IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) SIMPLE SYSTEM OF DECIMAL NOTATION AND CURRENCY, AFTER THE PORTUGUESE MODEL. jx *• -m w JAMES ALEXANDER, '|. . WINE-MEHCHANT, EUIXBURaH, % * -"-■ (JfVom the Trafi>action$ of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, vol. iv.) EDINBURGH: JOHN MENZIES, 61 & 63 PRINCES STREET. HOUIiSTON & STONEMAN, 65 PATEIIN08TER ROW, LONDON. MDCCCLIV. #• '«L 2lS ^ M Suggestions for a Simple System of Decimal Notation and Currency/, after the Portuguese Model. By James Alex- ander, Wine-Merchant, Edinburgh.* Some change in our present complicated system of money notation and currency has long formed an object of desire to the mercantile community of this country. For although we are the most mercantile nation on the face of the globe, in- somuch that we have been not inaptly termed " a nation of shopkeepers," yet in this department of scientific reckoning we are not only confessedly behind almost every other Euro- pean nation, but also far in arrear of the United States of America — an offshoot from our own stock. And now even Canada, one of our own possessions (but possessed in this particular of independent action), has already taken the start of us. From an object of desire this change has latterly be- come an object of expectation, for we are aware that certain steps have been taken towards it ; but, like the deceitful mirage of the desert, the wished-for consummation seems to vanish from our longing eyes just as we think ourselves likely to reach it : in fact, we seem to proceed towards it by steps of strictly decimal progression. It is just about ten years since a parliamentary commission on the subject of weights and measures advised the adoption of a decimal scale in reference to them, but recommended, as a prelimi- nary step, the previous decimation of the coinage, which was not properly before them ; and it is only now, in the second decennial period, that we have had a Parliamentary Commit- tee on the coinage and currency, whose report was presented at the close of last session. It is, at all events, refreshing to find that that committee has not shelved the coinage and currency for another decennial period, by recommending, in accordance with previous precedent, that the weights and measures should first be decimated ; for the report undoubt- edly directly recommends the decimation of coinage, currency, * Read before the Society, 12th December 1853. Ji 4 • Suggestions for a Simple System of - and accounts, and even points out, with some degree of dis- tinctness, the mode in which the committee propose that this should be done, deduced from the evidence and recommenda- tions of many eminently scientific men, who appear carefully to have considered the subject ; but this further progressive step, giving apparently the hope of a speedy realization of our wishes, is to a great extent neutralized by a single sen- tence in the evidence of Sir J. W. Herschel, the talented mas- ter of the Mint, and one of the most important, if not the most important witness examined, who, after fully developing his theory of the important change, says, " I should feel disposed to assign somewhere about twenty years from its commence- ment, as a probable term for the completion of the process (meaning the process of transition) and the introduction of a totally new coinage. That is the idea I have of the way in which the new system might be introduced." In this idea as to time. Sir John is corroborated by other witnesses ; and therefore I much fear that the question will arise with the present generation of mercantile men, Whether they will submit to the infliction of the many inconveniences which a change, however slight, in money matters necessarily entails, in order that their grandchildren may enjoy a better system of accounts, or whether they will not rather be inclined to " bear the ills (and the coins) they have, than fly to others that they know not of ? " The chief obstacle which appears to have appalled even the most strenuous advocates for a change, is the important fact, that " it is absolutely necessary that the greatest deference should be paid to existing circumstances, and that the pre- sent relative notions of value, so deeply rooted in the public mind, should be disturbed as little as possible ;" and on this the very threshold of the question, the anomalous " pound sterling," and the much more ancient penny, stand arrayed in deadly feud ; for it is held to be absolutely imp- ssible, under the new system, that they can longer co-eocist. The pound seems to have found most favour with the majority of the witnesses, who appear to regard the retention of it as the " unit of account" and of value as a sine qua non ; and the committee have, therefore, done little more than hold the Decimal Notation and Currency. scales betwixt the pound and the penny, and have at length decided that the pound has the preponderance, and that the penny must *' go to the wall." They appear, however, to be so sensible of the great difficulties which surround this part of the question, and the prejudice likely to be created among the great masses of the people, that they shrink from the responsibility of " closing the record," and qualify even their recommendation by' saying : " An obstacle of so undefined a nature as a vague popular feeling, based upon habit and as- sociation, and not upon reason, cannot be dealt with on any general and abstract principle ; and your committee, there- fore, pui'posely abstain from seeking to fetter the executive on that part of the subject." In my humble opinion, this is tantamount to a leaving open of the entire question, for po- pular feeling and prejudice is the most important element to be dealt with in the matter, for which it is open to any one to suggest means of palliation, even from a different course of treatment to the one proposed. Now this simple change in the name and value of the present penny involves cons derations of such magnitude, that just before the proro- gation of Parliament one of Her Majesty's ministers stated that it was not to be thought of, or entered upon, without the most weighty deliberation. And I think, having regard to popular feeling, that he was right; the very name of the penny is enshrined in the affections of the people by the part which it bears in many a familiar saying and proverb. But besides this ideal attachment, a long array of tangible fixtures of value already present themselves against the change. Those in the van are marshalled by Government — penny-postage, receipt and newspaper stamps— statutory tolls and pontages — income-tax and railway mileage-rates — pay- ment of troops, and customs duties ; and these ai*e followed by penny and threehalfpenny publications, and a long line of private interests, — an addition to which, upon slight consi- deration, will suggest itself to the mind of almost every tenth man in the community ; added to this, the change is to fall, not upon the educated classes, who could best appreciate the advantages which it would bring about in another direction, but upon the masses of the people, whose prejudices it is much :«! r i Suggeations for a Simple St/efem of easier to excite than to allay— that people whose ancestoi's, exactly a century ago, clamorously demanded back from the executive the eleven days of which they believed themselves to have been robbed by the change in the calendar — a belief which, in these latter times of intelligence and spreading knowledge, may be universally admitted to have been most irrational and absurd. But even where it excites a smile, is it not practically homologated, by the persistent adherence, in many districts, to what is termed the " Old Style," in the fixing of terms of service, much to the inconvenience of other districts, and while every annually recurring Ist day of January brings to the denizens of towns, and their imme- diate neighbourhood, cessation