LIGHT SOVEREIGNS.
THE Government of this country is not obnoxious to the charge of degrading the coinage, for the gold and silver issued from the Mint
are of the weight and fineness prescribed by the law of 1816: but the Bank of England, acting for the Government, circulates coins of deteriorated value. The weight of a large proportion of the sovereigns passing from hand to hand has been reduced below the standard by wear and rubbing. A few days since, a respectable person was charged before a Magistrate with attempting to pass a counterfeit sovereign—it was so light ; but one of the gentlemen
from the Mint proved its genuineness. That sovereign may have been issued long ago; but read the following letter in the Times of Tuesday, mentioning a circumstance not a week old.
" you allow space for one more letter on the subject of' public offices refusing gold not of full weight ? (In Saturday last 1 changed a 5/. note in the cash-office of the Bank of England, and immediately afterwards
tendered one of the sovereigns (which I had purposely carried in my hand that they might not mix with others in my pocket) in pay went of a power of at- torney in an adjoining department of that establislaamit. It was refused, on the above vexatious plea. 3 iine is not a solitary instance, by some hundreds, of such anomalous proceedings at the Bank. •
" 1 am, Sir, your obedient servant, A STOCKBROKER."
Everybody knows that the Bank receives gold by weight—that it never takes a sovereign for a farthing more than its actual value ;
while, as the Stockbroker says, it pays light coin over its counter
to all applicants. A considerable sum must be made annually by this unjust if not fraudulent conduct of a national establishment.
And as dividends arc paid in coin below the standard value, the Government, through the Bank's agency, defrauds the public crc- ditor,—though we presume that the profit accrues to the Bank, not to the Treasury. We can only suggest one mode by which the public can right itself—and that a very troublesome one. At present nobody who
can avoid it will cash a check or obtain change for a note at the Bank, on account of the tiresome delay and the impertinent neglect of the clerks in that establishment ; and therefore our suggestion
is not, we fear, likely to meet with general adoption. But here it is—Weigh yourself all the sovereigns offered at the Bank, on the counter before the clerk. Scales are easily procured. Refuse all below the legal weight. If fifty or a hundred " stockbrokers" would make it a rule to go daily to the Lank with scales in hand and insist upon having sovereigns of the legal weight, some im- pression might be made on the Directors, and the light gold with- held from reissue.
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