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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870 edition. Excerpt:...our standard coin and our measure of value. It is not a token having an artificial value given to it by an act of the Government. It is a piece of money having nothing more or less than the intrinsic value of the gold of which it is composed. It can be melted down and reduced to the original bullion out of which it was formed, and all bullion of the requisite fineness can be converted by the possessor into sovereigns without expense by a free mint. The sovereign is thus the mere identification of 113 grains of fine gold, and is a universal coin with which we can as easily buy claret in Bordeaux as whisky in Islay. We have no occasion for international coinage, our sovereign--held over the whole world in the highest estimation--being nothing more than a piece of bullion, can at once be compared with, and adjusted to, the coins of all nations. One of the principal causes assigned, as we have already stated, for the imposition of a seigniorage is, that this would prevent exporting sovereigns instead of bullion. Professor Jevons, in a letter in The Times of last Friday, maintains this most elaborately. Now there is not the slightest occasion to send sovereigns out of the country when bullion is required; for the Bank has always in its cellars large amounts of bar or standard gold, which the exporter can have in place of sovereigns when bullion is required. But, says Mr. Jevons, the sovereigns are sent abroad to make profit of them. Those above the average weight are picked out and then melted down into a larger amount of fine gold than the standard weight. To this we have simply to reply, that, if a profit could be made by such a process--which we do not believe--why, in the name of common sense, should it not be carried on in London, without...