from toil, and the joyous feel- ings with which the commencement of every new year is hailed? In many country districts, this day is altogether over- looked, high holiday being held upon the 13th. In these days of cheap travelling, it is certainly a most anomalous sight for us citizens, just as we are beginning to settle quietly down, after our new-year's festivities, with the chastened feeling that another year has many days since gone down the stream of time into the ocean of eternity, to find our streets paraded by bands of holiday-making country people, and on inquiring the occasion, to be told that " this is New Year's day !"" If this does not evince a still lingering belief in the justice of the cause of their last century predecessors, it at all events holds out an emphatic warning against any inconsiderate or violent interference with popular prejudices or predilections, no matter how evident, to those having the power of doing so, the advantages of the change may appear. Having, therefore, long had an idea of my own for changing the cur- rency and accounts of this country to a decimal character, without the necessity of any violent change in the circulating coinage, while I shrink from placing myself in opposition to the systems developed by the many eminent men who have come forward on this important question, still believing, as I do, that for those on whom the ultimate responsibility of the change is to rest — while a Scylla boils on the one hand, in the proposed abolition of the present penny and its subdivi- sions, Charybdis is not far distant on the other, in the de- Decimal Notation and Currency. 7 ferred hopes and expectations of the community — I think that a middle channel may bo discovered, through which the cur- rency bark, heavily laden though she bo with the entire cir- culating coinage, may yet pass, with flowing sail, and with- out the aid of the screw, into a harbour of refuge, resulting ultimately in a shortened and successful voyage into the de- sired haven. Certain features of that channel were indeed pointed out to the committee, btit they appear to have stopped at the very entrance, from a misapprehension of the direction in which it was to lead ; and it is to prosecute that inquiry that the present paper is now, but still with considerable diffidence, presented for your consideration. On a matter of so very debatable a nature, it would be the height of pre- sumption in me even to anticipate your approval ; but I trust you will at least receive it with indulgence, as an humble con- tribution to the consideration of this important, and now much agitated question ; and if it have only the effect of leading some of our more comprehensive minds to take up the matter, it will not have been made in vain. The advantages of a decimal system of notation or state- ment of written accounts, over that which we now pursue, I need hardly state are very great, getting quit, as it would do, of our present complicated compound system, and enabling us to state all accounts in simple numerals, thus saving an im- mense amount of labour to our clerks, arid in a great degree decreasing the liability to error. The subject, however, to my view at least, manifestly divides itself into two distinct branches, and I think that in the consideration of it, the not duly preserving this distinction has led to a considerable amount of complication. The keeping of money accounts in books, and the calculations necessary to do this correctly, and the actual handling, in payment or receipt of Veritable coin, are in my opinion two almost totally distinct things, and the one only dependent in but a very slight degree on the othet. Of the many thousands of clerks employed in keeping thel records of our immense commerce, with the various ramifi- cations of banking, &c., I should say that perhaps fully one half of them never see or handle a coin in connection with the accounts which they keep : it may be said that while !' ^ Suggestions for a Simple System of writing out these accounts, tlie actual money which they express is present to the " mind's eye ;" but how far this is true may be judged from the fact, that in mercantile houses doing business with foreign countries, and the clerks in which must necessarily be acquainted with exchange transactions, you will find them talking as learnedly and familiarly of dol- lars and cents, kreutzers and stivers, ducats and roubles, as if they had circulated around them during the whole course of their existence — ^the truth probably being, in nine cases out of ten, that they not only never set eyes upon a single coin of any of these denominations, but had never been out of Great Britain in their lives. It will, therefore, appear, that in regard to the written records of our mercantile transac- tions, the greater bulk of which are effected without the actual passing of money, it is not so much coins that we want, as a simple and easily manageable denomination of accounts. It is no doubt of importance that, if possible, the coins in cir- culation should be as much in harmony with that denomina- tion as possible ; still, when it comes to the actual payment of money, one coin is just as good as another, provided its specific value in the denomination in vihich accounts are kept he easily ascertainable ; and people are too much ac- customed to look at both sides of a shilling to hand it over for less than its legitimate value. If the subject, therefore, divides itself to a certain extent into two distinct branches, the proposed systems of decimals also take two different di- rections — the one of progression, the other of retrogression, from a given point ; and I have a strong idea of the ease with which the one system can be imparted to the minds of an uninformed public, in comparison with the other ; just in proportion as a man acquires a thorough knowledge of the principles of construction of any fabric or piece of work which his own hands have reared, in comparison with taking to pieces the work of some other pair of hands, would, I think, be found the difference of the two systems, which, however, when attained to, are perhaps equally simple. "We are not, however, to legislate for the convenience of those merely vho have already, from education, acquired a know- ledge of decimal computations, but for those who are as yet Decimal Notation and Currenc J' entirely ignorant ; and our primary object should be to place it before them in the simplest form. In our arithmetical teaching, multiplication always precedes division ; when we commence a boy with arithmetic, wo Het him down to learning the table of numeral progression — •' units, tens, hundreds," and so on ; and he gradually acquires a knowledge of the im- mutable laws of the progression of numbers ; but would he acquire the same knowledge in the same time if we set down on his slate, as a beginning, a figure 1 with half a dozen of ciphers after it, and told him " that was the expression of a million," and that by rubbing out the figure 1 and the cipher next to it, and again setting down the 1 in the deleted cipher's place, he would make it a hundred thousand, and BO decreaslrg, step by step, till the figure I stood alone, as a simple numeral, and he is told that it id now a unity would he not be much more apt to be mystified than in- structed i How much more natural and easy would it be, first, to make him thoroughly comprehend what a unit is, and then a knowledge of the ascending power of numbers would speedily follow. I think, therefore, that in teaching a new system to a people, it is best to take any previous know- ledge as little for granted as possible, and to stick as closely to elementary principles as we can. Although the Parliamentary Committee have presented us with a goodly-sized Blue Book, I cannot help saying that I think there is very material evidence wanting, which, had it been brought out, would have been of the very