Cent (currency)

“ In Anglo-Saxon and mediæval times the want of small coins—that is, a currency representing a small value—was much felt, and this gave rise to the occasional issue of spurious, or rather base, coins to supply the deficiency, as it was found the smaller pieces—for instance, the pennies when broken up for use as halfpence and farthings—were unfit for general use among the rough-handed population. ”

“ It may properly be said to be in New York State.
Nelse W., W. L. W., R. C. Orr, and Others.—The coins and paper money you inquire about are interesting as curiosities, but have no great value. United States cents and half-cents of an early date are usually sold for from ten to thirty cents, according to date and condition. The only coinage upon which any special value is placed is that of 1799, which was so small that but few perfect specimens now remain in existence. It is not always the age which determines the value; for instance, a cent of 1810 is worth considerably more than one of 1798. ”

“ In effect, however, there is but one unit, the dollar; because a sum of money expressed in dollars is instantly converted into cents, or into mills, by a shift of the decimal point, without any appreciable mental effort. In Great Britain, however, the currency not being decimal, but divided into guineas, pounds, crowns, florins, shillings, pence and farthings, there are seven different units. Pencil and paper will generally be required by any but skilled mental arithmeticians to transfer a sum of money from one expression to another. ”

“ MEASURES OF VALUE 1. English Money In all times money has been the weight of a certain amount of copper, silver or gold, in the form of coins the fineness of which is guaranteed by the stamp of the State. The weight of coins used in payments may change in course of time, but the nominal unit of weights often continues, the pound, or livre, or marc, &c. Thus, the original Roman unit, the As, or mint-pound of copper or bronze, reduced gradually to 1/24 of its primitive weight, persisted as a money of account long after it had been replaced in the currency by the silver Denarius. ”

“ In speaking of coinage hitherto, the standard of value has been assumed to be the most important, but in fact a large proportion of our coin serves simply as currency without materially affecting the standard of value. ”

“ The value of money in any country is determined by the amount existing.... The commodities would rise or fall in price in proportion to the increase or diminution of money. I assume that as a fact that is incontrovertible. However debased a coinage may become, it will preserve its mint value.... A well-regulated paper currency is so great an improvement in commerce that I should greatly regret if prejudice should induce us to return to a system of less utility.... ”

“ But no sooner does coin leave the mint, than it immediately finds itself on the high-road to the melting pot. During their currency, coins wear away, some more, others less. Name and substance, nominal weight and real weight, begin their process of separation. Coins of the same denomination become different in value, because they are different in weight. The weight of gold fixed upon as the standard of prices, deviates from the weight that serves as the circulating medium, and the latter thereby ceases any longer to be a real equivalent of the commodities whose prices it realises. ”

“ When the gold or silver has all gone from circulation, and an equal quantity of paper has taken its place, suppose that a still further issue is superadded. The same series of phenomena recommences: prices rise, among the rest the prices of gold and silver articles, and it becomes an object as before to procure coin in order to convert it into bullion. There is no longer any coin in circulation; but if the paper currency is convertible, coin may still be obtained from the issuers, in exchange for notes. ”

“ On the Continent the currency in nearly all countries is far simpler than in England, for the reason that it is on a decimal basis. The franc is the acknowledged unit of France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, and it is divided into a hundred parts, known as centimes in the three countries first named, and as centissimi in the last of the list. Reckonings are in francs and centimes; the approximate value of the franc is twenty cents of American money—though in reality it is a trifle over eighteen cents. ”

“ Coins, being in fact merchandise, will follow the same rules of exchange, and will be attracted to those parts where they bear a greater exchangeable or market value. The actual value of a coin in currency must be that of its intrinsic value ”

“ They have no bank or post-office where you have a legal right to get a dollar for ten 10-cent pieces, and the result therefore of recklessly coining the base 10-cent pieces has been not only to depreciate it with regard to the dollar, but to make it an uncertain value, so that you must go to the money exchangers almost every morning and ask for the rate of exchange between the dollar and the small silver pieces. ”

“ Currency by tale refers only to the legal standard, as currency by weight doth to the coins themselves? (Essay upon money, Part 2d, p. 79.) Will a person who considers his light shilling as a standard coin, buy more with it than if he considered it by its weight? Will any man in England sell cheaper to a porter, who never considered his shilling farther than to look at the King’s head, than he would to a Jew, who has had his shilling in a scale, and who knows to the fraction of a grain what it weighs? Which way, therefore, (in a trading nation) can money possibly be worth more than its weight? ”

“ It has uniformly recognized in its fiscal affairs the distinction in value between paper currency and coin. Some of its loans are made payable specifically in coin, whilst others are payable generally in lawful money. It goes frequently into the money market, and at one time buys coin with currency, and at another time sells coin for currency. In its transactions it every day issues its checks, bills, and obligations, some of which are payable in gold, while others are payable simply in dollars. And it keeps its accounts of coin and currency distinct and separate. ”

“ The increase of paper money, it has been said, by augmenting the quantity, and consequently diminishing the value, of the whole currency, necessarily augments the money price of commodities. But as the quantity of gold and silver, which is taken from the currency, is always equal to the quantity of paper which is added to it, paper money does not necessarily increase the quantity of the whole currency. ”

“ These different denominations of the parts of a dollar are troublesome to strangers, and might be avoided, by counting in dollars and cents only; as there are no shillings in America, but only dollars, halves, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths, mostly Spanish coin, and some 10 and 20 cent {18} pieces of American and Spanish coin. Cents and half cents of copper are used in the eastern, but not in the western states; few cents being to be found west of the mountains.
The morning after we were settled at Baltimore, we opened some of our packages, and found them in good order. ”

