4th instant.
The cause of our difference is easy to understand. "K." aspires to "a universal system of decimal coinage" for all the world ; while I only at- tempt to adopt our present coinage and customs to a decimal system of ac- counts, and to show how I believe that system may be carried into execution without deranging our "money of coinage and money of parlance," in con-, tradistinction to the plans advocated by "H." and the Decimal ALociation,
which propose to change both. ' I find the -penny the smallest coin usually entered into books; and it may, therefore, be considered the basis of our system of accounts. It is, at the same time, the principal coin in use as a measure of value by a vast majority of our populatton in the exchange and traffic of all articles of universal con- sumption, of wages, and taxes.
I do net, therefore, see the advantage of attempting to introduce the- farthing-in its place, as the principal coin of account; especially as, out of, London, the coin is very rarely seen or used, while-even in London it is used as a fraction and rarely as a measure of value. The result of making, as "H." proposes, the penny 0.004 instead of 0.1 in the decimal system, would be -to make the scheme millennial, and thus to -add another column to our-account-books, -to the great loss- of time of the bookkeeper and the ac-. eountant ; and thus making the farthing the unit would' entirely excluder from the decimal system the penny, which is the basis of the pecuniary transactions of nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand of our population, and which would therein become a' non-decimal 'part of a pro- posed klecimal system of coinage. In my letter I suggested that all out coins might continue in circulation; intending.therebt, not only as "tome* of coinage," but also as "money of „teals:lye" : so that- the examples cited by "H." have no reference to the r plan proposed • for it is to be observed that almost every country that' peso sasses a decimal coinage has also "coins of parlance" in large circulation, which are not regular decimal coins. I know it is the custom to declarer that the form-mw the-introduction of the decimal-system. It would be so if used as a " coin. of account," which it has never yet been ; but " a coin of parlance" it is no more so than the shilling, which, like the franc in France, is the- twentieth part of the gold coin of the-country in most com- mon use. At the same time, should the plan advocated in my letter be fa- vourably receieed 'by the people, when' new -coins are 'required to replace those at present in use deteriorated by wear, we may have the advantages, if it is desired, of obtaining the tenpence (or "franc "), the dollar, the ducal, the new guinea and its half, added to our "money of parlance," without any derangement of the system. I may further be allowed to observe, that in France, Holland, Italy, and America, no evil has been found to result from recording a sum as large as even our National Debt in francs,. guilders, crowns, 'or dollars': but when we consider how seldom we are required to mention large-sums, and how much more seldom we are called'.upon to pay them in coin, compared with the frequency:of.the occasion for mentioning, entering in books, and paying the smaller stuns. in daily use, by both rich and _poor, it follows that even if the objection-of" H." is well founded, it will be of very slight importance com- pared wit:1111a derangement which must arise from renaming and altering the value'ef thagreat bulk of the smaller monies of coinage, accounts, and parlance, prepoad lit? "H." in common with the advocates of the pound and mil scheme. -
I must confess that I do not understand " H.'s " argument on tho unfitness of the tenpenny for its purpose because it has several names in his book ; for on referring to the work, I find that the same objection would apply to almost every other coin, for most of them have three and sometimes more names, many of them not in use in England, whatever they may be in the rest of -P;6.—I believe that the question of the best system of decimal coinage and accounts cannot be settled until the bankers, merchants, and small traders will submit the various plans to an experimental examination, to discover which is best suited for their daily use, not only for entering results in the ledger but also for making up the details and calculations. Mr. Laurie, originally an advocate of the pound and mil scheme, and several other advocates of the tenpenny system, have submitted it to this test, and declare it is the best ; but the supporters of the pound and mil scheme, though repeatedly challenged to give the result of their practical ex- perience, have hitherto systematically refused, and are therefore believed to recommend it from theory only,—they indeed generally reply when chal- lenged, that if they cannot have their plan they would rather remain as they are, without any change.
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