highest value, in a proper consideration of the question. It will be observed, that almost all the evidence we have is theoretical ; that is to say, that each witness simply develops his own theory of what he would propose as a system of decimals for this coun- try, and only incidentally and generally are other countries and their systems alluded to. Now, decimal notation and currency, though still only a theory with us, is " a great fact" with the majoi'ity of other civilized nations, and I would there- fore have desiderated at least one witness to develop par- ticularly the systems of each country where the decimal sys- tem now obtains. There could have been little difficulty, I feel assured, in obtaining among the merchants of London wit- m Suggestions for a Simple System of nesses fully conversant with the monetary system of the re- spective countries with which they more particularly have mercantile relations, and who, probably from residence there, would have been enabled fully to expound the decimal sys- tems of each, its circulating coinage, and nature of its sub- divisions ; its system of bookkeeping and accounts, and num- ber of columns employed ; its habits of oral enumeration of sums of money, and whether in these all the separate decimal gradations were preserved ; its system of exchange with this country, and other important particulars ; — a know- ledge of all which could not fail to have been highly interest- ing, and a collation of which might have aflPorded us valuable materials for construction. We have now the term " ex- perience" applied to insurance, investment, and other public companies, adopted, I suppose, to induce a belief that they have profited by the experience of all who have preceded them, and I think we would have found it an advantage to be in something like this position in reference to our pro- posed decimal system. With these views, I purpose, to the best of my ability, to supply this deficiency of evidence in respect of one country with whose system alone I am at all conversant, — I mean Portugal ; and whose simple decimal system of accounts I not only take as a model for our imitation, but venture upon the assertion that, with a simple change of denomination, and another superadded feature which I shall presently notice, it will be found analogous in almost every particular with our present circulating coinage in its sub-divisions. ThatI should, at this date, be at all able to expound the monetary system of Portugal, after an interval of twenty-two years' absence from the country, v/ithoui since having had the slightest practice in its accounts, will, I think, argue favourably for its simplicity, which, indeed, is borne testimony to in the evi- dence of Dr Bowring, whom I shall afterwards quote upon another point to which he does not appear to have paid 80 much attention. I went to Portugal in early youth for mercantile tuition, not long after my emancipation from the schoolroomj and have still a vivid recollection of the ease with which I fell into the system of money reckoning and ac- 1 i, I 'IS Decimal Notation and Currency. 11 i counting. I cannot say that I even cast a thought upon its being decimal ; I only knew that it was novel, and much easier than our own, — that, while our's was compound and perplexing, it was simple and perspicuous to a somewhat dull comprehension ; and I am happy in having preserved my juvenile bookkeeping of current expenditure, which has served to revive my recollections. The mode of keeping accounts in Portugal, then, is in one siniple denomination, that of •' rees" (literally " things"), and milrees, which of course merely mean thousands ; but it is possessed of a feature appertaining, I think, to this country alone. The monetary system of all other countries is based upon some tangible and veritable coin, or expression of value, and therefore to the uninitiated a •* ree" would at once be understood to be .' coin ; but there is actually no such coin in existence as a ree, the money denomination is entirely ima- ginary ; and the lowest circulating coin, analogous in po- sition, and nearly similar in value with our farthing, is of the nominal value of five rees. This principle may be cha- racterized as an exceedingly cunning device, for it takes ad- vantage of the decimal system of computation in the simplest form, and consists in just stamping the lowest circulating money value with the expression of the decimal unit 5, the effect of which is, that, in all money calculations, every sum ends in a cipher, except there be one or three farthings: (so to speak) present, in which case it ends in 5 ; in fact, 5 being the lowest expression of value, and all the other coins or expres- sions of value being of necessity multiples of it, it is the only numeral of the whole 9 known in the monetary system of Portugal as a "simple number ;" and the ease which it en- tails on all calculations will be appreciable by those who can recollect the easy and plain sailing through the fifth line of our multiplication table, after the difficulties of those previously encountered. It appears to me that the man who conceived this principle of the Portuguese monetary system (how long ago I am unable to say) is entitled to rank as the first pro- fessor of homoeopathy. In this country we are wedded to the tangible and real ; and the etymology of our farthing is " the fourth of a thing," — that thing being the penny ; but the ■ s 12 Suggestions for a Simple System of Portuguese has made his analogous coin to consist of five infinitesimal things, which he has not rendered palpable '• to feeling or to sight," the beneficial effects upon the system from the " exhibition" of which (to use the professional term) are, however, much more easily demonstrable than those of the infinitesimal doses of the present day. Under this imaginary denomination of account, then, Portugal has an a^iple array of circulating coins of various values, which I here place in juxtaposition with our own, to bring out the analogy. It will at once be understood that I do not adduce them as on a par of exchangeable value ; for the legal tender in Portugal being one-half Government paper, which is always, unfortunately, at a considerable though fluc- tuating discount, the exchangeable value of the coins is there- by afl'ected, but not the analogy of what coins are found most convenient as betwixt a decimal and a non-decimal country. The lowest circulating coin has assigned to it the nominal or imaginary value of — Writen thus in liees. And Analogous to our 5 rees 10 rees A vintem A naif testoon 3 vintem piece Testoon 6 vintem piece l|00-5{*^mSe^"*"^'}"i"g IIOIO half vintem 11020 I *^® 240th part of a " \ moidore 11050 IIOGO II 100 11120 2^ vintenis halfpenny I penny proposed new cent of 2^ V S«e Appendix, No. iii., p. 39. t Ibid., No. i., p. 3C. Decimal Notation and Currency. 