“ Even gold and silver are too costly for small currency. A silver penny now weighs 7-1/4 grains, and a gold penny would weigh only half a grain. The pretty octagonal quarter-dollar tokens circulated in California are the smallest gold coins I have seen, weighing less than four grains each, and are so thin that they can almost be blown away. ”

“ It would simplify this matter very much if all would agree to call coin, or money having value as merchandise, money, and paper, or representative money, currency, or notes. It is plain that the representative money is that which must be and is principally used in this country and in all commercial countries. Coin money derives its real value in exchange, and as a measure for the exchangeable value of other products, from the fact that it costs labor to produce it; and, although government laws may foolishly try to make it pass for more than its cost value, they never succeed in doing so. ”

“ The first and most obvious method of attaining the object is to issue a paper currency which shall be redeemable, not in gold dollars of fixed weight, but in such quantities of gold and silver bullion as shall suffice to make the required purchases. ”

“ In reality there is no such thing as an inflation of prices, relatively to gold. There is such a thing as a depreciated paper currency. ”

“ Fixity of value between the various components of the currency is an essential requisite in a well-regulated monetary system. Each coin must define a fixed value, in terms of the others realizable by the most untutored intellect. When it ceases to do so it becomes a mere commodity, the value of which fluctuates with the fluctuations of the market. ”

“ The currency of the country is government paper, from one milreis upwards. Of gold there is considerable, of the value of twelve dollars each piece; there is no small silver, but the quantity of copper in circulation is enormous. It is not as bad as in China, where twelve hundred small coins go to the dollar; but here, if a milreis, valued at sixty cents, is exchanged, you obtain a thousand reis; the smallest coin is valued at ten reis, making it necessary to ballast equally well your pockets ”

“ II.52 A second illustration is found in a debased currency. Suppose a government cuts each dollar in two, coining the halves into new "dollars"; and, recalling all paper notes, replaces them with double the original number—two new notes for each old one of the same denomination. In short, suppose money not only to be renamed, as in the first illustration, but also reissued; prices in the debased coinage will again be doubled just as in the first illustration. ”

“ Swift either shared or took advantage of the general belief that the mysteries of the currency are unfathomable to the human intelligence. ... There is, however, no real mystery about the halfpence. The small coins which do not form part of the legal-tender may be considered primarily as counters. A penny is a penny, so long as twelve are change for a shilling. It is not in the least necessary for this purpose that the copper contained in the twelve penny pieces should be worth or nearly worth a shilling. ... At the present day bronze worth only twopence is coined into twelve penny pieces. ”

“ Even recent dates are sometimes valuable, for instance, quarters and half dollars of 1853 are worth from $5 to $10, a cent of 1856 brings $3, but we cannot undertake to give further examples as there are hundreds of them. Many people have become [10] rich by keeping their eyes open for old coins, why not you? The best places to find them are in the country districts. Numerous Canadian and other foreign coins are worth big sums. ”

“ If now the wants of trade are considered to require still more currency, under what circumstances will they be considered to require less? It is easy to show that as you go on increasing the currency the demand will not be satisfied, but it will be still more excited.
One thing is universally admitted: If the volume of our irredeemable paper money is increased, it will further depreciate. The paper dollar, which is worth 85 cents in gold now, will be worth 80, or 70, or 60, or 50 cents, then, and what you can buy for one dollar in paper now will cost $1.25, or $1.30, or $1.40, or $1.50 then. ”

“ When we turn from the Imperial currency of gold solidi and tremisses to that of the Frankish princes, we find them using a peculiar system of monetary reckoning, founded upon the metrical system already alluded to, of 20 tremisses or pence to the ounce and 240 to the pound. ”

“ Railroad tickets are sold by the kilometer, land by the hectare, cloth by the meter and sugar by the kilogram. Silver money is coined in the same denomination as ours, and the coppers are as large as a silver quarter. The law for counting money by dollars and cents was passed in 1890, but the people still count by the old way, though they know both. The old way is a copper tlaco, a cent and a half, a cuartillo, three cents. ”

“ Although an inconvertible paper currency has no intrinsic value, it can (in accordance with the quantity theory of money) be maintained at a fairly stable ratio to gold or commodities by an honest government if the total issue is fixed, or kept between reasonable maximum and minimum limits. ”

“ The Sources of Currency Supply.—It is, then, clear that the larger part of the circulating medium of society is not money; that not all of the money that there is is bullion money; and that not even all of the bullion money need be ultimate money—redemption money of the highest rank. The sources of currency in society are various—some of it bullion, with a cost of production limit upon its supply, some of it government paper, substantially free of cost, some of it banking credit with certain peculiar and appropriate costs attending its issue. ”

“ Both the weight and purity of the coin have been reduced, until its value in the London market*** is not more than 4 shillings 2 pence, the pound currency being consequently reduced to 16 shillings 8 pence sterling and 100 pounds sterling become equivalent to 120 pounds currency, or 480 dollars, the common average rate now given for the 100 pounds sterling bill of exchange in England. ”

“ Debts of 4 cents can be legally paid in one-cent pieces, of 60 cents in three-cent pieces, of 100 cents in five-cent pieces, of 500 cents in subsidiary silver, and of any amount in gold coins or in silver dollars.
12. A money inferior in general value will, so long as it circulates locally, drive a superior money out of the circulation. This proposition is a fundamental and universal one in monetary Science. The only exception to it is found in token-coins, and in subsidiary silver so far as that has the token-quality, that is, so far as its nominal is above its bullion Value. ”