A DECIMAL COINAGE FOR THE EMPIRE.

N the course of the past summer the Institute of Bankers I appointed a Committee to consider the question of decimalizing the present coinage of the United Kingdom. After due deliberation the Committee reported, and their Report has since received the approval of the Institute. This question, in view of other more immediately pressing issues, has hitherto been ignored by the general public), but the matter is one which ought now to be considered with a view to early legislation to take effect from the termination of the war. There has long been in this country a definite organi- zation for the promotion of decimal coinage as well as decimal weights and measures. It is known as the Decimal Association, is presided over by Lord Belhaven and Stenton, and includes among its Vice-Presidents many of the most prominent scientific and business men in the kingdom. The Institute of Bankers, we gather, acted quite independently of this Association, but their findings have in the. main met with the approval of the latter body. Thus we are able to say that among those who have given special attention to the subject, and who from the banking and business point of of view me specially interested in it, there is practical agree- ment.

The basis of this agreement is that the pound sterling, unchanged in weight or fineness, insist continue to be the standard of value for the United Kingdom. The reasons for this decision are, in our judgment, overwhelming. London is the financial centre of the world. By far the larger part of all international financial transactions, whether they be buying or selling of goods or borrowing of money, are settled in all parts of the world by means of bills of exchange drawn upon London, and those 'bills are drawn in pounds sterling. Therefore to alter the pound sterling would be very seriously to interfere with commercial arrangements which are immensely profitable to the United Kingdom. It may be added that merely from our own domestic point of view the advantages of retaining the pound sterling as a unit of value are very con- enterable. For generations all our reckonings and all our contracts have been made in pounds, and it would involve very great inconvenience to adopt any other unit. For this reason, we feel confident that there would be no popular support whatever for a proposal, apparently put forward by the Associated Chambers of Commerce, to make the shilling the unit of reckoning, while still keeping the pound as a standard of value. We cannot imagine English people reckoning their incomes and other monetary transactions of any appreciable amount in shillings.

Starting from this point, the line of action becomes fairly obvious. At present the pound sterling is divided into 20 shillings, into 2-10 pence, and into 960 farthings. The Insti- tute of Bankers, backed by the Decimal Association, propose that the pound sterling should be divided into 10 florins and 1,000 new farthings, which they rightly suggest should be called mils. The mil would be four per cent. less in value than the existing farthing, and in the same way the two-mil piece and the four-ma piece would each be four per cent. less than the existing halfpenny and penny. Apart from these changes in the copper coinage, practically the whole of our existing coinage would continue unchanged. The sovereign and the half-sovereign would, as a primary condition of the whole proposal, remain absolutely unaltered. The fiorin would continue as it is, also the shilling (half-florin), and the sixpence (quarter-florin). The threepenny-piece, which has always been an inconvenient coin, would disappear without any one regretting its departure. The question of the half-crown is more difficult. This coin is undoubtedly very popular, but it has serious disadvantages. It is too near in value to the florin, with the result that the two are often confused, especially by foreigners. It also interrupts the ease of calculation, for it is not an even multiple either of the shilling or of the florin. Therefore we think the Institute of Bankers are quite right in suggesting the abolition of the

half-crown and the establishment in its place of the 4s. piece or double-florin. This coin would be approximately the same in value as the American dollar, and the experience of more than a hundred million people in Canada and the United States proves that a coin of this value is extremely useful. Some years ago, when the Government issued simultaneously both a 4s. piece and a 5s. piece, the public to a large extent boycotted both coins. On the whole, they were right at the time, for it was foolish to issue two new coins so near in value. The same objection does not apply to a 4s. piece issued alone, especially if it were made slightly less in weight than before. Indeed, in view of the present high price of silver, there is a great deal to be said for slightly reducing all our silver coins in weight so as to increase the profit which the Government derive from a silver coinage. As the silver coins are purely token coins, there is no reason why they should be maintained at any particular weight. It may be suggested that all our silver coins should in future be made to weigh a precise number of grams—the florin 10 grams, the double-florin 20, and the shilling 5. This would involve a reduction of about eleven per cent. on present weights.

These changes in the silver coinage might bo effected at once, without waiting for the further changes proposed by the Institute of Bankers. The only entirely new coin which the Institute of Bankers propose is a nickel coin representing 10 mils, or roughly 211d. A coin of this value has long been in use in France and several other countries of the Latin Union, and is very popular. Being made of nickel, it would be of a handy size, thus avoiding the objection to the minute silver threepenny-piece. For convenience we set out in tabular form the scheme of coinage proposed by the Institute of Bankers :—

Califs.

VALVE IN EQUIVALENT VALUE IN

MLA t PlaserrCutealcv.

Getmoa ( Sovereign .. ..

1,000 .. 1-000 ..

Sovereign

14wrts 1. Half-sovereign

..

800 -500 ..

Hell-sovereign Double-Florin ..

200 -200 ..

Two Flonua SILVER

1

Half - Florin or

100 -100 ..

Florin

Shilling

50 .. -050 ..

Shilling

Quarter-Florin

25 .. -025 ..

Sixpence

NICKEL • - Piece

10 .. .010 ..

2.4 pence 4-Mil Piece BRONZE 2-Mil Piece

2 .. -004.

-002-.

.90 pence .48 pence Mil Piece

1 .. .001 ..

.24 ponce

The most serious point of controversy that is likely to arise is with regard to the slight alteration in the value of the penny. Hitherto, as the Decimal Association point out in a well-reasoned circular, all proposals to decimalize our coinage have tripped over this stumbling-block ; but the changes in the conventional values of the penny and the half- penny by the war have been so great that the four per cent. change now under consideration may be altogether dis- regarded. There is, however, much to be said for the proposal of the Decimal Association that, in addition to the coins proposed by the Institute of Bakers, there should be a nickel coin of the value of 5 mile, equal to 1'2 pence. This would render easier the readjustment of prices by giving a choice between a copper coin four per cent. less than the old penny and a nickel coin twenty per cent. more.

So much for the coinage question looked at by itself. As to the advantages of decimalization there is very little dispute. Even if decimalization were confined to coinage, as is the case in the United States, it would permit of a very considerable saving of time in account-keeping. But the final argument for the introduction of decimal coinage is that until that step has been taken the general introduction of the metric system of weights and measures is impossible. This is the larger and more important reform. On commercial grounds, it is of the utmost importance that the metric system should be introduced into this country, and the metric system is essentially decimal. Already we have moved a considerable way towards adopting metrical measures, especially in such comparatively new industries as the motor industry. But they cannot be uni- versally adopted for commercial purposes until by means of a decimal currency prices can be adapted to decimal weights and measures. This point, it is important to note, has been urged by Colonial Conferences dealing with the question of metric weights and measures. Several resolutions have been passed in favour of the adoption of the metric system for the British Empire, but it has more than once been pointed out that the general introduction of the metric system is impos- sible until coinage has been placed on a decimal basis, and that the decimalization of British coinage is a reform in which the United, Kingdom must lead the way.