91 > I But the difficulty which is now to be met is, that long accustumed to a higher integer of value in our anomalous expression '* a pound sterling," than most other nations — although our brethren in America have long ago discarded it for the dollar, as their highest expression of account, value little more than a fifth, without, as the Committee's report states, *' any inconvenience having appeared to attend the change," — it is held to be repugnant to the feelings of the people of thii) country to express large amounts in a ^:mall denomination ; and that if a man who wished to convey the information that he was worth £10,000, bad to say that he was worth nine millions six hundred thousand farthings or mils, it would be utterly intolerable, and completely disturb or upset all our established notions of value ; it is, therefore, held that the pound ** is a British institution, so engrained into all our notions of value that it is impossible to oust it," and that any proposition to call a pound other than what it is, cannot be listened to. But I think this difficulty will vanish, if we can find a familiar and generally recognisable term for the expression of a thousand farthings, as a new integer, distinct from the pound or sovereign, but with a fixed rela- tion to it, as the unit or standard of value, though not of account. To the suggestion of such a term I would now humbly lay claim. Before we got the pound sterling (at least in the form of the sovereign), we had a coin in this country which was the highest expression of value ; as a coin it has long ceased to circulate, and taken its place in the collections of the antiquary ; as a denomination of paper currency, it was found necessary to render it illegal, and no banker dare issue it " under a penalty of £20 for each offence ;" notwithstanding all which, it is still clung to as ap expression of value by certain professional classes, and even by the mercantile, in such payments as subscriptions, &Cv Therefore, having tried all that we can, and unsuccessfully, to oust the " old guinea " from its hold on the affections of the country, not excepting the dernier resort of an Act of Parliament, I would now restore it to the full honours of cir- culation, as an expression of value for one thousand farthings or mils. At present it is unknown to commerce or bankings 22 Sutjyeistions for a Simple System of and 18 a mere recognisable term for a sovereign and a shil- ling, or " one pound one ;" and as the change would be no great one, and inflict no hardship or confusion, it cannot be doubted that the country would generally at once fall into its use, as an expression of the value we require for our decimal system, 208. lOd. = 1000 farthings or mils. It will be observed that this would in no way interfere with the especial prerogative of the sovereign, which still remains the tangible standard of value, and circulates as a coin of the value of 960 farthings or mils. Wo merely, in the internal commerce of the country, disregard it, or rather do not employ it as a money of account, same as we at present disregard the crown-piece and other coins. It may be said that it would be necessary to give the guinea of 20s. lOd. an actual repre- sentation as a coin, but I cannot see that this is at all neces- sary ; at present we have no difficulty in paying it when the sum is stated in that term, by laying down a sovereign and a shilling, and we should have as little difficulty with the de- preciated guinea, if we got a quadruple cent or victoria, value lOd., which would exactly supply the necessary odds to the pound. I would say that the sovereign, as a British insti- tution, remains entire in its hitherto material and political status ; but it now requires the superadded virtues of the victoria to give it that domestic character which confers a blessing on the country. Those who are incorrigibly wedded to old habits, when asked for a guinea, can lay down the sovereign and the shilling is formerly ; it will affi)rd them an opportunity of generosity in the practical exercise of the phrase, "Never mind the coppers;" and they would have the satisfaction of entering it in their accounts as 11|008, instead ofX||000. We have, however, an efficient means of giving representation to the new guinea in our paper currency — for of course all bank paper would of necessity require to be issued in the denomination in which accounts are kept ; and in Scotland there would be notes of one guinea or 1000 mils, and in Great Britain and Ireland notes of 5, 10, 20. 50, and 100 guineas, instead of pounds as at present. This change could easily be eifected without inconvenience. Notes ex- pressed in pounds, when paid into a bank, would not of > I ■*! Decimal Notation and Currency/. 23 > * course be reissued ; and a slij^ht change in the hue of lh« paper would at once prevent any risk of confusion of guineas witli pounds, until the latter were entirely withdrawn from circulation. Having thus disposed uf the units, tens, and thousands of our simple cumulative amount of farthings, it now remains to notice the intermediate gradation of hundreds; this would at present be unrepresented by an integral silver coin, and in paying it, or its half and quarter, we would require to add a penny to the florin, a halfpenny to the shilling, and a far- thing to the sixpence. This is one of the inconveniences of the transition state ; but, before the close of this paper, 1 shall adduce some considerations which, in my humble opinion, tend to show that these very coins are in course of applying the remedy to this inconvenience " ex propria motuy In the transition state, I desiderate the keeping out of view the value of the coins, or their places in any sum, otherwise than as expressions of value for their respective amounts, of the denominational farthing or mil. In fact, accounts would simply be kept in guineas and farthings ; and instead of, as in the other system, exciting the prejudices of the people by a change of value in the very coins with which they have been most familiar (and with a right conception of which, or the reasons for it, it would be next to impossible to impress them), the change, I advocate, would surely amount to the very slightest interference with their esta- blished habits and modes of reckoning. In drawing atten- tion to the advantages of a decimal system, we have pro- mised the people simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, instead of compound; and this system would amply redeem the pledge. Calculations, and the modes by which results are arrived at, are essentially operations of the mind, almost every man having a different way from his neighbour of arriving at the same point. Over the mind few governments, even of the most despotic character, can ever acquire any effectual ruling power; but when the result of a mental operation comes to be stated on paper, here is a superadded feature with which a government can deal ; we should therefore say to the people, " We have no desire violently to interfere with your established ideas of value, or u Suggestions for a Simple System of modes of reckoning; continue to think of, speak of, and handle the penny as the penny, and the shilling as the shilling, and the same with all the other coins with which you are familiar ; we don't interfere with one of them "i all we ask is^ simply, that if you have occasion to set down any accounts^ on paper, state them in farthings, for the doing of which cor- rectly we purpose to afford you every facility and information in our power." It would undoubtedly be an advantage if the value in farthings of each of the circulating coins could be impressed upon them ; but as this may not easily be attain- able, a government placard, exhibiting in conspicuous charac- ters their several values, and to be for a time exhibited in every place of business, would answer every purpose ; and these, with tables of conversion, would materially assist the transition.* The sovereign, then, being left untouched, as the standard or measure of value, besides being available as a coin of 960 farthings, while accounts are kept in a simple denomination, ^a&Wy referable to it, throughout every gradation or circulating coin, I humbly think the committee's objection, that the adop- tion of the farthing unit "would necessitate the withdrawal of the whole of the gold coinage," untenable. " Gold is our standai'd of value ;" and if, as Sir John Herschel says, " we are lashed on to it," I do not say we should " kick in the har- ness;" but I equally dissent from his proposition, that we should meekly submit to all the " tossings " which it may choose to inflict on us. But gold is only the standard of value, by virtue of the rule of " measure for measure," and not from any absolutely inherent virtue in its appearance ; in the sove- reign, or pound sterling, most of us have daily painful expe- rience of this fact, in the mulctures to which we have to sub- mit in banking ofl&ces, &c., when the too critical eye of the teller detects •' abrasion," where we possibly never suspected it, or even if we did, were probably forced to wink at it. Gold, then, is merely a given standard of fixed value, by which to estimate the fluctuations of all other property and commo- dities, and more especially coins. In the sovereign or pound, it only takes a convenient form of application to save trouble; * See Appendix, No. ii., p, 38. ■c- * > i:^ Decimal Notation and Currency. 95 dMU**"*** \\ '< A for it is evident, that if it were possible in the daily iransnc- tio 18 of life to deal with it in the form of dust, transactions could be discharged in the veritable standard itself, to the minutest fraction. To propound, then, that our fetters are so hopelessly riveted to the *" pound" as to be a bar to all im- provement, is to erect a constitutional sovereignty into a despotism. But even the importance of the pound is surely overrated, when it is stated by the committee and witnesses that "it is the basis on which all our exchange transactions with the whole world rests, and any change in it would lead to infinite com- plication and embarrassment in our commercial dealings." Surely this has been taken too much as a matter of course. That the sovereign, as only so much bullion at a fixed mar- ket price, may be the medium of settlement of exchanges, I admit ; but it is so solely because it is John Bull's " sove- reign will and pleasure" that it should be so, and it is neither the habit nor the interest of payees to examine too critically or quarrel with the form in which amounts receiv- able by them are discharged, so that it be in a form of which they can beneficially avail themselves ; and so long as this is the case, most parties are inclined, uncomplainingly, to put up with some trouble or inconvenience. Tliat it is not, how- ever, the basis upon which exchange transactions rest, one has only to look into the " course of exchange " to be con- vinced of, and to see, moreover, that the present penny, which the committee propose to change, is more the basis of exchange calculation than the pound. Paris, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Hamburgh, Frankfort, Venice, and some others, exchange, indeed, as against the pound ; but the United States, St Petersburgh, Madrid, Lisbon, Oporto, Madeira, Gibraltar, Leghorn, Genoa, Malta, Naples, Palermo, and Rio Janeiro, perform their exchange calculations by the present penny, and therefore any change in it would equally intro- duce complication and confusion, — the balance on this point being mucli in favour of the retention of the penny. The pound is, in effect, " the British institution," which isolates us from other nations ; and is, in fact, almost the only " British institution" which we cannot, with confidence, hold w \n 26 Suggestions for a Simple System of up to the admiration and imitation of the world. A little investigation will show, that while the pound, and its exist- ing decimal subdivisions in the present silver coins, do not, in almost any instance, sufficiently appi'oximate in value as to be of any practical advantage either to our own people visiting foreign countries, or to foreigners visiting Britain, decimal multiples of our present farthing and penny will be found in almost all countries to converge at some one point or representative coin to a proximate value, sufficient for all the practical purposes of travellers. On the principle which I have endeavoured to lay down, that a decimal currency can only be built upon the foundation of the lowest circulating coin, the pound would be neither more nor less, in money accounts, than aconvenientintegral expression for athousand depreciated farthings, just as a guinea would be for a thousand of the pre- sent. Our currency is in the state of an unfinished building, of which the foundation is laid ; and the question is. In what style is it to be finished % The present foundation will do for a graceful Grecian superstructure, which will harmonize with the surrounding architecture ; to rear a Gothic one, would re- quire the cutting down the proportions, or paring away the sides, of the already existing basement ; and to do so would be " Gothic" in the fullest sense of the term. But there is a con- sideration to which I would humblv draw the attention of the architects of this Gothic building, and to which I think they would do well to look narrowly, before they proceed to any great length with the superstructure. Will they not be in danger of finding that the materials with which they build are not so solid and unchangeable as they imagined ; that while the tear and wear of time generally makes all building materials of less hulk, it is likely to be the reverse with the materials they employ ; that the pillars of their building, which are already prepared in the present silver coins, are even now showing symptoms of a disposition to swell out be- yond the proportions in which they proposed to lay them, and that, at no distant period, it requires no prophet to fore- tell that unless repairs are made, the building will fall to pieces, and utter confusion be the result. To drop metaphor, I think it is only necessary to look to the preaent aspect of Decimal Notation and Cunt'ency. 27 the bullion market of the world to see, that though Sir John Herschel, the master of our Mint, concludes, that *• we must stick to the pound," the present silver coins which he pro- poses to take along with him in his adhesion are pretty plainly saying to him, " You may do as you like, but we shall not bind ourselves to anything of the kind ; we have been long fettered to the sovereign, but now we are about to take independent action." I allude to the effect which is to be had upon our silver currency by the immense, and still apparently increasing, influx of gold, our sole standard of value be it remembered, which has lately poured like a flood on the markets of the world, from the recent discoveries in our own colonies and other quarters of the globe. Gold is coined in this country at its bullion value, — that is to say, that the Mint makes no charge for turning it into coin. If you take an Australian nugget to the mint, they will not only give you back its exact weight in sovereigns, but will also make allowance for the alloy which it has been necessary to put into these sovereigns to allow of their being minted, so that you get in coin to the value of the last grain of gold. With the silver coinage, however, it is different ; on it, a seignorage is charged by Act of Parliament, amounting to about six per cent., I believe, and this takes the form of de- preciation of the coin ; so that if you were to take 100 ounces of standard silver to the Mint to be coined into crown pieces, they would give you back 100 crowns, but they would keep as much of the silver back as would form six additional crowns. This seignorage is necessary, not only for the pur- pose of defraying the expenses of the Mint, or making the business of coining bear its own charges, as every business should do, with a profit besides, but the depreciation is abso- lutely essential, to prevent the circulating medium from be- coming merely a great store-house of silver bullion, from which silversmiths could at any time draw supplies necessary for their trade, by merely melting down the requisite number of coins. They have been unable to do this for the last ten years, except at a loss, because the average value of silver being 5s. per ounce, the actual coin, though nominally of this value, does not come up to it by six per cent. Silver bullion for the last ten years has averag^ 59^ per ounce, never hav- \r m\ u 28 Suggestions fof a Simple System of ing fluctuated more than a halfpenny or three-farthings, either above or below the 5s., so that the seignorage has prevented our coins from, being melted or sold as bullion to any great extent. But how if silver rises by a considerable percen- tage in the marketable value, in relation to that by which all value is estimated, namely, gold ? — it will be obvious that it just raises the coin in value as a coin, for it may both obli- terate the seignorage, and acquire over and above an addi- tional value as bullion. Now, it is only necessary to look at the present aspect of the bullion market to see that the seig- norage is already almost obliterated — silver, in bars, appears quoted in the Economist of 26th November, at Ss. 2f d. per ounce, with every appearance of permanence. What, then, is to be the result, if this continue or increase ? Simply that the relation of the silver coins to the sovereign must of necessity alter.* It may be said that this is a delicate point to moot, and that mixing np decimal coinage with a question of currency is likely to put off its adoption to the " Greek kalends ;" but though quite aware of its delicacy, I think it is a question which cannot long be shirked, and, in the solution of which, I see the best means of introducing a thorough decimal sys- tem. It will be observed that under any new system, the executive is required to issue a new silver coin of 2^d., whether of old or new pence, and I propose its double and quadruple. The question, then, will inevitably arise, How are these new coins to be issued ? — whether at the present or the former value of silver, in relation to which our present currency laws of mintage are established. It is not for me to anticipate the decision of the Chancellor of the Exchequer on this point — the present occupant of that important situa- tion is far too acute to require any schooling from so humble an individual — but it occurs to me, that unless, like some flashy advertising traders, " he is determined to give the public every advantage which a large stock, laid in before the late serious rise in prices, will admit of," he will be unable, if the Mint seignorage is to be maintained, to supply them " be- low prime cost." If, then, the new coin or coins are to be * See App»rnlix, No. v, j). 41. Decimal Notation and Currency. 29 issued at the present relation to the golden standard of value, it necessarily follows that they will not relatively harmonize with the florin, shilling, and sixpence, which are in a relation to the standard which will have passed away. What, then, is to be done in such circumstances ? It would be no great stretch, while issuing the new coins at the proper relative value, in existing or shortly anticipated circumstances, to de- cree that, " in consequence of the rise in the value of silver, in relation to the gold standard, the florin, the shilling, and the sixpence shall be held as a legal tender respectively for 2s. Id., Is. Ojd., and 6}d. ; and if it be conceded that this or some such measure would require to be resorted to, at any rate on the emergence of such circumstances, even if we were not thinking of a new decimal system at all, it will be seen that with the new coin of 2jd., or 10 farthings, and the appreciation of the florin to 2s. Id., or 100 farthings, we would construct aper/ect decimal system, indicating, in all the gra- dations, the coins with which to pay, with a familiar integer in the new guinea. I would not accord the same appreciation, of passable value, to the crown, the half-crown, the fourpenny, or the threepenny piece, which are somewhat incompatible with the decimal system ; but these would not long continue to complicate the circulation ; for in addition to these being called in and made exchangeable at the Mint, every silver- smith, from the increase of value of silver, would for the pur- pose of withdrawal, be in eff^ect an agent of the Mint, as the melting process would be brought to bear on those coins only which were not appreciated ; and the coins necessary to our circulation would, instead of becoming bullion, continue the •' tokens " which it is absolutely necessary they should be. I do not say that the difference of value would rest here, or can be tied down to this point, but at all events it would give us breathing space, and meet the present aspect of the mat- ter. If silver continue to hold its present, or increase its re- lative value to our sole standard, there are only two ways of meeting it in the coinage — either by appreciation or deprecia- tion ; and as you cannot (as with the stroke of a magician's wand) at once withdraw an entire coinage from circulation, in the event of the latter of these being adopted, the conco- ■: i'^J 30 Suggestions for a Simple System of .1 mitant circulation of big and little florins, shillings, and six- pences, and the inconvenience which the necessity of nar- rowly examining every coin would entail on commerce, would be a serious evil ; while as to appreciation, I would suggest whether a precedent may not be found in the Portuguese coinage, which I have taken for my model, and where silver coins will be found in circulation indelibly impressed with the value of 200 and 400 reis, but which pass for 240 and 480 without the slightest confusion. We may be upon the eve of changes of value, of which none of us ever dreamt, and in contemplation of even a chance of these, it appears to me that the farthing unit in a new decimal currency is the most ra- tional system we could adopt ; it is based upon an already existing value, of which there is little risk of our requiring to learn any new idea, and, secure in its simplicity, let the sil- ver and gold " toss and tumble" over one another, to use Sir John Herschel's expression, as they may, they afl^ect not our system of accounts. Eeared on the firmly-grounded founda- tion of the lowest idea of value, to which the exigencies of our commerce require us to give a tangible expression (and prac- tically knowing no other denomination), the records of our commerce and accounts would remain unaffected by the un- stable waves of changing value which might roll further out, and the simple decimal denomination of farthings still main- tain a correct expression of accounts, under any circum- stances. I would respectfully suggest, also, whether it would not be expedient, if possible, to get quit of the term " pound," as a money term upon other grounds. If we suc- ceed in getting our coinage and currency decimalised, we do not expect to stop there — the weights and measures must in- evitably follow ; and of the difl&culties of a change in this par- ticular, that to the imperial system, which has not yet, after an interval of 28 years, taken a proper hold on the country, is a foretaste ; while in the weights you have at least two different values, of the confusing term "pounds," to deal with. ' ' '. . . Bui I have propounded this system of decimal notation and currency (with a mere '< expression " for an integer) solely in deference to what I would take leave to call the i > I Decimal Notation and Currency. 31 bigoled predilection of many for the sovereign in statu quo, who seem to think that it would be " impious sacrilege" to touch it. I have, therefore, called it throughout this paper " the standard of value ;" but it is not the standard of value as the sovereign, but only as so much bullion ; and if we find that our transactions would be more easily met or conve- niently carried out by our having a larger piece of bullion at one time than another, why should there be such difficulty about giving it us ? If the three most requisite silver coins are leaving the sovereign, — a departure which must either produce inevitable confusion in our present system of ac- counts, or necessitate a curtailing of the coins, — is there any reason why we should not change the one coin, and bring it up to the ratio ] — that is to say, abolish the pound or sovereign altogether, and increase its value by four per cent., to meet both the silver and the most rational system of accounting, under the existing circumstances and relations of our coin- age. It appears to me that few people realize to themselves what the money which passes through their hands really is. Virtually all our transactions of payment, large or small, are only the passing of so much gold, just as much as if we car- ried a phial of gold dust in one pocket, and a pair of scales and weights in the other. Changing the sovereign, then, is a very diiFerent thing from changing the standard of value, which no government, to keep faith with the public or the public creditor, dare attempt. It would not, under a new decimal system, introduce anything like the change in " our ideas of value,'' which has been propounded. Parliament would only have to declare it " found, that contracts or obli- gations made and expressed in ' pounds,' were made and ex- pressed in • farthings,' at the rate of 960 to the pound ster- ling;'' or otherwise, " that contracts expressed in ' pounds ' were made and expressed in the gold standard of value, at 3738 farthings per standard ounce," and thus all current contracts and obligations would by a simple process of calcu- lation be changed into the denomination in which accounts are kept without the slightest change of value. These, how- ever, are mere speculations as to the future, and only in- b - i I I. Suggestions for a Simple System of :■ V*. (' ■37 n :!! dulged in to show that in adopting the " farthing unit " as the first important step in transition, we would adopt a sys- tem capable easily by progressive steps of being carried out to perfection on the emergence of possible, if not very proba- ble, circumstances; but, on the contrary, if we take the pound, we not only, at the very outset, confuse and complicate all the transactions into which the present copper coinage enters as an element, but hopelessly yoke ourselves to a vehicle which will budge neither one way nor another. Various other systems have been proposed, to which it is almost unnecessary that I should allude. They all strike off what is I think incorrectly caller ' the unit," at some inter- mediate stage betwixt the pound and the farthing — some of them being multiples of the fai'thing, and others dividends of the pound ; but it is absolutely necessary, to harmonize with our present notions of value, or at least our habits of stating value, that we should have a high integral and familiar ex- pression for a considerable amount, and which I think we eminently would have in " the guinea." The only advan- tage to compensate for a lower integer would be, that we could habitually descend helow the farthing, in statements of value ; but surely this is unnecessary, when we find from the evidence, that an expensive coinage of half-farthings has been for years lying at the mint disregarded and never inquired for. Some transactions indeed descend below the farthing, such as the biddings at cotton or wool sales, which are frequently made in 8ths, in 16ths, 32ds, and even lower fractions of the penny ; these, however, being only in- tended to amount to something tangible^ on a large parcel, and having no reference to the price of a single pound of cotton or wool, parties making them could without difficulty alter their system of bidding to tenths of a farthing, S-lOths of a farthing being exactly the 8th of a penny. It is suf- ficient therefore to know, that these " ghosts of a value," if 1 may use the expression, are within the " vasty deep, and will come if we do call;" but in mercy to a superstitious and unenlightened public, do not let us parade them on the stage, in the very Hrst act of the piece. Having thus endeavoured to develop (perhaps at the risk Decimal Notation and Currency. 83 of being charged with tautology) a Bystem of decimals for British notation and currency, not from theory but from analogy, recapitulation is almost unnecessary. Theorists may insist for a strictly indicating system, but they cannot fail to be struck with the fact, that the Portuguese (who have been so highly complimented for theirs) should not have taken advantage of it, in the very obvious direction of mak- ing their milree a tangible coin, instead of a mere ideal ex- pression of value, especially as they have indicating coins below it of 100 rees ia their " testoon" (and its half), and also in their half vintem or 10 rees ; but unless matters are greatly changed, I think I will be corroborated by most of those con- versant with the monetary circulation of Portugal, in saying, that the testoon and its half (indicating as they are) are just the silver coins least used, and that by far the greater num- ber of prices, transactions, and payments, are made in duo- decimal multiples of the vintem coins of 3, 6, 12, and 24 vin- tems or pence, stated as 60, 120, 240, and 480 rees. Now, if the convenience of the Portuguese system arises from the adoption of 5 at the unit end of every sum, I consider that the converse convenience to us would arise from the adoption of a ** thousand farthings" as an integral expression of value, and of an amount in accordance with our predilections, even without a corresponding coin, and retaining the duodecimal system below it, which seems so ingrained into the human mind as to be almost " impossible to oust it." It has been argued that, as we have made one step in a certain direc- tion, by the issue of the florins, we should go on in the same direction. But it is scarcely a tenable argument, that if we have made one false step we should make another ; and I therefore hope to see the next coin issued as the ^* Victoria," of ten present pence, and with it and a system of tables, the country would almost nolens volens slide into a decimal sys- tem itself, with hardly a perception of its progress, 24 " Victorias" would ohange the sovereign ; ' 25 " Victojias" would pay the new guinea ; , 5 " Victorias" would pay two hundred farthings ; 10 four, 15 six, and 20 eight hundred ; and with very slight knowledge and calculation the lower , • ■ ■ ' c 34 Siiggeations for a Simple Syeteni of payments, for which, even without the cent, a multiplicity of coins admitting of all necessary combinations already exist, would soon arrange themselves in accordance with the sys- tem. Then surely the ease of transition is something in favour of this system ; and in this respect its advantage over the other cannot fail to be apparent. We have only to re- duce all our present amounts and accounts to farthings, by a simple process known to every one, and •• proceed as before," every separate item, if required to be so reduced, balancing with its former value, and making no difference in the aggre- gate or sum-total. But it is evident that the change proposed by the commit- tee, admitted to affect all fiivtures of a pence value, v'll also operate the same change in all sums whatever, in business books or accounts, under twopence halfpenny, or their pro- posed new cent. Such sums are fixtures of value whenever they are recorded, and a fractional calculation would require to be gone into in each case, for conversion into the new de- nomination ; or rather, as the cent is a new coin adjusted to the change in the penny and farthing, would not such calcu- lation necessarily apply to all tails of accounts under a florin, the lowest coin of account of the present denomination re- tained ? If accounts were all to be settled in the aggregate, it might be no very diflicult matter of arrangement, betwixt debtor and creditor, which was to lose or gain the differen- tial percentage on such small amounts ; but there is such a thing as a mercantile term of credit, and a large amount in the aggregate may be collected from debtors in many con- secutive separate payments of distinct items of current ac- count ; and a separate fractional calculation in such cases, so as to make the account ultimately balance (altogether irre- spective of loss or gain to the parties) would be a matter utterly intolerable. Nothing horrifies a merchant more, than the bare idea of having " a mess made of his boo vS ;" and for this very reason fractions of the penny have hitherto been almost invariably excluded from them, even at the sacrifice of strictly correct calculation. In this respect, Government Departments set Decimal Notation and Currency. 35 icity of y exist, the Bys- t,hing in ige over iy to re- [igB, by a before," )alancing le aggre- a commit- , • V 'U alao I business their pro- whenever lid require he new de- Eidjusted to Buch calcu- ier a florin, lination re- I aggrog*^®' jnt, betwixt he differen- ■re is such a e amount in 1 many con- ■ current ac- uch cases, so ogether irre- be a matter bare idea of is very reason ost invariably trictly correct jpartments set different examples, the Customs repudiating the fractions, the Excise exacting the uttermost ; but we have heard of mer- chants with whom the strictest accuracy to a very penny is matter of the most rigid and unbending principle, instituting a re-examination of the transactions of a whole year to dis- cover an error of sixpence on one side of an account, simply upon the principle, that if there he error at all, there is no security that an error of sixpence on one side may not have arisen from one of £99, 198. 6d. on the other. " A pretty mess" such commercial martinets and their clerks would get into in the transition conversion, and the throwing off or taking on the fractions in the tails of hundreds of separate accounts, which the plan of the committee would of necessity involve ! In conclusion, then, I would say, that were the farthing unit with the guinea integer adopted, the following supposi- tious paragraph in a Gazetteer, for instance, would convey all necessary information of our system. " In Great Britain money accounts are kept in farthings and guineas of one thousand farthings — various copper and silver coins are in use in the internal commerce of the country, which circulate at their respective values in farthings — but the standard or measure of value is the gold sovereign of a fixed standard of fineness, and of the value of 960 farthings, for which it also circulates as a coin. To this standard all the other coins or monies of account are referable, and in the sovereign all balances of exchange with other countries are settled." Most of you may, on some occasion, have seen a gentleman bargaining for the purchase of a horse, a house, or an estate, value from fifty to fifty thousand pounds. He makes an offer, less by some pounds than what has been asked. The seller looks contemplative for a little — at length a ray of animation overspreads his countenance — he seems to have discovered some mode of meeting the difficulty : " Make it guineas,'' he at length cries ; and forthwith hesitation and doubt vanish, and the transaction is satisfactorily concluded. I feel that the same satisfactory solution would attend a similar settle- ment in reference to our anticipated decimal system of nota- tion and currency ; with which proposition I conclude my plea for the " Old Penny " and a " New Guinea." o2 . 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"^ 2* tO-^.(N«3r-cto © © tHi-H r-iiNo»eoeo-*-»("iou:itotot^t^oooo(3i05 00t0T(<(NO00tO-.li(N©00t0'«*HN©00t0-*iN© ■*O5-*OJ'l<00C000e000(Nt-(N»^lNtOnHtOi-ctO ©©r-(-<'Vi(Neoco-*-*)<>o>ototot-^i~.ooooa> (9 Q OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO aj" ^OJWTi<»oeoi>OOeSOi:^0»WTl4»o«gk;50gCDO ^ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOv-< I ■' Ml A. 38 Suggestions for a Simple Syatetn of Appendix, No. II. Proposed Placard for ejchihition in all places of business on the transition to a decimal system of accounts, if the Florin, Shilling, and Sixpence are not at same time appreciated in value. Whereas from and after the of 185 , written accounts of all transactions, instead of being kept in the present money denomination of pounds, shillings, pence, and farthings, are thenceforth to be stated in farthings alone, with a view to a decimal system of accounts : — TAKE NOTICE THAT CHARGES OF — One farthing are to be set down thus. ■ • IIOOl A halfpenny equal to 2 farthings thus, |002 A penny. 4 i> >j |004 A •' cent " or " tithe," a new coi rt, 10 »> 9) lioio A threepenny piece, 12 >» • > |012 A fourpenny piece, 16 >> l» |016 A half Victoria, a new coin, 20 >» » 020 A sixpence, . . . . 24 » >i 024 A " Victoria,'" a new coin. 40 n »» 11040 A shilling. . 48 >> » |048 A florin. . 96 i» >> 096 A half-crown, . . . 120 )» >) |120 A crown, 240 » ]> |240 A half-sovereign. 480 if >> 480 A sovereign or pound. 960 >> )1 I960 A thousand farthings t . be called being written, a guinea, • • 20/10, • < ) 1 000 And the sum of these, to show the system, being by 1 simple addition, , . . . . , j Or three guineas, seven cents, three farthings. 311073 ness oil Florin^ \ated in written in the pence, s alone, 11001 ||002 11004 11010 11012 11016 11020 11024 11040 11048 1|096 11120 11240 1|480 1|960 111000 311073 n Decimal Notation and Currency. 39 Appbndix, No III. Example of reduction of the present denomination into farthings, and its proof by another method. Ex. — Reduce £3 17 10^ into farthings by school method. 20 77 12 934 4 Ans. 3,738 farthings, or decimally 3|1738 ; three thousand or guineas, 738 farthings ; otherwise denominacionally, if the silver he appreciated, three guineas, seven florins, three cents, eight farthings. Proof. Example, . . £3 17 10^ '. Multiply by . 8 £31 And by 3 12 ^ £373 16 Then take half the amount of the shillings and place it as the unit to the sum of pounds, thus 3738, being apparent pounds, but actually the number of farthings in the original amount. Note. The above proof is simply a multiplication by 960, the number of farthings in the present pound ; the halving the shillings and placing them as the unit, it will be seen, is j ust a short way of working the last multiplication by 10, which changes the shillings into half their amount of pounds, and infallibly results in bringing the apparent pounds in correspondence with the number of farthings in any sum; and if we take the number of figures, it is a shorter process than the other, 40 Suggestions for a Simple System of ■I. , 1 )i ill V s Appendix, No. IV. Multiplication table to be learned for practice of conver- sion of any sum of decimal farthings under a guinea, at sight, into present denomination and coinage: — 1 farthing is . 2 farthings are 3 „ 4 „ 6 „ 6 „ 7 „ 8 „ 9 „ 10 or in the second decimal place 1 at one farthings ^ one halfpenny. one halfpenny farthings one penny. one penny farthing. one penny halfpenny. one penny three farthings. twopence. twopence farthing. 2}d. twopence halfpenny. 2}d. fivepence. 2}d. sevenpence halfpenny. 2}d. tenpence. 2^d. one shilling and a halfpenny. 2id. one shilling and threepence. 2Jd. one shilling and fivepence halfpenny. 2}d. one shilling and eight pence. 2^d. one shilling and tenpence halfpenny. 100 or in the third decimal place 1 at 2s. Id. two shillings and one penny. 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 2 at 3 at 4 at 5 at 6 at 7 at 8 at 9 at 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 one Guinea 2 at 2s. Id. four shillings and twopence. 3 at 2s. Id. six shillings and threepence. 4 at 2s. Id. eight shillings and fourpence. 6 at 2s. Id. ten shillings and fivepence. 6 at 28. Id. twelve shillings and sixpence. 7 at 28. Id. fourteen shillings and seven- pence. 8 at 28. Id. sixteen shillings and eight- pence. 9 at 28. Id. eighteen shillings and nine- pence. twenty shillings and ten- pence. . J t' - 4i Decimal Notation and Currency. 41 1/ 1 <, •w J> V s >. •M J 1^ ^ CO > 00 1— t CM 5 ^ l-H ^ Tft ■is CO K I-t « < ^ 1 1; g •S 1 S t: O (« «• r§ :i OQ •ts •^ 6 V ^ *c ft4 65 « «f« «o r-t 00 1-1 U3 oi H* lO O 00 l-t ya pH «er« «o O 00 iH W5 leoo o 00 1-4 rH ■* •clue 00 i-i t— 1 l-H . «l« 00 ■«< 00 rH ^ «l« 00 l-H l-H r^ Ttt CO f-H ■* l-H 00 IH ■* «5 1-H ■<«< f-H 00 rH 't** rH 00 tH r-i ■* • n|M 5 OC l-H i-H pH ^ ej o pH lO • Hb 00 © iH « «o ©1 <*• > (N ^ «3 « -H «*» >